The might of the ocean.

The majesty of the whale.

The dark depths we can barely fathom.

Sometimes just peering in is a frightening thing.

What leviathans might surface for air?

More terrifying than that is the concept of all that water and darkness and cold.

When faced with something so vast, we can’t help but feel helpless.

There’s a kind of awfulness in that.

No matter how much time passes,

no matter what takes place in the interim,

there are some things we can never assign to oblivion,

memories we can never rub away. – Haruki Murakami

“All beings have lived and died and been reborn countless times. Over and over again they have experienced the indescribable Clear Light. But because they are obscured by the darkness of ignorance, they wander endlessly in a limitless samsara.”~ Padmasambhava

Samsara is essentially not any fixed place or realm – for it is any state of mind filled with attachment, aversion and delusion. As the enlightened have no attachment, aversion and delusion, they are forever free of the samsaric, and are never really ‘in’ Samsara, even as they ‘enter’ Samsara to aid beings truly ‘in’ Samsara to be free of attachment, aversion and delusion. It is thus an error to imagine that the enlightened suffer in Samsara when they remain or return to Samsara to help relieve suffering – for, once again, Samsara is not a place. Being enlightened is also to be free of all suffering – wherever one is. ~ Shian

Most people feel cozy enough in samsara. They do not really have the genuine aspiration to go beyond samsara; they just want samsara to be a little bit better. The underlying motivation to go beyond samsara is very rare… There are many people who learn to meditate and so forth, but with the underlying motive that they hope to make themselves feel better… We are always looking to make ourselves comfortable in the prison house. We might think that if we get the cell wall painted a pretty shade of pale green, and put in a few pictures, it won’t be a prison anymore.” ~ Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

Or, Samsara: it’s more than just a perfume.

“I would advise you to be happy rather than well-dressed.

It’s better to be happy.” ~ Iris Apfel

It’s a strange position for me to support, yet somehow it’s always been that way. No one I ever tried to impress with my sartorial choices was ever really won over. They looked and gawked and reluctantly gave up a few compliments, but dressing well doesn’t win lasting or real affection. Often, it doesn’t even get you in the door.

At this critical junction of The Delusional Grandeur Tour: Last Stand of a Rock Star, we look into what constitutes true grandeur, and what happens when the delusions are removed.

We don’t usually realize how important and vital our delusions are, how deeply embedded and impossibly ingrained they become after years of practice and abuse. They are not necessarily bad things, our delusions, so long as we understand them to be no more than what they are. To attribute any authentic power or substance to them – therein lies the danger.

If we are wise, we reconcile them to the fanciful phantoms they mostly are, an offset of our illusions, a playground of confusion, mere wisps of aspiration.

If we can get our heads around that concept, then let them be grand. Let them be greater than grand. Let our delusions be divine…