The Monk and the Mystics
A monk had an appointment with God. Along the way, he met another mystic who was meditating with utmost seriousness. The monk then, interrupting the other’s practices, made him this proposal: “I am going to the Divinity. Do you want me to talk to her about you? Do you have anything to ask?”
The mystic said, “Ask her how many more times I must be reincarnated before I reach liberation. I have already lived three lives.”
Later on, the monk encountered a mystical woman who was dancing in ecstasy. He made the same offer to her, but she was absorbed in the dance and immediately ignored him. Remembering the previous encounter, the monk told her she could ask the Divinity how many more reincarnations she had to live. Intoxicated by the dance, she spun around smiling.
A few hours later, having bid farewell to God, the monk returned to the dancing mystic. He said, “The Divinity has spoken to me. You have as many lives to live as there are leaves on the tree next to you.”
“Marvelous!” replied the woman. “But if I think of all the trees in the forest and all the forests in the world, there must be millions and millions of leaves! But what great fortune is still mine!”
Then the monk reached the first mystic. This one, anxious, approached him and the monk said to him, “The Divinity has told me that you have three more lives.”
Hearing these words, the mystic fell into deep discouragement. “So it will never end!” he exclaimed in despair.
Heaven is already here, loving is the only way to notice it.
Dance lightly on the waves of this day.
An ecstatic embrace.
