The Epic of Mandala: Canto II

Mandala stopped and watched the protest for

A while, and read the signs demanding more:
more social justice and more distribution

Of wealth. Mandala thought, ‘Here’s much confusion.’

“My friends,” he said. “Do you not know that wealth

Can never be distributed? No health

Can be achieved by making sugars fair

In where they’re sent. The brain would whither. Care

Must first be made to understand what you

Must do if you’d achieve your goals. What true

Purpose is it you would achieve? Do you

Want wealth for all, or mere equality?

The first will make unequal and yet free;

The second with spread poverty and each

Must get unequal treatment. Who would teach

The lie that otherwise could be the case?

You’d break some legs so all could win the race?”
The crowd turned angry and began to shout.

“You’d dare defend the rich? You’d best get out

Of here, you racist, sexist, homophobe.”
“I’d love to stay here just so I could probe

The reasoning behind such accusations.

Is that what lies behind these demonstrations?

Your racist, sexist, homophobic thought

Breeds guilt that you project on others. Ought

You spend some time reflecting so that you

Can cure yourself and to yourself be true?”
The crowd began to move toward him, so

Mandala backed away. “It’s time to go.

Your ears are not prepared for truth. I hope

They are one day. But truth is hard to cope

With. May you fail so you’ll succeed. Goodbye.”

Mandala, saddened, left them with their lie.

The crowd continued yelling as he left.

He wondered at his failure, how bereft

Of influence his words had been. He came

To a café and saw inside a claim

Upon his time he always gave: his friend

Matthew was there. Mandala could depend

On him to listen, so he went inside

And sat, invited, by his favorite guide.

Mandala told his friend what happened just

Two blocks away. Matthew said, “Well, I trust

You learned a thing or two. Don’t waste a word

On people who insist that the absurd

Is possible or anything we’d wish.

They are the kind of people who think fish

Are soluble because they wish it so.”
Mandala said, “In truth, I think I know

Why they are out there. Not because of what

Their signs proclaim. I promise that is but

The surface.” “Well, then, tell me why they’re there.

It’s lack of social justice, they declare.”

“They protest so they will not have to think,

And all the while they fear that they will sink

To filling all their time with labor. They

Are both afraid to work and fear a day

Of contemplation lest they face the fact

That playtime’s over and they’ll have to act

And take responsibility for what

They do. They fear their conscience. It will cut

The fog of power they’ve been taught to lust

For, let embrace them, until they won’t trust

Each other, let alone one who would dare

To disagree with them – they cannot bear

The thought of being wrong – and thus they break

The natural social bonds, all for the sake

Of making social bonds that they believe

Are better. Why? Who knows? They’re too naïve.

In ignorance they will proclaim their will –

And they’ll use force to make sure we’ll fulfill

Their fever-dream of earthly heaven well,

And do not care their dreams all lead to Hell.”
Then Matthew asked, “You really think they all

Protest because they fear to hear the call

Of consciousness and conscience? That they fear

What leisure and thus thought will make them hear?”
Mandala nodded. “Don’t we fill our days

With work and noise? Our music, T.V. raze

Our thoughts when we won’t give ourselves the time

To think. Instead, we only always chime

In with the crowd and sheepishly declare

Our individuality is there

When all we ever do is go along.

We only ever sing another’s song.”

“You proclaim ‘we’ – do you include yourself?”
“I’m trying hard to get off of that shelf.

But don’t we always just accept most that

We hear? The knowledge which our brains grow fat

Upon was almost all created by

Another – we don’t test it all. Deny

What almost everyone believes is true

And you will find your social life is through.

They’ll treat you like you like to murder, rape –

And all because we are a social ape.

And yet, if we don’t sometimes break away,

It’s human progress that will always pay.”

“And what if you don’t think that we progress?”
“When you deny reality, the mess

Resulting will make you deny the arts

And culture, see just unconnected parts

That have to consciously be organized,

That government is what has harmonized

The social world. Too many think that force

Is needed to keep each man on his course.”