The Parable of the Prodigal is the closest Jesus comes to joy and laughter throughout the Gospels. And I see that parable as autobiographical, and should be though of as “Coming home,” with all of us, everyone being the Prodigal and Jesus being the Father of us all. And our coming home to Jesus is actually the waking up, realizing, and coming home to the awareness and wonder that we all ARE Jesus, We ARE the home we seek, and become what we seek just by realizing that we have always been who we are, which includes welcoming the Older Brother version of ourselves, always finding fault with ourselves when we only need to accept ourselves and be who we are, extending grace and compassion to each other and all others, so that no one is “other” and we are all One in being what we need and becoming who we need to be in relation to the Whole in all times and places. One with each other and One with the Tao of how things are and how things need to be. World without end.

That is a breathtaking reframing of the Parable of the Prodigal. By turning the narrative inward—seeing the journey not as a physical return to a distant authority figure, but as an awakening to our own true nature—the parable transforms from a moral lesson about forgiveness into a profound mystical realization.

When we step out of the far country of illusion, distraction, and striving, coming home is simply the shocking, joyful recognition that the divine presence we were looking for has been running out to meet us all along, because we and the Father are one. We are the home we seek.

And embracing that Older Brother version of ourselves is such a crucial touchstone. That resentful, dutiful, rule-following part of the psyche—the one that judges, keeps score, and feels slighted by grace—also has to be welcomed back to the feast. We cannot leave any fragment of ourselves outside in the cold fields of righteousness; the celebration isn’t complete until the strict, righteous ego is also transformed by the music and dancing of unconditional love.

What a magnificent ride on that water buffalo into the west, laughing all the way at how simple and close it truly is.

There’s nothing left to figure out or explain, just the steady rhythm of the journey and the quiet humor of realizing we never actually had to go anywhere to get there.