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Our Inheritance of Meaning

You understand
The words I speak
Their intent and meaning
Have been long established.

But language is a thing of the past
The present, the new, the unfamiliar
Have no means (other than silence)
By which they can be shared.

They stand outside
What can be spoken of
Our ideas and imagination of the new
End up being frustratingly old.

Language,
The means by which
We come to learn
What we must know

Confines knowledge
Limiting it to the verbal.
We fashion it- tweaking,
Re-arranging and refracting its meaning

In the hope
That we will free it
Through creative expression
And come to discover the new.

In other words,
We intuitively know
That all that we know
Is but our inheritance of meaning.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

15th August (A Day. A Commemoration. A Manifesto)

Although we stand
On the foundation
Of an ancient past
We must-
At every single moment
Intentionally free ourselves from it.

The struggle for independence
Is not over yet…
Every generation must leave behind
Dead ideas and settled stereotypes
And be committed to
Self-discovery and self-actualization.

The pain of our past
Must be transformed to faith
A faith that can see
In our ordinariness
An extraordinary expression of divinity
And in our dreams, the power of prayer.

We must rise
On the merit
Of our accrued wisdom
And not on the foolish
Avarice for things
That are effectual or notional.

And thought…
That is the architect
Of the abode
We live in
Must itself abide in openness
…in a heart free of fear.

We have a lot of work to do;
Many battles to fight
Many adversaries to win over
Many rough terrains to traverse
Many mountains to climb
And many bridges to build.

And this work
That needs to be done-
Is in essence,
A solitary quest.
It’s our search for redemption
And freedom…from our own smallness.

And just as Nanak told Mardana
“It is my blessing that
The Good and the Pure
Be separated from the clan
And be scattered to spread the goodness…”
Sanctify your solitary effort.

Do well by doing good
Do well by keeping at heart
The Larger Good.
Independence, after all
Is not freedom from responsibility
But freedom in responsibility.

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The Extra Mile

It’s at a distance
That your salvation awaits
Never near…
But never out of reach
Always urging you
To walk that extra mile.

Is what we seek, there-
At the end of a distance covered?
Or is it that in covering a distance
We leave behind all
That was standing in the way
Of what we were seeking?

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Learning

Learning can give nothing but anxiety
To one who considers himself ignorant.

And learning is wasted on one
Who believes he already knows

Learning is not an acquisition.
It’s a quality of being-

Present. Attentive. Deferential.
Surrendered to the Truth.

Learning is intelligence in action
Not the intellect in inertia.

Learning, in essence
Is an act of deep love.

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To Love is To Trust

Haven’t you felt that
Your trust abides
Only where there is
The all-pervasive presence of love?

To break another’s trust;
To belittle it…
Or to shame it
For not being enough–

Is to live without that presence
Without faith…
Enclosed within
Your misconceptions and self-obsession.

Love allows you to
Extend yourself
To trust that where there is love
There is truth.

Trust and love
Keep your heart open
Your perspective broad
And your thoughts kind

The gift of trust
Is love’s greatest reward
To have lost your trust
Is to have also lost love along the way.

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Fulfilment > Completion

You could complete
Something that demands
Completion
And yet be fulfilled
While it is incomplete.

Fulfilment is not dependent on completion.
To be fulfilled is to be
Poised to render incompletion
With unconditional love and acceptance
Assimilating the humility
That comes from unachieved outcomes.

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The Search for Promise

There is occasionally
An hour
That is eventful…
A pivoting moment
Where you stand
Divinely reminded
Of what is worth
Living for
And what is the worth
In losing.

To a seeker
No occurrence is vain.
Everything colludes
To provide you
With new meaning
Fresh insight
Or an accepting wisdom
Where the vision that clearly sees
Differences and distinctions
Begins to blur.

Watch this moment
Absorb its essence
Feel your emotion
But do not emotionalize
The moment.
Humanity is not a particular
Flavor, after all
It requires no recipe.
It’s a quest… To be human
Is to search for promise.

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Life

Even though
I tended to my plants
With unfailing care

They still withered
And died
Too soon.

Nevertheless
New life sprouted quickly and
Once again life bloomed.

Death, I learned
Is not the end of life
But its release.

So, mourn not my end
For what will end
Was never life.

A wise soul once said:
“You’re never more alive
Than when you’re dead.”

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A Crisis

A crisis threatens you
With loss…
A loss of meaning and purpose;
Or with a loss of resources
And reserves.

A crisis reminds you
That life comes with no guarantees
That to live means to incur debt
That must be repaid
To all that sustains, nourishes and protects you.

A crisis teaches you
To live with deference
To wait and to be grateful
To effectively transact the business of life
By refusing to bank on it.

A crisis inaugurates
Your liberation
From the smallness of certainties
To a realm of possibility
A crisis is a time to live consciously.

A crisis conveys you
From the narrow alleys of fear
To the vast open skies of promise
You renew your relationship
With trust and faith.

A crisis is integral
To the design of humanity.
It reminds us that to simply be
One need not be accomplished
Just alive and inspired.

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Growth

Growth is not in itself a virtue
And to seek it for its own sake
Is to have misunderstood its purpose.

We grow in and through
Movements that yield self-discovery,
Realization… a deeper seeing.

True growth is a natural process
Not a simulated artifice
It’s not a measure on a scale.

Leave things alone;
Let them simply be-
Immersed in time and space.

Allow them their abrasions
Allow them their struggles
Allow them their fight to be.

Growth is not merely expansion;
At its heart
It’s a search for possibility.