or lies, or to tear
the pages.
12
The original sin is to
limit the Is.
Don't.
It was an easy warm afternoon between rain-showers, sidewalks wet on our way out of town.
"You can walk through walls, can't you, Don ?"
"No "
"When you say no to something I know is yes, that means you don't like the way I said the question."
"We certainly are observant, aren't we ?" he said.
"Is the problem with walk or with walls ?"
"Yes, and worse. Your
question presumes that I exist in one limited place-time and move to another place-time. Today I'm not in the mood to accept your presumptions about me. "
I frowned. He knew what I was asking. Why didn't he just answer me straight and let me get on to finding out how he does these things ?
"That's my little way of helping you be precise in your thinking," he said mildly.
"OK. You can make it appear that you can walk through walls, if you want. Is that a better question?"
"Yes. Better. But if you want to be precise..."
"Don't tell me. I know how to say what I mean. Here is my question. How is it possible that you can move the illusion of a limited sense of identity, expressed in this belief of a space-time continuum as your 'body,' through the illusion of material restriction that is called a 'wall'?"
"Well done!" he said. "When you ask the question properly it answers itself, doesn't it:"
"No, the question hasn't answered itself. How do you walk through walls?"
"RICHARD! You had it nearly right and then blew it all to pieces! I cannot walk through walls . . . when you say that, you're assuming things I don't assume at all, and if I do assume them, the answer is, 'l can't. "'
"But it's so hard to put everything so precisely, Don. Don't you know what I mean?"
"So just because something is hard, you don't try to do it; Walking was hard at first, but you practiced at it and now you make it look easy."
I sighed. "Yeah. OK. Forget the question. "
"I'll forget it. My question is, can you?" He looked at me as though he hadn't a care in the world.
"So you're saying that body is illusion and wall is illusion but identity is real and that can't be hemmed by illusions. "
"I'm not saying that. You're saying that."
"But it's true."
"Naturally," he said.