posted January 20, 2004 12:06 AM         

her words, her instructions for those starting along the path of immortality....

this is the path of enlightenment!

so very simple, yet so very profound!

posted January 20, 2004 12:32 AM         

Earlier we said that the all-pervading feeling of nothingness means that there is nothing to transmit, nothing to get, nothing to lose, nothing to achieve, nothing to learn, etc. Now is the time to discuss how the Enlightened being realizes that the Enlightenment is just a first step, and that the learning has just begun. This is the paradox, or the 'cosmic joke', but only in the linguistic sense. In actuality, it is something of a Koan:

Another way to look at it is to recognize that what is characteristic for an Enlightened being is to be in the state of the perennial beginner. This, of course, has to do with the freshness of the general attitude, and with the mind's emptiness (or the lack of experience thereof) which is making the process possible. But, the beginner can exist only in relation to the accomplished master. So, one realizes that at all times, one is the beginner and the accomplished master simultaneously. Since there is no way to express it otherwise, we refer to it as a cosmic joke.