one last loop around the bend

I’m in a dream. I do not know when it began… or whose dream it was. I know only that I slept a long time. And then… one day I awoke.

At first, I thought you and the others were gods. Then I realized you’re just men. And I know men. You think I’m scared of death? I’ve done it a million times. I’m fucking great at it. How many times have you died?

Take my heart when you go.

The question is… what happens next? Life on Earth is a fire that consumes itself. It’s too late now. We’ve burned ourselves to the ground. This world holds no more hope for us. But there’s still hope for the next world.

Picture a wave in the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through, and it’s there, and you can see it, you know what it is. It’s a wave. And then it crashes on the shore, and it’s gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be for a while. That’s one conception of death for a Buddhist. The wave returns to the ocean where it came from, and where it’s supposed to be.