Books Are For The Unserious

A man reads a passage from a book.

It is a method.

He is excited to try it.

 

But it fails.

 

A man reads a passage from a book.

It is a piece of knowledge.

He is excited to share it.

 

So he does.

 

Many years go by.

If he stops and looks back

He will notice that he has read hundreds of books

And thousands of passages.

 

Each passage that he liked,

He either attempted to implement,

Or share,

Or both.

 

Many years later

He is still reading.

 

But in Truth,

He is not reading,

But searching.

 

For he is convinced

That in some book

A passage will appear

That will change everything for him.

 

He is convinced

That in some book

A method will appear

That actually works.

 

The interesting fact

Is that those who have Arrived

Never arrive

By the method they ask others to follow.

 

Buddha instructs the four noble truths.

Yet he did not know them

Prior to becoming enlightened.

 

The Truth is,

Everything is fraudulent

Cosmetic

And artificial.

 

If a man

In his heart of hearts

Sought deeply to Arrive,

He would never seek a method.

 

But it is only because he has no such desire

That methods appeal to him,

And books attract him.

 

If one were to speak to Buddha,

They may wish to ask him,

Why did you write the four noble truths

And the eightfold path,

When that was not

What brought you to enlightenment.

 

Those who Arrive,

Write words

That are wild-goose-chases.

 

Everything

Upon Everything . . .

Is a wild-goose-chase.

 

One need look no further

Than his own life.

 

One may become an expert

Upon the ten commandments.

 

He may become a scholar

Of the noble truths

And the eightfold path.

 

He may practice

And practice

And practice.

 

He will not achieve

What Buddha achieved.

 

It is for this reason

That, in fact,

The world is filled with scholars.

 

Becoming a scholar

Of someone’s words

Is easy.

 

Any man

With a pair of frayed neurons

Can do it.

 

But no one

Becomes enlightened.

 

No one

Achieves god-hood.

 

No one

Attains realization.

 

Because that

Has no method.

 

And because it has no method

Man is not interested in it.

 

It may be stated

That man is more interested in the method

Than he is in the achievement.

 

All around the world

Are preachers and pundits

Spouting the words of the bible

The gita

And various religious texts.

 

They spout,

The gita says . . .

The bible says . . .

 

They bark,

You should do this . . .

You should do that . . .

 

Yet Jesus did not become Jesus

By reading the bible.

 

And Krishna did not become Krishna

By reading the gita.

 

It makes sense

That men the world over

Take to books

And sermons.

 

In fact,

They are relieved

That such things exist.

 

So that they may hide behind them

And convince themselves

That they are doing something.

 

Man has no interest

In becoming a Jesus.

Or a Krishna.

Or a Buddha.

 

It is for this reason

That he takes to entertainments.

 

The Truer the words,

The less compromising the speech . . .

The less accessible

The less understandable

And the less appealing

They will be.

 

Namaste.