“Tell it to no one but the wise
For most will mock it right away
The truly living do I prize
Those who long in flame to die.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Holy Longing”
In this meditation, we are going to allow ourselves to be utterly defeated. It will be a race to the bottom, as each of us attempts to out-defeat the other. To say nothing of how each sensation will defeat us (by continuing to be ungraspable), each expectation will defeat us (by continuing to be unfulfillable), and each shining Enlightenment will defeat us – whoosh! – as it passes us by on the way to some sanguine dolphin or industrious garden shrew. How sincere, our defeat! How total, our destruction!