A prodigal son awakes to the realization that he is a prince living in a pigsty. This is the birth of a new consciousness. Then he decides to stay in the pigsty. This is the death of a new consciousness.
Jesus: “Do not put new wine in old wine skins.” Epictetus: “If you want to change old habits, you may have to move to a different country in order to do it.”
Home is not a house; it’s the present moment.
If we are not present, we are not at home.
The prodigal son awakened in a pig barn. Stunning, to find oneself at home in a pig barn.
Discipline has nothing to do with subjugation, suppression or standing at attention. It does not mean replacing one pattern of behaviour with another. It means “to learn.”
We must be completely free in order to learn. Freedom begins with the realization of how trapped we are.
The least free are the most conventional.
Ordinary life is the life of an ox. It is dull, conformed, routinized. It goes round and round, repeating itself.
To slay a dragon, kill a habit.
We are fascinated by bodies, mesmerized by them.
Life snaps its fingers.
The spell breaks.
