As the silence of summer is broken by the fall of the first leaf that autumn brings, an endless stream of white horses gallop through a chasm for a single day every year. As the dancing leaf falls onto the earth, in that very moment, the sound of a million hooves flood the chasm, filling all edges and cracks with the roaring sound of a waterfall. Towering over the scene, feet hanging over the chasm, a young man watches the parade of horses. His fellow villagers warned him not to seek out this place, for many before him have, only to become disheartened with their lives. But the hearts of young men aren't easily discouraged, and so on he went. His eyes filled with longing, his gaze relentlessly focused, he watches the horses deep in thought.
If only I could jump onto one of these horses, I would be free. I don't know where it is they gallop to, but I am so certain this chasm leads to freedom. But I am too scared to jump. What if I miss and fall? My body would break under the weight of the horses and I would be crushed until I turn into blood. What if I do land on a horse, but do not know how to hold on? No horse would break its stride for me to get up and I would also be crushed to death. I have only one jump to do, and yet it seems more daunting that anything I have ever done before. At least, as I sit here all day, for a while I dream of freedom. Dreaming of freedom for this one day a year, I am free. When this day shall be over I will remember it with bitter sweetness wishing for time to pass more swiftly so that I may see the horses again.
A year has passed. Precisely as the fall of the first leaf that autumn brings touches the earth after the hot summer, the horses return. So does the young man. Only this year he is not alone. Deep in thought, he feels a hand resting on his shoulder.
What is on your mind my son? Asks an old man with a gentle smile.
The young man painfully lifts his gaze and looks at the old man sitting beside him. His eyes express a resignation that only manifests when one sees one's dream without being able to grasp it. His dream is right below him, in the form of these pure and wondrous galloping horses.
If only I could jump onto one of these horses, I would be free. Free to ride the world forever. Free to see distant lands and places soaked with miracles. But I am so scared to miss the jump and die beneath their hooves.
The old man smiles at the young man with such compassion that the young man is robbed of his pain for a short moment.
Ah my son. Let me tell you a story. I have come to watch the horses gallop through the chasm for the past fifty years. In your eyes I can see a sorrow I am only too familiar with. It took me years to recognize what I am about to tell you. Thank you, my son. It makes me so happy to spare you the time it might have taken for you to see the horses as I do today.
You are already free. Right here where you are. Your body might be here and the horses there. Your spirit, however, cannot be contained. You might be looking at the horses and might see them passing before you, but you enjoy the same freedom. You stand on the same earth, the same sun shines upon you, and you breath the same air. You are a living being, just like them. You eat to still your hunger, you drink to quench your thirst, you sleep to rest your body, just as they do. Just as they do blood moves through your veins with each beat of the heart. You are the horses. All of them. You are their hooves, their strong legs, their shiny skin, their gentle eyes, their proud mane, their sweet ears. You do not have to jump to reach them because you already are on all of their backs, riding to freedom.
It is the sense of self within you that desires the jump. The sense that you are separate from what you see and feel. The sense that deceives you into believing that you are separate from the world around you. Dissolve your sense of self. Let it melt away in the sun as the horses move along the chasm. Dissolve your desire to jump and become the horses. Tell me son, do you not already see them? Do you not already hear them? Aren't you already able to close your eyes and feel what it is like to ride them to freedom?
And so as each horse passes beyond the chasm and into freedom, so shall you. It is not only once that you shall do so and be free. You shall be free for as many times as there are horses below us. Like a lotus with countless petals that unfold, so you shall unfold countless times.
When the horses have passed from the chasm and into freedom, your dream of being free will have gone. For now you know that right where you are, you ride with them.