Path of Simplicity -- an Introduction

[The unknown poet of the Third Galaxy, having backtracked on his success with the Short Short Path, addresses his promise of speaking about the Path of Simplicity]

"Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be..."

If it was just a question of what we needed to say in order to find understanding, the answer would be with us in an instant -- in the twinkling of an eye, as it says in the Book of the Holy Idaho [Cornytheans 15:52].

But it's not that simple. In fact, it is simple -- however, the simplicity is of an order of subtlety more than we can know through an intellectual understanding communicable through words or ensconced in traditions or sacraments.

Yet, in reality, it remains the corner stone which the builders ignore. It can be seen in an instant -- and lost just as quickly. We can say that it happens -- but it is useless to ask what makes or causes it to happen. Indeed, in saying that it happens, too much has already been said. And yet, is there not a bright corner, some tiny place where it constantly happens?

It's like with the neutrino, that ittsy-bittsy particle which passes through everything. Each and every moment hundreds of millions of them pass through every one of us, through every square inch of the Earth. But no one notices, in fact, no one can notice it happening.

That is the nature of reality -- you take a breath, hear a sound, taste the spit in your mouth, see the light in your eyes. This is at least an echo of what-is and if this was-not, then what would there be? Would there, could there be any thing?

There is nothing to be concluded here and nothing to say -- except, all the time I was talking about it, the pageant was passing by, unfolding in all its subtle glory. Afterwards, I can understand, intellectually at least, that I was seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing, tasting without tasting, touching...and so on...yes, even thinking without thinking, thinking that I knew something when, in fact, I knew nothing, nothing, nothing at all...

It is a shattering experience to suddenly see that one has seen nothing at all, to realize that we have eaten a meal without tasting the food, lived a life without noticing the love. In such moments the vanity of our lives boggles the imagination leaveing it gasping for breath like a fish on dry land.

Complexity has its place, but without simplicity, there is nothing, nothing, nothing at all.

It would a conceit of the first order to imagine, because you have simplicity, that you have anything -- the moment you have simplicity, once again, you have nothing. As the Holy Idaho supposedly said, foxes have their holes and birds their nests, but the son of man has not even a place to rest his head [Look 9:58].

"And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight."

-- Elder Joseph Brackett of the Shakers