Twenty - Nourished By the Great Mother
Often the great masters of wisdom, the mystics of the world, seem crazy or foolish to the rest of us. They do not fear the things that others fear; they don’t care for the things that others care for. They look dull and stupid or aimless. They are different. Is this the fate of anyone who is “nourished by the great mother”?
I am reminded of a movie (based on a comic strip) called Ghost World. It’s an excellent movie; if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It’s got a great quirky soundtrack as well. The main character, Enid (played by Thora Birch), is a misfit just graduating from high school. Her best friend (Scarlett Johannson) is getting her life as an “adult” started, but Enid just can’t seem to picture herself living in that world, or really, any world. Though I am not at all saying that the character Enid is a Taoist or Zen master, I think of the two responding to the the world in the same way - and, for that matter, the world responding to them in the same way. The world becomes a kind of ghost world filled with wispy personalities - people with no depth, ghosts living empty lives. To the inhabitants of this ghost world Enid and the Zen master are alike in that they seem to have no place, to be fools or dull, to be drifting about aimlessly. For the character Enid this view might be accurate, but for the Zen master or the master of the Way, this could not be farther from the truth