The plain blue door

There are few signs of the grandeur hidden behind the plain wooden doors with flaking blue paint and there are few signs of delusion of grandeur behind the figure in a faded blue kasaya recklessly reaching for the door handle. It is adventurous to reach for the handle of the door into the unknown, it is foolhardy to seek out another and another, it is reckless to do it this many times. Perhaps this door with the flaking blue paint is the final handle to be reached for. Perhaps this door will reveal what is sought.

The heavy wooden door with the flaking blue paint closed with a thumping finality behind the reckless figure, now in the courtyard of a small temple. The reckless figure, a mature student of these matters, has not seen a temple quite like this one. It has parts that are not often seen together, fascia that clash with decorative sculptures that clash with symbolic totems. Much like the reckless mature student who has gathered together a patchwork of disparate beliefs to heart.

To the right of the reckless lifelong student is a set of pegs, and a sign that reads: ALL ENTERING THE HOUSE OF MASKS MUST DISROBE, DON THE PROFFERED MASK, AND TAKE A VOW OF SILENCE.

The lifelong student is not reckless.

The lifelong student is proactive in seeking to fill that existential void of deeper meaning within all of us and thus, without hesitation, removes the faded blue kasaya, dons the GRASSHOPPER mask and climbs the steps to the entrance of the temple.

The naked lifelong student with the GRASSHOPPER mask stands tall, examining the friezes on the entrance walls, waiting for understanding and inspiration, breathing slowly, deeply, opening the body to experience the new. After the breathing comes the drills. The first is quiet, gentle and precise. The drills that follow become harder and faster, taps become slaps and slaps become punches. The meditation becomes a performance but no one arrives to appreciate the performance. And so the performance ends, the exhausted body prone.

The naked lifelong student with the GRASSHOPPER mask is woken by the tannoy: HEAR YE, HEAR YE, BE UPSTANDING FOR THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANTS IS ABOUT TO BEGIN.