Breakthru

Breakthrough

A great mountain sage sits in his cave - smiling

A seeker seeks him out and asks

            Master, what can I do to attain what you have attained?

A year goes by while the sage waits for a reply to come to him

The stars and moon and sun and clouds wheel around his head

            And not a single thought crosses his mind

The same year goes by for the seeker

He prides himself on his patient endurance of such a severe test 

            Surely this is the straight and narrow path, he thinks to himself

At last the sage focuses his eyes and clears his throat

I have done all I can do to answer you, he says...

            And still after a year you hold onto that need to attain perfection

The seeker suffers the shock of that reply and staggers blindly from the cave -

And there, confronted by a ring of mountains draped in blue snow

            He stops caring about enlightenment

And there, with his bare feet on cold stone he wakes...