Some sayings and koans I have come across seem easy to understand… others have i parked in puzzlement…’the penny may drop later’.

Sometimes we are just not open to what is being allude to… other times there is a symbolic content which is only comprehensible if you have the key to the hidden meaning, current at that time and place.

Perhaps you’ve come across the story about a man who wanted to paint something as a gift for the abbot of a monastery – I had trouble with this one for years.

To the dismay of the artist the abbot requested a dragon to be painted on the temple ceiling.

The artist said that he had never seen a dragon so was not sure he could do this.
The abbot was surprised, he said there were many around the temple.

The artist used his imagination and painted something.

The abbot was not impressed… so the artist tried again.

The abbot found it better but explained that he wanted it painted so that the dragon would be really ‘life-like’ – so that he could feel the warmth of the dragon’s breath.

The artist fully let go into the creative process.
It took him a long time but when he finally presented it to the abbot… leading him into the temple and inviting him to look up… he knew that he had succeed. The abbot was clearly delighted.

The artist looked up again at his finished work… had a heart attack and died!

What!!! I thought to myself!? This man offers a gift… he tries so hard and finally, successfully completes this extraordinary task.

Such skill and effort…dedication rewarded by a heart attack!!!

How is that fair … or in any way a good teaching?

Well as I have learned from my teacher life is not ‘fair’… ‘that is children’s logic’. So that’s the first complaint dismissed…

Is it a good teaching?…. I would now say so…

At the time I was ignoring what was going on – the process.

With engagement … the notion of a dragon becomes more real for the artist.
With practice he becomes very good at conjuring up a dragon shape in his mind.
Finally he succeeds in making an arrangement of colours on a surface…creating a shape which had the potential to be interpreted as a life-like impression of a dragon…by someone who has a notion of dragons.

The abbott was not terrified by the image… although it looked life-like he knew it was not alive.

However the artist forgot… he forgot that what he saw when he looked up was an image, the creativity of his own mind…
He took it to be real… a big mistake… and frightened himself to death

It is an explanation and a warning…

The dharma invites us to be curious… to see what we are up to… and to be clear about the nature of what is arising in the mind (and what is the nature of the mind).

As we see what we are up to… we see that we are not compelled to give solidity to arisings, to thoughts feelings and sensations.
Compounding them, imbuing them with a false sense of reality, and believing in our own creativity… is normal but not natural

Such activity is a habit of confusion – and it is blinding, diminishing, exhausting, unsatisfying…and potentially lethal!

No doubt alternate views are available :-)… but nonetheless less the Dharma offers respite and recovery, a welcome home for us convicted thought-addicts!

P.s. The guy who was so good with ‘smoke and mirrors’ – producing special effects which, allied with appropriate music, helped to create a rich environment for the envisionment of phantasmagoria in some ‘spiritualist’ meetings in the early 20th century… was apparently driven mad by what he thought he saw.