The king and the court jester

Here is a an old sufi tale.

Once there was a king who thought himself the best at chess in the land. One day he asked the court jester to play him, and the court jester won.
" Checkmate " said the jester. And Furious , the king threw aside the chess board and pushed the jester aside in a rage, before rushing out of the room.

This annoyed the king greatly, so he got the jester to play him again, but again , the jester beat him. And the same thing happened, the king threw a fit, but this time attacked the jester, pushing him to the ground, and beating him with a stick.

Now as time went by, the King demanded game after game with the jester, thinking that one day he would surely outsmart the simple fool he thought the jester to be.

But every time the jester won, and every time he got a beating from the king and a torrent of verbal abuse.

Until one day the jester , seeing that his next move was a checkmate, ran into the corner and wrapped himself up in a blanket. " Checkmate" shouted the jester. " Fool" shouted the king what are you doing hiding over there like that, cowering ?.

"Sire " said the jester "nobody dare checkmate you without recieving several blows from his majesties fists.
The wise are like this court jester, the ignorant and uncouth like this king.

And so it has been down through the ages with many prominent religious figures, Gandhi, Luther king , Jesus. All who have been godly have been persecuted. At the mercy of aggressiveness, the majority of the worlds superficial desire to feed the ego.

Thankfully though, there is some divine reason for this. As martin luther king said " some of our sick brothers may have some sick thing in their minds that make them want to harm me, but Im not afraid, I have been to the mountain top and Im not afraid".

The faculty of thought that allows a being to think this way, despite it defying logic in as much as it defies the selfish gene idea is worth consideration.

This really is the advantage of chess. I remember reading a remark by the great fighting and former world chess champion Dr. Emanuel Lasker where he said that if someone claims to have a more elegant solution in mathematics the argument just goes on and on but if someone claims his position in chess is superior, “I checkmate him.” Chess comes to a conclusion as neither philosophy nor religion can which is why kings of image and acceptable as lacking in substance can be created and accepted in these fields while false chess masters are exposed over the board.

Yes this king or facet of the Great Beast itself, is a life form that is dependent on attachment to the earth. Naturally it strives to keep all its potential individuals at roughly the same level of attachment differing only in their variety. As you know, all the great traditions initiating with a conscious source describe the adverse effects of these attachments.

It is no wonder than that what appears as the “jester” can defeat the king at a game that reflects objective reality since this most impressive and powerful king in the world of attachment is actually empty in the objective sense.

The Great Beast does not like individuals striving towards impartiality. It prefers instead individuality striving towards partiality or selective attachments that vivify any one of many forms of attachments reflecting the desires of the Great Beast…

The Great Beast must be fed. It needs the results of your attachments. You can imagine whatever you like but just remember the bottom line: The Great Beast must be fed!!

That is the prime directive and you’d better not forget it or else!! Now go play with yourself, imagine your own reality, and feed the Beast.