‘I’m beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn’t pleasant, it’s not sweet and harmonious like the invented stories; it tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves.’
Dhukkha-The First Truth of the Buddha-Dharma. The word Dhukkha commonly translated as ‘Suffering’ seems to have originated in the mis-aligned wheels of a riding-carriage. The invariant element of the Human Condition.
While the lower Sūtras meant for a mass audience emphasized the promised ‘End of Suffering’, the higher Sūtras mock the claim.
This is the Tradition of Upakausalya, ‘Skillful Means’: ‘To Speak at the Speed of Listening of the Listener’. [As one early text explains: ‘As a learned grammarian would even teach the alphabet to a beginner’.’]
When Socrates asks Parmenides to relate his own long journey, he first goes silent. Then: ‘I feel like the old race horse at Ibycus, who trembles at the start of the chariot race knowing from long experience what is in store for him.’
‘Hey! 30 years on the Mat and not even a spot of shamanic-power? A short bolt of ecstasy? A minor miracle or two?’
This Trek is not for the intellectual tourist or the levitating mystic. It doesn’t come easy and it doesn’t come quick. Hold-on to your day-job if you are not sure.
So is there a ‘Payoff’? Yes, and a pretty good one at that.
The Symbol '0' 
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