The Cornflakes of Centipedes

I once had a Tibetan teacher whose accent was very strong, and so his pronunciation sometimes seemed a little strange. At the end of one teaching session, several of us asked ourselves, “Centipedes?” “Cornflakes?” “What was the cornflake of centipedes?” Then the light dawned – confusion dawning as wisdom 😉

Cornflakes = conflict
Centipedes = sentient beings

Even when we hear a word correctly, we can still misunderstand, especially when it come to words such as “essence”…“view”…“emptiness”…“pure awareness”…“clarity”…“light”…“dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya”…“unconditional compassion”…“absolute”…“ultimate”…“non-dual”…“spontaneous presence”…“the clear light of bliss”…“enlightenment”…

These are all the same; our true nature.

The cornflakes of centipedes are “duality”…“fixations”…“obscurations”…“defilements”…“clinging ego”…“self obsession”…“tortured mind”…“selfishness”…“delusion”…

These are all the same – our mistaken nature that veils that true nature.

It’s what all centipedes have a cornflake with!