The Next Lesson

The Next Lesson
Feb, 2012
I needed to inject some humor into a rough day, so it seemed a good time to share this allegory I wrote last year . . . Me, a trickster? Naw! 🙂

A spiritual teacher had three students she taught for many years. After they finished this vigorous training, one went to a dance class. He found enlightenment in that first dance class, and thought, “Ah, this is much better than what I received from my spiritual teacher, this is the real thing.” Another of the three students started a garden. In that greenery she found God, within only a few days. She thought, “Wow, look how quickly Nature brought me to God. All those years with my spiritual teacher could not do that.” The third of the three seekers became a wealthy banker, and donated millions of dollars to alleviate homelessness. Years of serving this way was his path to enlightenment, because when we do service, God enters us to live within.

The teacher, upon hearing about her students, thought, “Yes, good, my lessons worked.”

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Francesca, 2013

Then she did what she had done every day she had trained the three of them, though they had not known it: She walked out into her garden and danced with God, who lived there, in her garden, as well as in her spirit and heart and hearth. As always when they danced, trees in her garden grew money. People threatened by homelessness, or who already suffered from it, came from miles around, because they could pick that money at will, to pay for shelter and whatever else was needed to escape tragedy.

After the dance, the teacher said to God, “Now, I hope those three students are smart enough to come back to me for the next lesson.”

2 thoughts on “The Next Lesson

  1. That’s excellent , as always . Here’s one of my favorite old enlightenment jokes ( I don’t mean yours was a joke but this is ) . A man travels from America all the way to Tibet , which takes him three years as he has very little money . He then ascends the extremely high and dangerous mountain atop which is the Dalai Llama’s lamasery . This takes one month , during which he is in constant danger of death from the Elements , falling , etc . When he reaches the top he requests an audience with the Dalai Llama . He is told that he must first spend six years in solitary contemplation , which he does. Finally , he is ushered into the great man’s presence and the D. L. says , ” What do you wish to know , my son ? ” The pilgrim says , ” Oh , father , I wish to know the Meaning of Life ! ” The Dalai Llama replies , ” Well my son ; Life is like a beanstalk ; isn’t it ? ” // ba dum bomp .

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