the cave of the adepts

.
When I first became interested in spiritual life, I guess I was as inspired and wowed as the next fellow when I read about the men and women who took themselves deep into the jungle or high into the mountains as a means of attaining some new and improved way of seeing and coping with life. Off to their lonely lairs they trudged, determined in their quest. And when they returned, many became shining examples for the rest of us ... or anyway me.

The logic of this outlook seemed impeccable: Find a cave or a monastery or some place where distractions and diversions were minimal and ... come home a winner... happy, wise and dancing ... not gloomy, uncertain and hung with the flab of attachment or mistakes.

Oh, if only I could find a nice quiet cave!

But today it occurs to me that the deep loneliness that anyone might feel -- the loneliness that arises from the fact that we cannot share experience -- is a good indicator that human beings have already found and dwell in the caves they might crave. This me is my cave. This you is your cave.

And you and I live in adjoining caves, so to speak, or perhaps ....

Perhaps we all dwell in precisely the same cave --

The cave of the adepts.

Save your money! No need to buy a one-way ticket to the Himalayas or that monastery perched on some butt-busting cliff.

Home at last is home already.

Now the only problem is how to get home.
.