The Seventh Picture

The two drift down a mountainside, ending up at the oxherd's hut.  The oxherd lays his whip and tether at the door and falls into a deep sleep.  The ox goes further.  It walks into the very heart of the oxherd's home and falls asleep under the straw-thatched roof.  In its dreams it tells the oxherd, I am here.
 
The oxherd feels the Idea deep within his being, and in his dreams he hears it speak.  It tells a story, its very own.  The oxherd wonders, Is this my story too?  This is what he hears:
 
     I was in the speck,
          infinite in density,      
          infinite in destiny,
     the speck from which the universe began.
     I had no knowledge of what would come,
          no taste of matter,
          no taste of life,
          no taste of spirit.
     But I was there,
     the secret in the speck,
     the Idea Waiting To Be Born.

     A secret I remained
          in the sudden, great inflation,
          in the forming of the atoms,
          the forging of the stars and galaxies,
          the gathering of planets.
     For endless years, endless eons,
     through endless space, racing outward,
     I was passed along,
     the secret in the speck.
     I was waiting to be born.

     And then
     a bit of starry dust remembered
     how to make another bit
         in its very image,
         in its very likeness,
     and there was life.
     The bits found other bits,
     intertwined like acrobats,
     erected miracles
         that swam
         and crawled
         and flew
         and plodded, step by muddy step.
     My feet discovered spirit
     but my tongue could not find words.
     So I remain a secret.
     I am waiting to be born.
 
When the oxherd awakes from his dream, the ox is gone.  The oxherd is not surprised, nor does he panic.  He knows, in fact, that he will never see the Idea again.  And this is the reason: what he once saw has now become his seeing.  It's like a pair of glasses: once you put them on, you don't see them anymore.  You see the world afresh.


COMMENT
READ ON (PICTURE 8)

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