The Change and the Changeless Tree

||:  HE asked if I thought I had a choice in the matter, and I said yes.

Which led me to here.

And here is fine,  except that there are decision trees sprouting around me like virile rabbits,  each vying for watering, weeding,  and climbing.

The days where I choose to climb are actually quite fun, and HE is disappointed to hear that.

Lost in the world, lost in thought,  lost in thoughts of the world.  That's what the decision trees are deconstructed to - an ego-gelling gauze between me and IT that prevent me from simply not seeing the whole picture.

At first,  I argue with HIM,  and HE settles back with self satisfied smile - 'You see?  You argue about what is not real to begin with. Duality on duality.  Duality squared.  What does that get you?  Well on your way to 10,000 things.  And the number of lifetimes it will take to find your way back is staggering.'

And yet - they are so beautiful.  One leaf out of the Ground of Being - then another,  then a stalk,  then branches,  then an entire tree,  all from that apparent first single split from what Is.
 
//Last week,  I climbed the Change Tree:

Could Jesus or the Buddha have been a conservative?  (leaf)
What can a conservative be boiled down to - somebody who doesn't like change (leaf)
Buddha saw that everything WAS change (stalk starting)
Jesus railed against the status quo - he WAS change (stalk growing)
Conclusion - no they couldn't be conservative,  anymore than water could not be wet. (branches growing)
Counter arguments (more branches).

//And,  verily did the Change Tree drop  acorns which formed into the Changeless Tree:

But Jesus and Buddha could not be progressives either (leaf)
They had qualities of progressives,  but labelling them as such pigeon-holed their true essence - that which is without borders (and reaching the top of that tree,  the branches bent over and started dissolving back into the ground).

//which brought me back to seeing that on close examination,  the trees were not separate from the Ground of Being any more than what is aware of these words is separate from the words themselves.

When I got back to the ground,  as always,  I saw the living truth:

The trees were not a deviation from reality,  they were a manifestation of reality.

They sprang from and returned to the ground of being.

Kind of like...

....HE that questioned,  challenged, and derided me for my enjoyment of This.

And with my recognition of HIM,  we embraced and feel into a deep sleep.

When I awoke,  HE asked me if I thought I had a choice in the matter.  :|| x (infinite number of lifetimes needed for realization, minus 1).

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For those not musically inclined,  the ||:  xxxx :|| is a repeat sign.  Everything between the bars is repeated a specified number of times. In this case,  the number of lifetimes it will take me to realize the truth  which is infinite minus 1).