Taming the Bull

When one thought arises, another follows. When the first thought springs from enlightenment, all subsequent thoughts are true. Through delusion, one makes everything untrue.

Hold the nose-ring tight and do not allow even a doubt.

— Kakuan

Masters Apprentice

There is a voice calling for me
There is a light coming down on me
There is a doubt that is clearing
There is a day that is dawning
There is a wound that is healing
There is a season waiting for me
There is a road that is turning
There is a fire still burning



A sickness in me
Constant pace towards the end
The need is stronger
This time the need is deeper



There is a peace I am searching
There is a freedom I'm depending on
There is a pain that's never ending
There is a rain falling only on me
There is a dream I am living
There is a life I'm dreaming of
There is a death I'm awaiting
There is a home I am deserting



I hold my breath in wait
Only moments remain
Movement for departed hope
Effect for absent friends



Sever the faith from my body
Leave me begging for more
Take what I have and deliver me
Into everlasting sleep



Soothing trance
Colours fade
And disappear
Ethereal light
Showing me what I can do without



In a motionless scene
There is only me
I take what I can
Controlling you to get ahead



Fading away
And leaving
Long for sleep
Closer now
Lead the way into death



Every wretched dream
I've left behind
Every waking hour
I lie in wait



Sucked inside by will
Gone into the flood
All my questions unfurled
As I was put to the test



Once I'm below there's no turning back



Plunging into the deepest void
Departed shell left drained behind



Pacing roads unknown
Searching for a new home
Desert in my eye
Barren lands inside


— Mikael Akerfeldt, "Masters Apprentice" from Deliverance. [Opeth's best track, in my opinion, along with "A Fair Judgment".]

Bad teachers

A counterpart to the parable about the sower and the seed.

It would deal with preachers.

The owner of a wheat farm gave each of his servants an equal share of equally good wheat seed.

But one stored the seed in a damp place where it sprouted too soon and was spoiled.

And one mixed it with ordinary seed.

And one thought: the seed now belongs to me, why should I sow it, and he sold it for money.

And one did sow it but scattered it so carelessly that it was worthless.

One sowed it but put too high a price on it.

— Søren Kierkegaard, 1845, The Book of the Judge

A story

What a clever story it is, the one in 1001 Nights (Geschichte der zwei neidischen Schwestern, Nacht 617-637, III) that tells of an expedition in search of the talking bird, the singing tree, and the golden water. The task was to climb a high mountain. But the resistance was invisible (as the dervish in fact says to the one prince who was not afraid of any danger: Have you considered what it means to do battle with the invisible); it was nothing more nor less than voices that shouted and made an uproar, scolded, shocked, whined, ridiculed, etc. — and if one looked around he became a stone.

— Søren Kierkegaard, 1848

Boundaries - Things

Consider "there are no inherent boundaries" and "there are no inherently existent things". The former is accepted by most people, for to them it means EXISTENCE is supreme. They hear "there is existence, therefore me, and since existence is supreme, therefore, I am free to act and move in any way".

They have understood themselves to be supreme, like long-lasting parasitic lice feeding on the blood of a large mammal. They (brainlessly) assume their own consciousness travels the environment like a submarine, a louse freely travelling the mammal's body, the Lord of the Blood.

So they accept with fervour "there are no inherent boundaries", but only in a very restricted sense (that is, they contradict it altogether). And that is why the latter phrase makes no sense to them.

— Kelly Jones, 2009