The Horseman, the Whip, and the Dying Man


There once was a spoiled loafer who "swallowed" the viperous influences of self-satisfaction, feelings of superiority, desire for ease, hatred of effort, habits of drifting, and wallowing in idle dissipations of watching TV, listening to noise which he called music, and reading junk. These venomous influences, once "swallowed," put the sluggard into a deep "sleep" which began to kill him.

It so happened that one of the books he had come upon during his frivolous reading put him in touch with a "horseman" who was able to discern his fatal condition and provide him with a "whip" which was the only possible deliverance from the deadly "sleep." A whip that would wake him from the dead.

The slacker, comfortable in his "sleep" did everything he could to remain in his noxious slumbers. Once, the "whip" was able to rouse him slightly by providing him a brief glimpse of his fatal, unstable condition. But he quickly plunged back into his stupor. The "whip," trying to rouse him from his deadly situation, gave him a clout to encourage revivifying "effectiveness." This felt to him like a horrible, miserable assault on his precious self and all he did was whine and whimper and curse at this nightmarish persecution.

Once in a while he can faintly hear the "whip" saying things to him:

* "Other people do not have your difficulties because they do not react as you do to what happens."

* "If you become effective in small things, doing them well, great things will seek you, and demand to be performed."

* "Knowledge develops through realizing ignorance--and then overcoming ignorance."

* "You have not 'found' a teacher until you approach him with the will to die to your death-dealing torpor by 'doing' whatever is required for your deliverance. Until then, you are moving away from him. You are moving away so rapidly at present that he will soon not be able to assist you."

* "The Path is not to be found except in human service."

At the present time, it is anyone's guess if this drone will bestir himself to save his life or remain in the deadly grip of the viperous influences he has "swallowed."