vom Wind aufnehmen lassen, um die Wüste zu durchqueren

Ein Strom floss von seinem Ursprung in fernen Gebirgen durch sehr verschiedene Landschaften und erreichte schließlich die Sandwüste.
Genauso, wie er alle anderen Hindernisse überwunden hatte, versuchte der Strom nun auch, die Wüste zu durchqueren. Aber er merkte, dass - so schnell er auch in den Sand fließen mochte - seine Wasser verschwanden.
Er war jedoch überzeugt davon, dass es seine Bestimmung sei, die Wüste zu durchqueren, auch wenn es keinen Weg gab. Da hörte er, wie eine verborgene Stimme, die aus der Wüste kam, ihm zuflüsterte: "Der Wind durchquert die Wüste, und der Strom kann es auch."
Der Strom wandte ein, dass er sich doch gegen den Sand werfe, aber dabei nur aufgesogen würde; der Wind aber kann fliegen, und deshalb vermag er die Wüste zu überqueren.
"Wenn du dich auf die gewohnte Weise vorantreibst, wird es dir unmöglich sein, sie zu überqueren. Du wirst entweder verschwinden, oder du wirst ein Sumpf. Du musst dem Wind erlauben, dich zu deinem Bestimmungsort hinüber zutragen."
Aber wie sollte das zugehen? "Indem du dich von ihm aufnehmen lässt."
Diese Vorstellung war für den Fluss unannehmbar. Schließlich war er noch nie zuvor aufgesogen worden. Er wollte keinesfalls seine Eigenart verlieren. Denn wenn man sich einmal verliert, wie kann man da wissen, ob man sich je wiedergewinnt.
"Der Wind erfüllt seine Aufgabe", sagte der Sand. "Er nimmt das Wasser auf, trägt es über die Wüste und lässt es dann wieder fallen. Als Regen fällt es hernieder, und das Wasser wird wieder ein Fluss."
"Woher kann ich wissen, ob das wirklich wahr ist?"
"Es ist so, und wenn du es nicht glaubst, kannst du eben nur ein Sumpf werden. Und auch das würde viele, viele Jahre dauern; und es ist bestimmt nicht dasselbe wie ein Fluss."
"Aber kann ich nicht derselbe Fluss bleiben, der ich jetzt bin?"
"In keinem Fall kannst du bleiben, was du bist", flüsterte die geheimnisvolle Stimme. "Was wahrhaft wesentlich an dir ist, wird fortgetragen und bildet wieder einen Strom. Heute wirst du nach dem genannt, was du jetzt gerade bist, doch du weißt nicht, welcher Teil deines Selbst der Wesentliche ist."
Als der Strom dies alles hörte, stieg in seinem Innern langsam ein Widerhall auf. Dunkel erinnerte er sich an einen Zustand, in dem der Wind ihn - oder einen Teil von ihm? War es so? - auf seinen Schwingen getragen hatte. Er erinnerte sich auch daran, dass dieses, und nicht das jedermann Sichtbare, das Eigentliche war, was zu tun wäre - oder tat er es schon?
Und der Strom ließ seinen Dunst aufsteigen in die Arme des Windes, der ihn willkommen hieß, sachte und leicht aufwärts trug und ihn, sobald sie nach vielen, vielen Meilen den Gipfel des Gebirges erreicht hatten, wieder sanft herabfallen ließ. Und weil er voller Be-Denken gewesen war, konnte der Strom nun in seinem Gemüte die Erfahrungen in allen Einzelheiten viel deutlicher festhalten und erinnern und davon berichten. Er erkannte: "Ja, jetzt bin ich wirklich ich selbst."
Der Strom lernte. Aber die Sandwüste flüsterte: "Wir wissen, weil wir sehen, wie es sich Tag für Tag ereignet; denn wir, die Sandwüste, sind immer dabei, das ganze Flussufer entlang bis hin zum Gebirge."
Und deshalb sagt man, dass der Weg, den der Strom des Lebens auf seiner Reise einschlagen muß, in den Sand geschrieben ist.

- Die Geschichte der Sandwüste (Idries Shah, Die drei Wahrheiten)

every magic has a secret; you want to be fooled

Every magic trick consists of three parts, or acts.
The first part is called "the pledge."
The magician shows you something ordinary.
The second act is called "the turn."
The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it into something extraordinary.
But you wouldn't clap yet, because making something disappear isn't enough.
You have to bring it back.

Now you're looking for the secret.
But you won't find it, because, of course, you're not really looking.
You don't really want to work it out.
You want to be fooled.

- The Prestige (2006)

the art of washing dishes

The art of washing dishes is that you only have to wash one at a time. If you're doing it day after day, you have in your mind's eye an enormous stack of filthy dishes that you have washed up in years past and an enormous stack of filthy dishes which you will wash up in years future. But if you bring in your mind to the state of reality which just is - as I pointed out to you - only Now.
This is where we are.
There is only Now.
You only have to wash one dish!
It's the only dish you will ever have to wash!
This one!
You ignore all the rest.
Because in reality there is no past and there is no future.
There is just now. So you wash this one.

And instead of thinking, have I got it really clean as my mother taught me with an angry voice, that I have to get every little scrap off it and she got hhh, got angry at you.
Instead, you turn the cleaning movement into a dance... like this.

And you did that. And you swing that plate around, you let the rinsing water go over it and you put it off to the rack. Crazy you see!
Take the next one.
You get this rhythm going on. You see?
And you're not under compulsion all the time.

- Alan Watts, Work as Play

they were given books to poison their minds, who will teach them how to read the signs

The river is deep and the road is long,
daylight comes and I want to go home.
Awoke this morning
to find my people's tongues were tied
and in my dreams
they were given books to poison their minds.
The river is deep and the mountain high,
how long before the other side.
We are their mortar,
their building bricks and their clay.
Their gold teeth mirror
both our joys and our pain.
The river is deep and the ocean wide,
who will show us how to read the signs.
The earth is our mother
she taught us to embrace the light,
now the lord is master
she suffers an eternal night.
You blocked up my ears,
you plucked out my eyes,
you cut out my tongue,
you fed me with lies,
oh lord.

- Spiritchaser (Dead Can Dance, 1996)

at any given moment, either we heal as a whole or we still suffer as individuals

I don't know what to say, really.
Three minutes till the biggest battle of our professional lives.
All comes down to today.
Either we heal as a team or we're gonna crumble.
Inch by inch, play by play, till we're finished.
We're in hell right now, gentlemen.
Believe me.
And we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light.
We can climb out of hell one inch at a time.
Now, I can't do it for you.
I'm too old.
I look around, I see these young faces, and I think I made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make.
I pissed away all my money, believe it or not.
I chased off anyone who's ever loved me.
And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.
You know, when you get old in life, things get taken from you.
I mean, that's part of life.
But you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out life's this game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game, life or football the margin for error is so small one-half a step too late or early, and you don't quite make it.
One half-second too slow, too fast, you don't quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second.
On this team, we fight for that inch.
On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us, to pieces for that inch.
We claw with our fingernails for that inch because we know when we add up all those inches that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing!
Between living and dying!
I'll tell you this. In any fight it's the guy who's willing to die who's gonna win that inch.
And I know if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch.
Because that's what living is!
The six inches in front of your face!
Now, I can't make you do it!
You gotta look at the guy next to you!
Look into his eyes!
I think you're gonna see a guy who'll go that inch with you!
You're gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows, when it comes down to it you're gonna do the same for him!
That's a team, gentlemen!
And either we heal now, as a team
..or we will die as individuals.

- Any Given Sunday (1999)

the sunny point of view

A boat adorned and decked sails out for mountains oh
and there begins maneuvers with heavy-to, heavy -ho

Weighs anchor by a pine tree groove and takes abroad
a cargo of fresh mountain air at lee and port

She's made of blackest stone, she's made of flimsy dream
her boatswain is naive, her sailors plot and scheme

She's come from the deep depths of ancient bygone times
and here unloads her troubles and her trembling sighs.

O come my lord and Jesus, I speak and am struck daft
on such o loony vessel on such a crazy craft

We 've sailed for years on end, and still we' ve kept afloat
we 've changed a thousand skippers on this balmy boat

We never paid the slightest heed to cataclysms
but plunged headlong in everything with optimisms

And high up on our lookout mast we keep for sentry one
who ever and on remain our Sun and Sovereign Sun!


- The Crazy Boat (Odysseas Elytis, from "The Sovereign Sun", trans. Kimon Friar)

a way of understanding, forces that shape our lives

It's said that the West was built on legends
and that legends are a way of understanding
things greater than ourselves;
forces that shape our lives,
events that defy explanation,
individuals whose lives soar to the heavens
or fall to the earth.

This is how legends are born.

Ghost Rider (2007)