Doesn’t understanding
Come to those who wait?
Wait for things to settle
Wait for the hour to pass
Don’t get carried away
By the sway of opinions
Await understanding…
Understanding is a light
That often gets hidden
By the passing clouds of emotions
It stands like a calm; unaffected
Free of the grip of time and space
It rests in the Truth
Beyond all imagination and thought.
How does it all eventually reconcile
In a perfect sense-
All that once
Seemed strange and alien;
And out of the frame
Of a set philosophy
And a known language?
Does one grow to understand?
Or does one grow to accept?
It does indeed seem
That acceptance is the essence
Of all understanding…
Of reconciliation…
Of perfecting your sense about something.
It’s never too late…
Nor too early
To review your actions
And set them on a course
Of a meaningful life
Meaningfulness…
Is conscious and purposeful living
Where your actions
Are a Systematic Investment Plan
That will yield a freedom
That is whole, independent
Fearless and courageous
Full of faith and confident
Cheerful and kind.
There are things in our lives
That can be counted;
Like money and cars and rewards…
Their separateness allows them to be.
Functions can be measured
We now have devices to measure
Their efficacy and worth.
There exist however,
Dimensions of our being and
Aspects of our selves
That can neither be counted
Nor measured
Like silence and contentment
And peace
These are whole and entire
In themselves
It is these that sustain us
It is their immutability
That makes possible change
And renewability
Their action is a non-action.
Taking respite from
All activity that creates dependencies
On things that can be counted, measured and purposed
Is true sustainability.
Celebrate gain if you must
But remember that
It’s but a shadow…
An indication
Of a loss coming.
Partiality is man’s hope from cleverness
But existence is always whole
Intelligence will get you what you want
But your wisdom will reveal
That it was never your need.
What an amazing thing to learn from life…
That neither gain nor loss
Can be a measure of your worth
Because they are two sides
Of the same coin.
They don’t add up
They don’t take away…
Their fifty-fifty chances
Are nothing more than
A zero-sum game.
I wonder sometimes
What will all my occupations
Add up to?
The realm of action
Is a confined space
That cannot accommodate
Dimensions of my being
That want nothing…
It seems to have come into existence
In sync with my preoccupations…
With the unfinished business
Kick-started by my intelligent
But clueless thought.
I seem to be on a perpetual quest
For answers…
For recourse…
For validation…
For acceptance.
I need to know
That what I think matters
That what I feel is true and
That what I do is valuable
And yet something tells me
That all of this
Will add up to nothing.
It’s not life that is in need
And my work will only float
Like discarded waste in its vast ocean
Silently mocking my vain pursuits
The only value lies
In doing away with
The idea of ‘me’ and ‘mine’
And seeing that I am not ‘a life’
I am life.
The geography
That our feet traverse
To bring us to
The spaces we come
To call our own
Is a physical map
Of our thought-
Thought abducted by
Memory and Desire.
These poor charlatans
Don’t allow us to be
They tell us that
We must act
And yet
The very action
We pin our hopes on
Binds us.
But then action need not
Be a strategy for either
Greater advantage or greater good.
Action is a movement
Towards understanding
Towards resolution
Towards completion.
The action must free itself
From being enslaved
By the actor.
Conscious action
Is your ultimate recourse…
It is a power
Vested in you
To stand forever free
From the self-limiting reactions
Of unconscious actions.
To watch yourself in a bind
To fully experience
The turbulence of the mind
To recognize that
It has become too sullied
To reflect reality
Is to come to know
That you’ve been betrayed
By your own imagination.
It’s this knowledge
Powered by conscious watching
That frees you.
Journeys are never
About the beginning
And the end
They are about
Departures…
Leaving behind…
Bitter-sweet experiences…
Meeting and separating…
Unexpected delays and
Arriving…
Sometimes you enter
Long, dark tunnels
And find yourself immersed
In a dense darkness.
They are about
Expectations unmet
And conversations
That began between companions
But that got lost into wonder
In the vast fields of your own thought.
Journeys are not
The means to an end
They are an end in themselves
Reminding us
That we belong
To no one and to nowhere
That our identities
Are not permanent
That our stations
Will not last forever.
We must travel
With the lightest
Emotional baggage
We must come to see
That our companions
Will change
And that our solitude
Will always stand by us
Our journeys must teach us
How to say goodbye.
Journeys are about losing old certainties
Only so that we may
Find new horizons
Journeys are about
Tirelessly covering distances
With the full understanding
That they will accomplish nothing
They will only leave you
With yourself…
Wiser. Kinder. Freer.
Have you at all
Had a spiritual experience?
And were you able to
Recognize it as such?
Scan your memory
For all the moments
When Understanding
Came to the rescue
And calmed all storms within…
Or you had a question
And an answer came your way
It felt as though
You had been in conversation
With Eternity…
Or when you surrendered
Your stake in the ownership
Of a circumstance
With the willingness to accept
Whatever came your way
And you found yourself
Taking charge
With a mysterious grace.
Have you experienced
An expansion of being?
Are you able to witness
Your own becoming?
Are you able to see
The play of your life
Even as you play it?
Have your simplest gestures
Touched someone in profound ways?
Have you been unaffected
By loss… or by gain?
Is your daily experience
One of abundance…
Or one of poverty?
Do you have faith
In eternal goodness?
And lastly…
Have you found the wisdom
To be happy?
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 