Posted on by solangesuri2015

We’re All Influencers

We’re all influencers
To the extent
That the things that we say and do…
And the way that we are…
Live on in the memory of others,
And find continuity and new expression
In the choices they make through their lives.

The decision to no longer hide the greys
In your hair, or to no longer be ashamed
Of a more rounded body…
Or the ability to laugh at yourself…
Or in what you consider to be
The warmth of a home…
Or even the names you give to your children…

All of these are the traces
Of a lasting impression made on us.
But not all of us is someone else…
There is something about us that belongs to us alone.
And the real influence you will have
Is in the way you are
Uniquely you.

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Wisdom is to Not Seek

How can we guide another
When we ourselves are lost?
In what direction must we head
To arrive to the certainties we seek?
What if there are no certainties?
What if there are no promised utopias?
To what end then, our strife
Our battles, our politics, our wars?

Why must my sorrow suggest a better condition?
Perhaps transcendence is not a future condition
Perhaps transcendence is not escape
Neither is it the defeat of an evil external to us.
Perhaps transcendence lies in seeing
The highest in the lowest
The best in the worst
The temple in the debris.

The best in our lives
Must be recreated.
The worst in us
Must be conquered.
It’s not the other who needs correction.
We must correct ourselves.
If we know not who to be or where to be
We must simply stay open to possibility.

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There Are Many Ways to Correct a Wrong

There are many ways to correct a wrong.
One can speak up against a wrong;
One can seek punishment for a wrongdoer;
One can use scathing words to elicit awareness.
One can use violence and weaponise sentiment.
Or, one can show intolerance
And distance themselves from the wrong;
One may also denounce the rogue
As being morally corrupt.

Or, one can show patience
And understanding and kindness…
Correcting a wrong requires strength.
It’s not something that the weak can do.
And strength comes from endurance,
Restraint, faith and love.
All the qualities that the weak lack.
Putting down is not power;
Lifting up the fallen is.

There is this parable
Of a sincere, duty-bound policeman
Who would diligently scan the town
And arrest and put behind bars
All the scum who were up to no good.
In the same town was a monk
Who would intentionally commit a wrong
Just to be arrested and put behind bars
Where he would teach and enlighten the scum.

There are many ways to correct a wrong.

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Could I Be Wrong?

To wonder is to rise above
The confines of your existence.

Ask yourself:
If your opinions and views
Have remained unchallenged.
If you have resisted the changing seasons
Ushered in by time.
If your knowledge has over time
Become imprisoned by your arrogance or fear

Or conversely,
If the ideas that now energize you
Are a mere flirtation with the new.
And the jargon of the day
Has become your buzz
Or if change is admired not for what it brings
But for its own sake.

The right and the wrong
Are not attributes of who we are
Or of the things and ideas
That make up our world
Right and wrong rest in the relationships we have
With the unrealities of the world
Right is the surrender to dharma in the midst of adharma.

To be right is to be in love
Being expanded beyond narrow self-concern.
To be right is to be in wonder
Free and open to review and to relearn.
To be right is to be in surrender
To that unconditioned consciousness
That can be trusted as your only true counsel.

To be in dharma is to ask ever so often,
“Could I be wrong about this?”

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If You Are to be a Creator

If you are to be a creator
Then you must be a lover
And have it within you
To give attention…
For it is our attention
That first renders
The seen, the heard, the spoken
And the felt as
Worthy and beautiful.

You must be yielding
To chance and adventure
For discovery and unplanned events
Are the encounters
That shape, mould and scar
And emerge as the forms
Of our memory in transition.
Strange and wild and new
They will stand before us in question.

They will want to know their purpose
They seek a place to be…to exist
They will demand your time
And your commitment.
It will be up to you
To provide them with meaning
A reason to be…
They must now live alongside…
They now share your destiny.

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Consciously Die

Leave behind and let go of past events.
Leave behind your memories of shame or defeat.
Leave behind all the bitterness.
Leave behind the pain of disrespect.
Leave behind others’ opinions.
Leave behind your failures.
Also leave behind your successes.
Leave behind your conditioning.
Leave behind all that is over.

Lighten the load. Drop the sack.
Look ahead. Stop turning back.
Be grateful for yet another chance
To start over…to be renewed.
Consciously die to the old.
In order to rediscover your gold.
Recreate your life. Pick yourself up.
There’s a reason why you’re still here.
Leave behind what’s gone. Start with what’s near.

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Co-existence

Is evil
The absence of good?
Is good
The absence of evil?

When darkness falls
And the light disappears
Must we think of light as a lie;
As a feel-good fairytale?

Must we say it is afraid or weak?
For it allows darkness to conquer it
It’s destined to disappear– and so,
Does its impermanence make it a questionable principle?

Without darkness
We would not know light.
Without light
We would have no hope.

Just like light and darkness
Define each other,
So do good and evil
Clarify each other.

Co-existence is the eternal principle.
We are to the extent we are not.
Non-being is the shadow of being
By which we know that we bear the cross of our existence.

Your shadow tells you that you exist;
Your shadow is not another;
You cannot fight it or destroy it
Without destroying yourself.

We cannot destroy evil
Without destroying the good.
Goodness is right there
Where evil lives.

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Simplicity

If there was to be
A hierarchy of values
Simplicity would be
The highest of all.

For in simple thoughts
And through simple actions
One can be thoughtful,
Economical and intentional
In their smallest gestures.

Simplicity takes immense courage.
It makes one resolute.
For to fall into temptation is easy
And then to pretend that these temptations
Are necessary– is a limitation
Of consciousness.

Simplicity opens up ways
It becomes an instrument of providence.
It surmounts problems easily
And allows you to exist
In a vast expanse of possibilities.
Nothing is a threat.
Nothing can destabilize you
For you stand on the most stable of grounds.

Love flows out of you naturally
For the barriers to love
Have not been created.
You simply had no need
For them in your life.

You’re able to accept life
On its terms and yet
Not be changed by it.

You’re able to surrender
And yet not give up trying.

You’re able to live in the midst of differences
With appreciation and not indifference.

You belong to no one
Because you belong to all.
And this need not be uttered…
For to utter something
Is to make it a lie.
It is to doom it to sure death.
It is to make a profound truth
An edifice… to push it out of your heart
And expose it to the delusions of your mind.

Simplicity, in essence, is silence.
It is to be
Without being concerned
About how to be.

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From Passion to Dispassion

Why do our passions trap us?
Why do they never live up
To their promise of liberation?

We see passion as the force
And the path for the work we do
And yet such work is inevitably dead-ended.

The real work we need to do
Is to forge a path to understanding.
For it is understanding that liberates us.

Our passions are the vehicle on which
We ride through the labyrinth of life.
We mistake them for our way.

We traverse through dense darkness
Every day, to arrive at a fresh dawn.
Time is memory; time is also promise.

But not everything we’ve learned
Is remembered. Much is forgotten
And along the way a lot is lost.

The day stands like a weight
That must be carried;
Its annoyances– endured.

Soon the promise of an ending
Becomes more comforting
Than the promise of a beginning.

Your intelligence suggests to you
That time must be more than just
The duration between excitement and dismay.

That its office cannot just be
To mark event and non-event.
Time is life.

It’s what silently watches
As you live your ideas
And then get disillusioned by them.

Ideas that once gripped you
Over time, lose their grip.
You’ve outlived your passion.

You now stand facing an abyss
What must you do?
Must you hold on to that which once held you?

Or should you let it go?
What do you stand to lose?
What will you be without your reason to be?

Do not choose definition and identity
When growth into a higher dimension beckons.
Allow your passion to dissolve into dispassion.