It happened once upon a time that five ants left the busy nest where they had been born and raised, and set out to roam the world in search of truth. “Come what may,” they agreed amongst themselves, “we will know the source of all life.”

In the course of their wanderings, they came into a house, a vast cavernous space, and after crossing a broad plain, came to the foot of a table leg that stretched above them like a mighty tree. “Let us climb, brothers,” said one, “for surely to discover truth we must rise to a higher level.” Therefore they climbed up the table leg, and when they came to the top, saw before them a huge field of pure white – a sheet of paper.

“Brothers,” one ant said reverently, “such purity! Have we arrived in heaven?”

The other ants agreed that only in heaven could such purity be found.

At that moment, a pen appeared, and began to write upon the paper, and the ants watched, fascinated. “See the pen of destiny,” said a second ant, “writing the fate of all creation!”

“True, true,” the others marveled. “How privileged we are to witness this.” And then a third ant said, “But brothers, look more deeply into the matter. Do you not see that there is a hand that controls the pen?”

“It is so,” said the other ants. “Praise be to the Almighty Hand!”

“Wait! Look for the cause behind the cause,” said a fourth ant. “You should observe, as I do, that the hand is moved by an arm.”

“Brothers,” said the oldest among them, “I see the arm, but I look further still. The arm emerges from a sleeve. Without doubt in its mysterious folds lies the heart of Truth, concealed because it passes all understanding. We have reached our goal.”

The five ants gazed upward, filled with a mixture of joy and wonder.

At that moment, the writer noticed the ants upon the table, and with a flick of the sleeve, sent them flying into space. And when at last they returned to their home and spoke of their experience of the truth, not a single ant in the nest could make any sense of what they said.