Meanings change…
Through use and abuse
When language becomes a device…
When it becomes perverse and aberrant…
We need new ways of thinking
Outside of the form and syntax of words.
We then, must leave behind cleverness
And descend to the deeper place of feeling
Hardened and inert language no longer lives there…
You need to begin afresh…
When was the last time
You felt something you couldn’t describe?
There is both- a continuous
And a discontinuous, ever- present aspect
To our lived experience.
That which is subject to change
Must live in the realm of continuity.
It must abide by time’s tenses.
It holds memories of the past
And hopes for the future.
It dreams of favourable change
And growth and prosperity
And a fulfilment that evades it.
It forges ahead (sometimes meekly)
Doing, thinking and sacrificing consciously
To bring into being a better tomorrow.
In a trajectory marked by impermanence and chance
It seeks certainty and permanence.
However, that about us which is ever-present
Is free of the past and the future.
As pure awareness, it enables us to see
What we think, how we feel, what we do
And why we do what we do.
This awareness is not subject to change.
It does not need continuity to exist.
It is what is ever-real and ever-new.
Time cannot change or destroy it.
It is what remains
In and through changing times…
Even when new values replace the old…
Even as things seem to worsen rather than improve…
Even when ideologies are destroyed
And grand institutions and empires collapse.
This realm of awareness
Needs no new hopes
It does not need a “new” year
It does not need any effort
Or any luck; it requires no strategy.
For it’s not a built castle
And it’s not a tale that needs telling
Or a story that needs a new plot.
It has lived through the ages
It carries with it the wisdom of a life
That has seen much.
Trust it. It is the silence and the temple
That receives your prayers.
It holds your tears as they fall
And is the light that by which you can see
That you are engulfed in darkness.
May that which is continuous in you
And is travelling through the days, weeks and years
And is hoping for the better to arrive
Before it is destined to end…
Be blessed by that which holds that possibility
That heaven…that power of the true self
That is real, sovereign and ever-fulfilled.
Are you conflicted between
Absolute moral correctness
And the relativity by which you are
Bound when fulfilling your role?
Or
Between a love that has
Stood the test of time and
An attraction that is tidal and torrential
And hard to explain?
Or
Any such fracturing in your being
For what you had thought was unassailable
As the true, the good and the absolute?
Truth stands before us in plain sight
But we’re not able
To accept it.
And so we frame theories
And philosophies and credos
To guide us through the darkness.
But the human being is not a machine
It rarely learns what you
Set out to teach it.
Also, the discovery of truth
Is not contingent on
Making the right choices.
It’s not the reward
For a life piously lived.
Truth is the ultimate reality.
The truth is a light
That dawns on you
When you let go of darkness.
There’s nothing to choose.
Where you stand
Is a choice already made.
Forge ahead fearlessly
Fulfil what has been started
Don’t seek to escape the conflict.
The truth does not lie
On the side of the winner
Victory and defeat cancel each other.
The truth is in the paradox.
The fancier the garb on the body
The less refined is the weave of the mind.
The plusher the house
The more vacant the home.
The wider your social circle
The greater is your need for a friend.
The more jet-setting your lifestyle
The less in touch you are with life.
The more degrees you acquire
The more fundamentally ignorant you become.
Life cannot be lived
Through the medium of consumption.
The void you experience
Must be entered, not filled.
In the void, you must instate your faith
In this void you must meet with wisdom.
In this void you will come to see
That refusal is the final word on elegance.
If there is no time
Then there is also no distance
Why then, does what is so close,
Seem so far… like it waits
Somewhere in the future?
Do we arrive to our
Desired state…
To a change for the better…
By our doing?
Or by our seeing?
Am I already there
Where I wish to be?
What I need then is not
Some grand plan of action
What I need is for the haze to clear.
We live in a world of make-believe
Perpetually creating lie after lie
To stay afloat…
We have to work hard
In order to get somewhere
Because we were not anchored in the truth…
A lie hinges on the establishment
Of cause and effect.
Continuity and progress
Are the ultimate achievements of a lie.
By design it is bound eternally
Within a tedious chain of action and result.
Ubiquity is the face of truth
It is uncaused, independent and free.
It is never the outcome
Of any striving or effort
It is not a discovery;
It’s a realization
The solution, it is said
Exists in the problem.
Let that seep in.
Sometimes, rushing into a solution
May aggravate the problem
Creating a dissonance.
Sometimes, it’s not a solution
That is the need
But evolution…
Not a resolving
But a rising-above.
Change what can be changed
Endure what can’t.
Do what can be done;
Surrender to Grace what is beyond you.
A problem sometimes requires
More than a change.
It requires a transformation.
Change is external
A transformation is internal.
Every life-shattering event
Liberates you from the unreal;
From your world of thoughts
And ideas and opinions;
From your pointless plans;
From your trivial pastimes
And your petty anxieties.
We must be grateful
For destruction, for loss.
For they are an opportunity
To access a higher truth
And a greater life…
To leave behind the imagined
So that we can abide in the unknown.
To gain knowledge
One must seek it
Beyond the known.
To gain knowledge
One must learn to wait
Rather than rush to arrive.
To gain knowledge
One must learn how to be
Free of the striving to become.
To gain knowledge
One must be willing
To let go of their assumptions.
To gain knowledge
One must be prepared to get rid of
That which thinks it knows.
To gain knowledge
One must create the space
For the new…for transformation.
To gain knowledge
One must learn to remain silent
When feeling compelled to speak.
I wish that I could arrive
To that place where I no longer
Feel the need to do anything for anyone…
From where the world is perfect…
Where each moment, each event, each person
Is perfect…exactly as they are
Where it’s clear that nothing needs to change.
Unfortunately, for now, the world’s sorrows
Weigh upon me. Who can tell
Who affects whom? We like to think
We must be the heroes of this world
That we find ourselves in;
That solutions are needed because problems exist
And that we are doomed to live partially fulfilled lives.
But is there a fault in my seeing?
The world has infinite roads and many mountains
To seek, one must set foot outside and climb
The world, we assume, expects our help
It must be saved with heroism, intelligence, sacrifice.
For the sake of it and our own salvation
We feel that we must do something.
But having reached the pinnacle of strife
One comes to see
Why it’s important not just to set foot
on a journey but also to return…
Because when you stand atop the pinnacle
Everything is clear; it is perfect as is…
Nothing needs to change.
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 