From ‘Wonderland’, which is a spin-off story based on ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew are some interesting dialogues –
Feather: You’re late because you spent so much time bleaching, starching, and ironing this apron!
Mary Ann: There was a spot!
Feather: It was a shadow.
Comments: Some things, which protect other things from dirt, like aprons, are meant to be dirtied, such that a speck of dirt on them is perfectly alright. More difficult to clean than dirt that stick fast, is illusory dirt. Our Buddha-nature is that which cannot be cleaned because it cannot be sullied. We just need to clear the dust of defilements that shrouds our vision of our Buddha-nature.
Mary Ann: Tch! Tch! This path is so dirty!
Feather: That’s because it’s a dirt path!
Comments: Better to keep the mind clean than to demand this world of dust (Samsara) to be speckless like a Pureland. Yet, when the mind is pure, the land is pure.
Feather: Well, I’m tired of sweeping other people’s grime and grit away!
Mary Ann: You’re a feather duster. You can’t be something other than what you are…
Butterfly: That is incorrect.
Comments: What’s more challenging than clearing others’ dirt is to clean one’s own, that hides one’s Buddha-nature. The more one focuses on cleaning others, the less one focuses on cleaning oneself. A cleaner can always do something other than cleaning others, by cleaning oneself. In fact, a cleaner that is truly clean can best help clean others.
[ad#wonderland]