Third Time Lucky

A koan, sort of

The student climbs the hill and approaches her instructor.

‘Enlightened one’, she says, ‘I’ve had so many insights lately I don’t know where to start. I’ve realised that there’s no division between you and me, he and she, us and them, they and it. Everything is animated by the same spirit and partakes in the same perfect harmony. When we meditate we remind ourselves of our place in the universe and experience the essential unity of all things’.

She pauses for breath. ‘So, do you think I’m enlightened?’

‘No’, says her instructor. ‘Come back in a year.’

A year passes and the student comes back up the hill, positively radiating bliss. She launches straight in.

‘It’s been a year of non-stop revelations, great one. First I realised that if I even had to ask you whether I was enlightened or not, that meant I wasn’t. Then I realised that my insights and meditations were no good unless I contributed something to the community. I’ve spent the last year teaching people, learning from them, sharing with them, growing alongside them. Myself and my spiritual brothers and sisters have learned a lot more together than we ever could have apart. My inner harmony and outer practice exist in perfect integration and balance, and each day is more fulfilling than the last.’

Her breath steady as a rock, she beams at her instructor. ‘Last time I asked you for confirmation. Now I don’t have to. I know I’m enlightened.’

Her instructor smiles back. ‘No you aren’t. Come back to me in three years.’

Three years go by, the student finally returns. She climbs the hill, sits down on a rock, picks up a stick and starts prising mud out of the sole of her shoe. ‘Don’t mind me’, she says. ‘I stepped on a big pebble on the way here, just getting it out.’

Her instructor breaks out into a wide grin. ‘At last, my child. You’re enlightened.’

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