The Dalai Lama's Office Clerk

Dream Journal: 18 Tevet 5766
(17/18 January 2006)

I was working for the Dalai Lama. I was like his office assistant or something. There was a young monk who left a politely worded message complaining about the conditions in some monastery. And then there was someone who left a one-word message. I don't remember what the word was but I remember chasing the DL through the streets calling "Your Holiness!" There was a festival or parade going on - not a Buddhist or Hindu thing, but something else; we were somewhere in the Americas, maybe New Orleans or Mexico City. I finally caught up with the DL and gave him the cryptic message. He nodded without a word. Was it some sort of code?

Celebrating Mystery

Look at it: nothing to see.
Call it colorless.
Listen to it: nothing to hear.
Call it soundless.
Reach for it: nothing to hold.
Call it intangible.

Triply undifferentiated,
it merges into oneness,
not bright above,
not dark below.

Never, oh! never
can it be named.
It reverts, it returns
to unbeing.
Call it the form of the unformed,
the image of no image.

Call it unthinkable thought.
Face it! no face.
Follow it: no end.

Holding fast to the old Way,
we can live in the present.
Mindful of the ancient beginnings,
we hold the thread of the Tao.

- Ursula K. LeGuin, Tao Te Ching