O, Beat Away The Busy Meddling Fiend That Lays Strong Siege Unto This Wretch's Soul.

This message can be so complicated, elaborate, and twisted. There sure seems a lot one has to do, considering there is no one. Some illusory self must be tricked away, and the idea of what enlightenment is gets boxier and more specific, and rises upon some plinth of unobtainable height. The mind gleefully picks itself apart, spiralling into a morass of well-loved mental masturbation; safe in its endlessness, the study of awakening replacing the seeking of it. How the dual mind loves to be in charge. How we fret and scurry, desperate to do the right action, think the right thought, feel the right feelings, and correct all the many many wrongs both in ourselves and society at large. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, while it makes a good doorstop, and has undoubtedly made separation more bearable for innumerable apparent individuals, goes on and on about the moment of death, the need for a proper state of mind, and the many stages one goes through on the journey to rebirth. A very complex story, full of admonishment. So many practices advocate stripping away the self, one wrong-thinking bit at a time. Who exactly, is doing this? Who can strip away themselves? Who wants to? Christianity makes deals; behave yourself now, be rewarded later. Not far off the Buddhists. There is nothing wrong with any of these belief systems, by mere fact of their existence. This message is so utterly simple. What is sought is this; what is longed for never left; the game of separation is played, by no one, for the fun of it all slipping away.