What lives longer? A Mayfly or a Cyprus tree?
If you answer a Mayfly then you are very perceptive: you realize that in time and space, time is relative and the short life of the Mayfly could be mysteriously longer than the life of the mighty Cyprus.
If you answered a Cyprus then you are unimaginative, but correct.
Kehlog Albran – The Profit
AND a farmer said,
Speak to us of Wisdom.
And he answered:
Just as the passage of time will answer the question of Age, the passage of Age will answer the question of Wisdom.
Man has always sought to discover the mystery of Wisdom, just as he seeks to discover the mystery of a rainstorm, or why a potato is not expensive.
The smallest insect possesses profound Wisdom.
That small insect knows the secrets of the earth that man shall never know.
A fish knows the secrets of the sea that man shall never know.
A bird knows the secrets of the sky that man shall never know.
And what is that secret, Master, the man asked.
He replied:
It is this:
All of the creatures of earth must use their imagination.
For it is imagination that makes a piece of bread taste like steak, water taste like wine, and worms taste like chicken.
But what about the secret of the bird, the man insisted.
What bird? the Master inquired.
Kehlog Albran – The Profit
A wizened priest inquired,
Is man eternal, as a mountain?
He replied:
No individual lasts forever, yet man has lasted until now.
An individual may live six score, yet mankind has lived for a thousand score or more.
Therefore I must answer:
Think not of man as a mountain, which is ageless, and never changing.
But think of man as a mountain of changes and variations.
Think of man as a temporary mountain.
Kehlog Albran – The Profit
THEN a nobleman said,
Speak to us of Bad Habits.
And he said:
A good habit is the prayer of our desires, an action that when practiced continuously becomes ingrained in our nature.
But we must beware of Bad Habits, for they can easily be formed.
If an idiot were to tell you the same story every year for a decade,
you might end up believing it through the sheer power of repetition.
Therefore beware, do not let your body become trained against itself, as happened to the man who forced himself to eat spiders and became unable to satiate his appetite and died of eating too many spiders.
You told me that story last year, the nobleman said.
Kehlog Albran – The Profit
A woman asked,
Which way does the Wind Blow?
And he said:
The Wind is invisible but strong like Vodka or bad breath.
The Wind is a friend.
The Wind is an enemy.
The Wind is neutral, like Switzerland.
Sometimes the Wind will blow down a tree.
Other times it won’t.
There’s just no telling with the Wind.
Which way will the Wind blow tomorrow, the woman persisted.
He answered:
The Wind is free and unpredictable, like a bird. It is impossible to guess which way it will blow.
She who would ask such a question would be a fool, and he who would attempt to answer it, a greater fool.
I understand, the woman said, but which way will it blow?
North, he replied.
Kehlog Albran – The Profit
THEN a scholar said,
Speak to us of Language.
And he answered:
I will tell you the story of Calif Cazar.
He was the wealthiest Calif in all Fez.
And, though his wealth was measured by the cubic yard, he was the loneliest man in Fez.
For the Calif, though an educated man, could not speak the language of trees.
What happened to him? the scholar asked.
The Master responded:
The Calif studied for many years under the wisest Balsam in the realm.
He read the poetry of the Willows and memorized untold sixteenth century Cedar sonnets.
He spoke fluent Spruce.
His Chestnut was impeccable.
And he could converse comfortably in both Northern and Southern Pine.
Native born Walnuts took him for one of their own.
I should like to know more of this brilliant man, the scholar said.
Where may I learn of him?
Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 26, pages 119 through 163.
He is written up there, the scholar asked?
He is written on there, the Master explained.
Kehlog Albran – The Profit
A quiet woman said,
Speak to us of Virtue.
He then answered.
Goodness and Kindness are popular Virtues.
Some Virtues are much older.
The serene chaos that is Courage, and the phenomenon of Unopened Consciousness have been known to the Great World eons longer than Extaboulism.
Why is that? the woman inquired.
Because I just made that word up, the Master said wisely.
Kehlog Albran – The Profit
A philosopher stepped forward:
Master, is not a stone a microcosm, like an olive pit?
Recondite, willing to give but little of itself?
Master, a stone may lie in a riverbed for an eon, giving nothing,
observing all, wearing smooth, dwindling, slowly diminishing,
until at last — nothing.
But where is the stone of eons past?
In what context does it still exist?
Its atoms have spread across the seas.
Is it a stone still, Master, or is it part of us all?
The Master replied:
Do you have a question to ask, or do you want to make a speech?
Kehlog Albran – The Profit
Speak to us of Wood, a carpenter said.
He then replied:
From a mighty Cypress tree, man can build a ship and sail to distant lands to meet men of many philosophies.
From the same tree, a man can build a sling and destroy an entire willage.
From such a tree man could erect a temple, a prison, an altar or a funeral pyre.
Yes, man has built many things in his time on this earth.
But there is one thing no man has ever built.
What is that? the carpenter inquired.
Man has never really built a decent chicken.
Kehlog Albran – The Profit
