An Allegory/Das:o)

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>From Isabel Hickey...

 

An Allegory

 

I leaned from the low-hung crescent moon and grasping the west pointing horn

of it, looked down. Against the other horn reclined, motionless, a Shining

One and looked at me, but I was unafraid. Below me the hills and valleys

were thick with humans, and the moon swung low that I might see what they did.

 

"Who are they?" I asked the Shining One. For I was unafraid. And the

Shining One made answer: "They are the Sons of God and the Daughters of

God."

 

I looked again , and saw that they beat and trampled each other. Sometimes

they seemed not to know that the fellow-creature they pushed from their path

fell under their feet. But sometimes they looked as he fell and kicked him

brutally.

 

And I said to the Shining One: "Are they ALL the Sons and Daughters of God?"

And the Shining One said: "ALL"

 

As I leaned and watched them, it grew clear to me that each was frantically

seeking something, and that it was because they sought what they sought with

such singleness of purpose that they were so inhuman to all who hindered them.

 

And I said to the Shining One: "What do they seek?"

And the Shining One made answer: "Happiness"

"Are they all seeking Happiness?"

"All"

"Have any of them found it?"

"None of those have found it"

"Do they ever think they have found it?"

"Sometimes they think they have found it"

 

My eyes filled, for at that moment I caught a glimpse of a woman with a babe

at her breast, and I saw the babe torn from her and the woman cast into a

deep pit by a man with his eyes fixed on a shining lamp that he believed to

be (or perchance to contain, I know not) Happiness.

And I turned to the Shining One, my eyes blinded.

"Will they ever find it?"

And He said: "They will find it"

"All of them?"

"All of them"

"Those who are trampled?"

"Those who are trampled"

"And those who trample?"

"And those who trample"

 

I looked again, a long time, at what they were doing on the hills and in the

valleys, and again my eyes went blind with tears, and I sobbed out to the

Shining One:

"Is it God's will, or the work of the Devil, that men seek Happiness"?

"It is God's will"

"And it looks so like the work of the Devil!"

"It does look like the work of the Devil."

When I had looked a little longer, I cried out, protesting: "Why has he put

them down there to seek Happiness and to cause each other immeasurable

misery?"

Again the Shining One smiled inscrutably: "They are learning"

"What are they learning?"

"They are learning Life. And they are learning Love."

 

I said nothing. One man in the herd below me held me breathless, fascinated.

He walked proudly, and others ran and laid the bound struggling bodies of

living men before him that he might tread upon them and never touch foot to

earth. But suddenly a whirlwind seized him and tore his purple from him and

set him down, naked among strangers. And they fell upon him and maltreated

him sorely.

I clapped my hands.

"Good! Good!" I cried, exultantly. "He got what he deserved!"

Then I looked up suddenly, and saw again the inscrutable smile of the Shining

One.

And the Shining One spoke quietly. "They all get what they deserve."

"And no worse?"

"And no worse."

"And no better?"

"How can there be any better? They each deserve whatever shall teach them

the true way to Happiness."

I was silenced.

 

And still the people went on seeking, and trampling each other in their

eagerness to find. And I perceived what I had not fully grasped before, that

the whirlwind caught them up from time to time and set them down elsewhere to

continue the Search.

And I said to the Shining One: "Does the Whirlwind always set them down

again on these hills and in these valleys?"

And the Shining One made answer: "Not always on these hills or in these

valleys."

"Where then?"

"Look above you."

And I looked up. Above me stretched the Milky Way and gleamed the stars.

And I breathed "Oh" and fell silent, awed by what was given to me to

comprehend.

Below me they still trampled one another.

And I asked the Shining One: "But no matter where the Whirlwind sets them

down, they go on seeking Happiness?"

"They go on seeking Happiness."

"And the Whirlwind makes no mistakes?"

"The Whirlwind makes no mistakes."

"It puts them sooner or later, where they will get what they deserve?"

"It puts them sooner or later, where they will get what they deserve."

 

Then the load crushing my heart lightened, and I found I could look at the

brutal cruelties that went on below me with pity for the cruel. And the

longer I looked the stronger the compassion grew.

And I said to the Shining One:

"They act like men goaded."

"They are goaded"

"What goads them?"

"The name of the goad is Desire"

Then, when I had looked a little longer, I cried out passionately: "Desire

is an evil thing!"

But the face of the Shining One grew stern and his voice rang out, dismaying

me.

"Desire is not an evil thing."

I trembled and thought withdrew myself into the innermost chamber of my

heart. Till at last I said: "It is Desire that nerves men on to learn the

lessons that God has set."

"It is Desire that nerves them."

"The lessons of Life and Love?"

"The lessons of Life and Love!!"

Then I could no longer see that they were cruel. I could only see that they

were learning. I watched them with deep love and compassion, as one by one

the Whirlwind carried them out of sight.

 

~~Anonymous~~

 

Apart from me

There is neither wisdom,

Nor knowledge, nor understanding.

Into every state of knowledge do I enter,

Into false knowledge as well as into true,

So that I am not less the ignorance of the deluded

Than the wisdom of the sage.

For what thou callest ignorance and folly

Is my pure knowing,

Imperfectly expressed

Through an uncompleted image

Of my divine imperfection.

 

Woe unto them

Who condemns these my works unfinished!

Behold, they who presume to judge

Are themselves incomplete.

Through many a fiery trial of sorrow

Must they pass,

Ere the clear beauty of wisdom

May shine from out their hearts,

Like unto a light

Burning in a lamp of alabaster

 

>From the Book of Tokens, by Paul Foster Case

 

In Peace....Renee