T.P.:  Why are you always putting your fingerprints all over the outside sections of the windows of the house?  Every day I clean them up and every day more fingerprint markings recur.  It is a bit unsettling!  Why do you do that?

Thus spoke Zarathustra:  It occurs to help us to see more clearly, of course, Tom.

T.P.:  How can smudges as fingerprints all over the windows help regarding seeing more clearly?

Thus spoke Zarathustra:  You, of all people, should realize that.  When you were dragged out of the cave, you were not peering through any superficial windows.  It was the clarity of the mind and compassion (without separation) that was important.  

T.P.:  Yes.  I suspect that you used the word “was,” and not “were” in your last spoken sentence because you realize that clarity of mind and compassion are not two separate things.

Thus spoke Zarathustra:   Indeed.  God is dead, in one way or another, as far as most are concerned.  (And most are concerned in a far, or “distant,” symbolic, aloof kind of way.)  Who (or what) dragged you out of the cave?

T.P.:  Whoever, or whatever, it was, (whatever that indefinable energy was), it was a trillion times more alive than I ever was; its universal living and dynamic energy imbued one with immeasurable life while it visited.  It definitely had a most sacred element to it, far beyond what most people merely believe or claim is sacred.

Zarathustra spoke thus:  Did you think you were alive before being dragged out of the cave?

T.P.:  Yes, very much so.

Thus spoke Zarathustra:   What do you think and feel now about people who live in the cave as you did and (still somewhat) do?  Are they really alive?

T.P.:  They, of course, think that they are… but they (really) are not.  One is not, of course, speaking in terms of their outlook or perspectives regarding anything; they are literally not in tune or in contact with the pure, living, unadulterated, majestic energy that exists universally.  They, though they are sometimes quite caring and somewhat perceptive, are like cavernous shadows divorced from any real light.  (And seeing, through shadowlike symbols, with separation and distance, requires time.)

Thus spoke Zarathustra:  When you were visited by that immeasurable energy, you later soon realized the same thing or something similar to what I have been talking about time-wise, on your own, without ever having read anything about me; your reading of (partially evolved) F. Nietzsche and myself (i.e.,Zarathustra) — and those true (overmen) others (who confirmed your insights) — came later.  By the way, the cave dwellers are not really living, but their rather dead images and symbols (that they exist as) are what their God (additionally) consists of, unfortunately; they cling to what is rather unalive (as symbols), and their God is a further obtrusion of these dead (unalive) symbols; so their God is (for them, anyway), unfortunately, essentially dead too.  Ironically, what is really alive… eludes them.  Will you continue to point out significant things to others while in the cave?

T.P.:  Of course!

Thus spoke Zarathustra: That immeasurable energy is truly alive, but you and I (and many others) are only partially alive (and barely that).  It is ironic that many of these others say that God is dead!  Anyway, getting back to typical things, these fingerprints will recur whether they are welcomed or not.  Looking out and looking in (as most people seem to think, and mechanically do) all require distance and time.  There is, as has been said, however, a looking that is timeless.   Be perceptive beyond just trying to attain something all the time!  

T.P.: Of course!  You never hinted about going beyond time, like this, before.  It seems that you are realizing that there is a perceiving that is not merely dependent upon time.

 Zarathustra spoke thus:   Well, I (though N. is dead and has only progressed so far) have been reading your postings; they are a lot like annoying fingerprints that keep coming back again and again (if one is at all observant).

Window reflection flower with insect (1). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016

Window reflection flower with insect (2). Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2016