I was asked recently to try to summarize the work of the past 10+ years. Obviously, that is a difficult task to do. However, an image has come to my mind as I have meditated over the past few years.
Imagine walking into a pitch black room. You've never been in this room before. You have no clue as to its contents. Slowly you step in and begin groping around with your hands.
BANG! You smack your shin on something low. You stop and begin investigating what this object might be. Upon rubbing your hands down the surface you have discovered a small table. It might be a coffee table. "Yes, I recognize this" you say and then move on. However, you bang into it again! Hmmm. This is not a type of coffee table I have every known before. The shape and surface are totally different. You make a mental note. This may or may not be a coffee table. Then you turn around.
BANG! You have just bumped your head into something that might be hanging from the ceiling. As you had done previously with the 'coffee table,' you must now investigate this new object. And so on and so on.
At first the intrigue of a new place keeps your spirits high. And then after 5 years of investigating a small dark room, you begin to wonder, "Will I ever understand this place? Will it ever make sense? Why on earth does it seem almost familiar and yet so foreign at the same time?"
So when I was asked to summarize the work thus far, I told my friend, "I feel as though I have almost mapped out the entire room. But, I need to be careful because I've thought I had it all mapped out before until I collided with something altogether different and strange."
Imagine walking into a pitch black room. You've never been in this room before. You have no clue as to its contents. Slowly you step in and begin groping around with your hands.
BANG! You smack your shin on something low. You stop and begin investigating what this object might be. Upon rubbing your hands down the surface you have discovered a small table. It might be a coffee table. "Yes, I recognize this" you say and then move on. However, you bang into it again! Hmmm. This is not a type of coffee table I have every known before. The shape and surface are totally different. You make a mental note. This may or may not be a coffee table. Then you turn around.
BANG! You have just bumped your head into something that might be hanging from the ceiling. As you had done previously with the 'coffee table,' you must now investigate this new object. And so on and so on.
At first the intrigue of a new place keeps your spirits high. And then after 5 years of investigating a small dark room, you begin to wonder, "Will I ever understand this place? Will it ever make sense? Why on earth does it seem almost familiar and yet so foreign at the same time?"
So when I was asked to summarize the work thus far, I told my friend, "I feel as though I have almost mapped out the entire room. But, I need to be careful because I've thought I had it all mapped out before until I collided with something altogether different and strange."
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