The Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains

“I don’t think I want to undertake inner training,” remarked a layman to a teacher, “because after all, what guarantee is there that I would be able to bring it to a conclusion? There is no assurance, and it would be a waste of a lot of time and effort if I took it up and then found I couldn’t complete it.”
“The same applies to any plan which you make,” came the answer, “and yet you continue to plan—to move to a better house, to send your children to a good college, and thousands of other things.
“In one tradition, the state of spiritual fulfillment is called the Blue Mountains—where the saint-ascetic lives in contemplation and has the freedom of all worlds. The concluding line of a famous poem runs:

The place he has reached when he dies,
That is his Blue Mountains.

“A true man sets out on the Way and pursues it dauntlessly until he drops. But you have dropped before you set out.”