One day he and I and two women were walking next to a great river. It is a beautiful, powerful river. And we were walking along and he sat down to enjoy the river and meditate upon it. My girlfriend and I walked on for a while and then came back to see him and the other woman who was with us. In that moment Samadhi had attained to perfect Samadhi, just sitting, just being, just meditating with the river. Nothing to be, nothing to become, just simply one with the river, a perfect existential flow. He came to know the flow as his very beingness. And in that moment as I passed by my dear friend who was so immersed in deep peace, I made one small Zen suggestion. I said to my friend. Dear friend ~ if you cross this river you will get enlightened, and then I walked off and we both began to laugh and really laugh, not because it was deeply true and not because it was deeply dangerous to cross such a powerful threshold. We laughed simply because life is truly the best Zen master.
Samadhi got up without a thought and swam the river just as the sun was setting.
He later recounted that he was just gotten up and no mind was there to tell him otherwise. He simply got up and swam across. Later he described it as the most difficult thing he had ever done. The river was tremendously cold and powerful and flowing strongly. He had no time to think about anything and so he just swam and swam and was fully exhausted when he reached the other side. He most likely had hypothermia when he reached the other side. Luckily a passing lady happened to be a paramedic and she called the emergency ambulance and kept him warm and safe till they arrived. They came with four ambulances and three fire trucks along with several police vehicles. They lowered a boat into the river from an overhead bridge and nurtured Samadhi back to full health. Then Samadhi called us and i sent Rose and Twyla to pick him up and then we had dinner.
Now the fact is that i have made claims in the past of having been Gurdjieff and a Zen master in a past life and although this would explain the extremeness and intensity of my devices, the simple fact is, I just love life and the simple intimacies that great openings bring.
Enjoy this magnificent river of life.
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