Verse 35
The student asked, Why does Uranus lie on its side? The teacher said, Side relative to what?
The student asked, Why does Uranus lie on its side? The teacher said, Side relative to what?
He answered, Relative to the other planets. The teacher said, Then the other planets have entered your definition of Uranus.
Up exists for the body because gravity provides a habit.
In empty space, your sacred vertical loses employment.
So too the mind says I am this because memory provides a direction.
Turn the memory and the person appears altered; awareness has not rotated.
The student asked, Is the witness like a pole that never moves? The teacher said, A pole is still an object.
Whatever you can imagine as stillness is witnessed along with motion.
Do not make the Self into the most respectable thing in the room.
The Self has no posture.
A planet may tumble, a thought may contradict yesterday, a body may age; knowing is not bruised by their angles.
The cat sleeps upside down and loses no metaphysical status.
Learn from her without becoming unbearable about cats.
When you no longer need the universe to face the approved direction, peace becomes less architectural.
Then Uranus is not strange. Comparison was strange.