49.

A man is lost in the woods. For hours he runs, then stumbles.
He looks for turning in ellipses and spirals. Thirst overtakes
him. He comes to a glen with two pools of water. One is
poison. One is nectar. What happens next is a toss-up.

A woman is born in a desert. She wakes up full grown. Sand
stretches for as far as the eye can see and further … as far as
the mind can imagine! There is no end to it. She will have to
make her home from desert, from heat, from the knowings of
sand particles. You woke up today and appearance stretches as
far as mind can wander in every direction.

There is no explanation of why you are here. You wake up full
grown into experience. Appearing stretches everywhere and
everywhen. You will have to make a home from the waxing
and waning of the moon, the patterns of traffic, forest pools.
There are choices. Look for signs.

Joseph was thrown down in a well. Mandarava in a pit of
thorns and tar. Jonah into the belly of a whale.
Padmasambhava—the Cool Grove Charnel Ground. Are these
anywhere else? You too must make your home in the midst of
irritations. You too must find delicious laughter tumbling out
from the mouth of everywhere.

The Friend of The Way does not teach you. That one is a
mirror. The world reflected in empty brightness reveals signs,
pathways. In that mirror: one forest pool shows a banshee, an
owl, a dark river and, in the other, a sun, moon, staircase of
flowers. A mirror offers no advice, only vision.