"The Burning"

[Guest guest]

It is my usual custom to read advaita literature before going to bed: Ramesh

Balselar, Wei Wu Wei, Stephen Harrison, Jean Klein etc.

I will usually read until I come across a passage that seems pertinent to the

moment and then spend fifteen or twenty minutes pondering..........before sleep

mercifuly ends my mentation.

 

One night, some time ago, just as I was falling to sleep a burning started.

 

First in my cheeks.......It then spead outwards.........up to my forehead and

then to the crown.......downward.....to my neck and further down to my chest.

 

A flushed heat.......a burning.

 

Now I have read all to the literature concerning the events that sometimes

accompany enlightnment.....

 

"Ahhhhhh"........I thought......."Here you are at last"........"It's about

time".

 

The next morning I felt pretty much the same.

 

But even this did not dissuade my conviction that something profound had

happened.

They all say that nothing changes when enlightenment comes.

 

I reluctantly told my wife of the events that had occured the previous evening

and humbly speculated on how our life might change now that enlightenment seemed

imminent.

 

 

After a long pause, she said.

 

 

 

"Oh honey.......didn't the doctor tell you.....That niacin you've been taking

sometimes causes hot flashes....."

 

 

I consumed the rest of my cereal in silence.

 

 

 

 

 

Michael