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A man who had already experienced everything,
entered a cave and refused to come out. He felt he had seen and heard everything there ever was to be seen and heard, so he had decided to disappear into darkness and close himself in.
But those who had experienced things with him wanted to experience them once more, so they looked for him everywhere, however they couldn’t find him.
One day a spider told a bat, that told a frog, that told a fish, that told a goose, that told an elephant, ‘that remembers everything,’ the whereabouts of this experienced person who had disappeared. The elephant led crowds of people to the man’s cave. But he would not let them in nor open the cave by removing all the rocks which he had used to blockade himself in.
They offered him food, flowers, water but he wanted none.
“I don’t want to come out,” he said, and sank back into his darkness. What was in there? they mused. They were all intrigued and wanted to experience being inside the cave.
The people dug away at the entrance. The man filled it more and more from the other side until there was no more room for him to blockade himself in. Eventually the people had created a large opening.
They all rejoiced and pulled him out. His beard had grown long and he was overwhelmed by the sunlight.
“Tell us dear fellow,” they said “what have you been experiencing in there all this time?”
He breathed in some fresh air, smelled the flowers, drank some of the water, and ate some of the food they had brought and said, “A total nothing fullness of bliss.”
“Oh, this we have not experienced,” they said as they clambered over the boulders into the large cave to experience it. They too pulled a few boulders over the entrance behind them, blockading themselves in, leaving the experienced person still shading his eyes from the bright sunlight and alone.
Till this day he enjoys the quiet fullness of bliss outside.
edited by Janet Cartlidge, copyright © 2014 Fabrice Schomberg
