Dinner Lady

 

I'm dead and God meets me at the end of the tunnel of light. She looks like the lady who served up school dinners when I was kid.  ((with thanks - "Time Bandits" ))
 

God  : "Well Dave, how was it for you?"
Dave  : "Well, God, I liked the love bit but didn't like the suffering bit. Was that really necessary?"
God  : "Yes"
Dave  : " Just yes? Isn't there some big cosmic reason for the suffering stuff?"
God  : "I guess so. Let me see . . . it's been along time . . . . Oh yes, something to do with free will."
Dave  :" Ok, I have been dying to ask you something, if you'll excuse the pun. If you made me, who made you?"
God  : "You did"
Dave  : "I knew you were going to say that".

 

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between appointments, I find myself sat in a park

drinking tea, from a chipped white cup

kids are playing in the sunlight and litter

something wells up and out

I scribble it down on the paper napkin . . . . . . . . .

“if we let the true temporary nature of existence

 deep, deep into our bones, we can never

 unconsciously enjoy anything, ever again.

 our pleasures become redolent of a poignancy that

 changes the colour of our smile”

the gulls wheel about in the breeze snatching at food-scraps

and couldn’t care less.

 

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Do all day

 

Imagine a world where machines make everything we need.
These machines repair and replace themselves.
And if there was no more war and poverty
What would we do all day?

 

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(Q).   please tell me what to do
(A) .   no, I cannot
(Q).   why not?
(A) .   it wouldn't work
(Q).   are you enlightened?
(A) .   tell me what enlightenment is and I will tell you if I have got it.
(Q).   enlightenment is . . . . knowing everything
(A) .   I don't know everything
(Q).   enlightenment is . . . . freedom from suffering
(A) .   I am not free from suffering
(Q).   enlightenment is . . . . being able to save others from suffering
(A) .   people save themselves from suffering
(Q).   enlightenment is . . . . total wisdom and grace
(A) .   only you can tell me if I am wise and I have no grace to give
(Q).   so what do you have?
(A) .   I know what is true
(Q).   what is truth?
(A) .  it is a direct experience
(Q).   will I get it?
(A) .   that depends how much you want it.
(Q).   how can I know that?
(A) .   by looking
(Q).   why can't you tell me what it is?
(A) .   I can tell you what it is, I already have
(Q).    but I don't feel any different
(A) .    that is because you have not experienced it directly, you heard the words I said - but you         have not felt it.
(Q).   how can I feel it?
(A) .   you must choose a method of looking and apply it constantly till you know
(Q).    that does not sound so hard.
(A) .    have you got anything better to do? If you have, do that first. then, start looking.  When   you have found your own truth, look for it next in the faces of others..

 . .