Posted on by solangesuri2015

What We’re Seeking is Not Outside

When we question our intentions
Our fears,
Our conformity,
Our compromised individuality-
All stand exposed by our reason.

Whatever project of woke-ness
We may wax eloquent about
And claim our commitment to
Deep down, all we want
Is to belong (to something).

We think our need to belong
Can be met by attachment
To a group, an ideology or a cause
To belong somewhere
Becomes our purpose.

And yet all our efforts–
In all futility–
Only leave us more with ourselves
The world can only utilize you
It cannot embrace you.

One can only
Add to the many
One cannot be absorbed
By anything other than
A larger one-ness.

So when you find yourself
Being strategically invested in your relationships
Question your intentions
Redirect your attention inwards
The largeness your seeking is not outside.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

The Ultimate Experience

The ultimate experience cannot be expressed
It cannot be shared.
It does not belong to our field of action.
For the field
Is a shared common experience…
One in which we must
Fight our battles…
Or wage a war against
What is known…
So that what we are left with
Is an experience… a revelation
That cannot be shared.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Not Always. Not Necessarily.

Happy does not always mean ‘not sad’
Silence does not naturally mean ‘peace and harmony’.
Disagreement does not mean ‘disrespect’.
Struggle need not mean ‘suffering’.
Anger doesn’t necessarily mean ‘hatred’.

Interpretation is the limitation of understanding.
Antonyms are not always
The opposite condition
Synonyms are not always
The same thing.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Art is a Conversation

Art is not the created object;
Art is Creativity that is
In the process of searching
The beautiful, the meaningful,
The melancholy, the strange,
The wondrous, the banal,
The ugly…
The right and the wrong.

These qualities cannot be created
By will…by intention…by mastery of technique.
They can only be expressed as
An understanding-in-process.
The artist therefore, is not the creator
But the perceiver, the feeler and the thinker
Whose work it is to converse with life
Authentically; and therefore artistically.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Fashioning Time

Time is a fabric
That we’ve all been given.
Fashioning it is our art.
Some of us proportion it
To the pleasures our bodies seek;
Some to the moods of the mind…
Some to the imagination of the intellect…
Some purpose it to be
An offering of love.

The art of fashion
Is an ancient art
Its actions and office
Pre-dating runways, designers and brands…
How we pattern, cut and stitch together
Our fabric of time…
And how we imprint our sentiments on it…
Or how we embellish it with our hopes…
Is a fashioning action that is imbued with intention.

The way we style our time
How we weave together
Our experiences and our memories
Or crochet together our prayers and dreams…
Or knit into a warmth
Our relationships…
Or layer into a look our old and new–
Is ultimately an expression of who we are
And also, what we are hoping to be.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

The World Cannot Give You Direction

Morality is not a garb
That you put on
To appear better than others…
Neither is it a yardstick
By which you measure others
And gauge their integrity.

To be moral
Is to keep intact your character
So that you may stand strong
Against the onslaught
Of all sorts of demands from the world.
Unaltered. Uncorrupted.

The question to ponder on
Is who or what
Determines your actions?
And are they, or those things
Going to be responsible
For the outcomes your actions will yield?

Morality is always intrinsically determined
And almost always-
Extrinsically challenged.
The world is a mirror…
But one that stands sullied
By the dirt and grime of ambition.

To be moral
Is to reject the surface
And seek answers within a quieter oasis…
And through a clearer reflection.
The world cannot guide you
It is not designed to give you direction.

Posted on by solangesuri2015 · 2 Comments

What Are You Chasing?

We create the meaningless
When we pursue the meaningful

And then,
The more we pursue the meaningful
The more meaningless it becomes.

It’s only when we stop our pursuit
That we’re able to give to
And receive from everything
Regardless of its meaning.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Grow Within

Life is not so much an externality
As it is an internal movement
Of pulse and impulse
-Unknown cause and
Its sorrowful effect….
Between which man must learn
How to be. Should he be
Defined by his fears and
Limited by his desires?
Or, refusing all definitions and
Rejecting the impulse for an identity
He should give up the idea of being someone?

Achievement (of anything in this world)
Cannot be a worthy goal
If it is pursued for its own sake.
It becomes liberating
When it entails
Leaving behind the need
To be accomplished
…To be someone distinctive
In the vastness of existence
That is the real need;
The real poverty of consciousness
We need to be free of.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Of Course, The World is Disappointing

Why expect anything
Of real value
From a world
Designed for disappointment?

Then what? What else is there
Apart from this world?
Of what purpose its enticements and its promises?
What is the ultimate fate of our hopes, our efforts?

The world’s vacuousness
Becomes your ache
A sorrow that leaves you wondering
About what counts as real happiness.

The world is a provider, not a giver
The individual can only find meaning in giving
He can neither satisfactorily take
Nor meaningfully provide.

To make something
Of what is provided
Is the art of man.
This art cultivates him.

Through his art, he transforms his ignorance to faith
He learns to stand unaffected and un-compromised
By the vagaries of the world.
His artifice reflecting a profound wisdom.

The lies of the world cannot be changed
By the activism of truth.
Truth is in being
Not in dreaming.

The truth just is-
unlimited, infinite in its possibilities.
It’s neither an idea
Nor an ideal.

If the world feels like a disappointment
It’s a time to grow
It’s an opportunity to cultivate new means
It’s time to recalibrate your perception of the world.

Posted on by solangesuri2015 · 2 Comments

Adapting

Adapting
I’m coming to see
Is not as benign a process
As it is made out to be…
Generally suggesting a soft compromise…

New conditions
Can appear before you
As a real threat
To your values, your hopes, your orientations
…all that defines you.

You stand disoriented; destabilised
By the disappearance of foundational principles;
A humiliating reminder
That all that you considered to be real
Was the false at its deceptive best.

Continuity, in the world
Operates differently.
It means continuous change
Brought about by osmosis
Truth and singularity are not its virtues
And yet dishonesty and susceptibility cannot be yours…

Is the world nothing but an illusion?
Is your individuality an illusion?
To adapt means to let go
(Sometimes with great spirit)–
Of your definitions… your ideas… your certainties.
Because those are the real illusions.