The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 16, Part 1

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

Despite knowing Mark-tzu pretty well, you can imagine how I might have felt a bit reticent about asking him questions about . . . his state of consciousness. Not only was he supposedly ‘realized’, but the taboo of asking about the unanswerable is fairly deep-rooted in me. Enter, Gabi!

Gabi: So, Mark-tzu, are you like a buddha or something?

Ha, ha! No more than you, Gabi.

So...if I am, you are, and if I’m not, you’re not? Which is it?

I don’t know. Fact is, I don’t know what a buddha is.

Alors, are you...Scott-tzu, what do you call it?

Enlightened? Awakened? Realized?

Alors, are you one of these?

No, Gabi, I’m none of these. I’m nothing at all — no one at all. Will you and Scott-tzu be hiking up the valley — it’s really quite beautiful up there where it narrows and the stream is full of falls and rapids?

Ha! Yes, maybe. But now I am more interested in knowing about you! Why don’t you want to share? Don’t you want to help me be what . . . where you are?

Well, no. I don’t want to help you. But that doesn’t matter, because I couldn’t help you in any case. Ask Scott-tzu. Trust me, he knows everything that I could tell you and would probably be glad to share it with you. Right, Scott-tzu?

Scott-tzu: Yes, I’ll share what I know, but how can I know what you know and not be where you are?

Good question.

So, it’s up to me to find a ‘good answer.'

There! You see, Gabi, Scott-tzu has the wisdom you seek.

Ha! You think!? So, Scott-tzu, why aren’t you a buddha — or not-buddha — too?

Scott-tzu: Because it’s one thing to know and another to be and you can’t know how to be. Being just happens, I guess. Right, Mark-tzu?

Right. Wrong. Right. Wrong...Being happens because you let it happen.

Gabi: Alors, how do you let it happen!?

I don’t know.

Then you didn’t let it happen — it just happened! If you let it happen, you’d know how, non?

I don’t know how I let it happen — letting it happen just happened.

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.