The Wizard!

Headless Chicken

Headless Chicken

©2015, Olan L. Smith

"Olan, you remember when your mother would have you cut off the head of a chicken for supper? You would put it on the stump and place its neck between two nails, wrap a wire over the neck and you'd chop it off with a hatchet. You would watch as the chicken's body would run around flapping its blood drenched wings trying to fly; you'd look at the head lying near your feet and witness its inner eyelid flicker with life's ebbing."

I replied, "Yes, but why bring that gruesome image to mind?"

"I bring it to mind, because at that instance the chicken was in two places at once; its awareness fragmented by you. On the other hand, you consumed the flesh, and the essence of the hen's flesh became a part of you. You see, all beings of this realm force their consciousness into this domain. It's a constant struggle for them to maintain their being. The moment they stop feeding, stop the supply of energy. The consciousness fades, and the consciousness returns to the dimension of its origins. Every great prophet in their own way has spoken of this to the masses, but few comprehend it. All people believe is what they see with their two eyes, and like the hen they thrash around not knowing where they are until they finally collapse and give up."

"I understand; you are saying we are headless chickens, in your analogy. We don't know if we are actually two places at once. One, we are the body, and two; we are the energy that sustains the flesh, and that spirit is not of this world. Wizard, it is difficult for us to believe in something we cannot see. We find safety in what we can touch, and hope is just that, hope. We are unwilling to put our faith in concepts of our imagination."

"Have you learned nothing from our dialogue? 'Nothing' is the essence of everything. Most religions have a concept of void, and a god or a force created all things from this emptiness. Nothing is always nothing; it cannot become something; so everything you see is trickery of my thoughts. I think, therefore you are."

"But Wizard, I am and I think. I have a concept of self, and that is not nothing, is it?"

"Well, nothing that thinks it's something is still nothing, right? You still don't grasp the two in one concept; you are, and you are not. If this is an illusion, and it is, then you could tell the mountain, 'Get up and jump in the sea,' and it would."