Posted on by solangesuri2015

To Go Beyond One Must Return

It comes as no surprise that we now crave
Slowness, real connection, fulfilment and meaning
Even as we work the grind for all the artifice we’ve created–
Modern myths of success, networks as social capital
And speed and efficiency as competencies and calibre.

Somewhere along the way we corrupted our logic
We misconstrued freedom as unchecked liberty.
Power as that which usurps authority by ‘rules’.
Leadership as that which pushes and shoves.
And discourse that is shaped by dogma and dishonesty.

We’ve now reached the end of civilization as we know it.
A future awaits the directions we must take today.
We are fated for a destiny we have carved for ourselves.
We must ask ourselves: what are we upholding?
What are we sustaining? What are we creating and why?

Not because we have the power to change the course of events
But because in deliberation we are empowered to sustain the good.
We pause. We wait. We listen. We slow down.
We allow ourselves to be recreated;
To be redeemed and reformed.

The collapse we are anticipating- will it bring us relief?
Or regret? Or will we feel a sense of retribution?
Will we be affected or liberated?
What lessons will we learn
From the transgressions and hubris of humanity?

In order to learn the new, we may have to unlearn the old.
We may have to unplug from the virtual reality of the world
And relearn how to exist- simply, faithfully and irrevocably.
We may have to learn that reality exists, and it needs to be read
Not via thought, but in and through meditation.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

The Ordinary Man

The ordinary man is no longer a latent flame;
A man walking courageously on a middle path
Between knowing and restraint.
He is now simply a statistic…
A subordinate to all that we’ve come to glorify.

The ordinary man today,
Wears his ordinariness like a costume
To feign helplessness and weakness
He uses his common man status
as an excuse to escape from responsibility.

But true ordinariness is an extraordinary thing.
It isn’t about invisibility and conformity
Neither is it a clever strategy of deference
To gain favours and honours
From self-proclaimed saviours and gods.

The ordinary has immense power
Simply because it is capable of plain speak
In the face of raging rhetoric.
It is just as capable of saying no
As it is being agreeable and saying yes.

In being ordinary, one understands the difference
Between the necessary and the excessive.
One is able to accept difficulty squarely
Without running away or escaping
in meaningless distractions and pointless schemes.

Ordinariness is like the alaap
That pulls together intelligence and emotion
Into an enduring harmony.
The ordinary is mastery over life
Through integration, not exception.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Wickedness is not Necessary, Just Convenient

As humans, we are challenged everyday.
We live in a world where it’s easier to learn
Lessons of disrespect, domination and control
Than those of kindness, love and compassion.
Power today has little authority
And is vested with the obnoxious.

We’ve begun to believe
That humans are despicable
An inconvenient cost factor in a world
Where everything is evaluated
In terms of profit and loss
And as such, must be managed and controlled.

Our intelligence has narrowed
And so have our hearts.
We refuse to feel lest we be perceived
As being weak and fallible.
We merely function in the world today
We have forgotten the art of living.

The world is no longer free
Humanity has delusionally fragmented itself
And needs unsustainable wealth, power and control
To save the few at the cost of all.
We’re enslaved by our beliefs and conveniences
And by the false promises we’re sold.

We’re no longer a globe of wonder and myth
We’ve reshaped the world into infrastructure
That serves agendas of domination.
We’ve sold our dreams to this nightmare of reality
Where fictions have their basis in fact.
Numbers, I’m told, do not lie.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Forgive, Because You Are Human

Forgiveness is love.
It is to give your kindness
To those who show you none.

Relationships are not equal
They are not always reciprocal.
But they are…they exist
And one is called upon by life
To honour existence.

One can’t bend what is
To one’s liking
To question existence
Is to be faced with what it is
As an answer.

Forgiveness is a tough lesson.
It is honouring, accepting and letting go–
All at once.
In forgiving, we don’t come closer
We move beyond.

We create space
We trust in the power of love
To heal, to help, to transform.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Step Out. Leave the Story.

The memories
Of the desires I carried
Are still vivid in my mind.

But memory is a ghost
That can no longer
Engage the present.

It just lives on
Like the relic of an entity
That once was.

One can remember it
Perhaps even taste
Its bittersweetness.

But in order
To live and love today
I must be free of my yesterdays.

I must ask
Do I still want now
What I had longed for then?

And I must have the courage
To step out of a story
That narrates my life to me.

I must close the book
I must reclaim my authorship
And write what remains unwritten.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

We Refuse To Live With Reality

And what after you became
Who you had dreamed of being?
Did the dream become your reality?
Or did it insist that you must remain asleep?

One has to awaken to Reality.
It doesn’t move along the road
Of your dreams and desires
It was. It is . It will be. It doesn’t become.

So all that grand standing…
All that effort to change… to achieve…to acquire…
All that energy consumed by your ambition…
What happened to it all?

Did it convert to meaning?
Did it give you the reins to your joy?
Did your commanding stature work in the face of sorrow?
Did you experience contentment and bliss?

Did your work free you from delusion?
Did it liberate you from your thoughts?
Did you find love in youth and beauty?
Did you find true friends in fame and power?

We strive to become
Because we don’t know how to be.
That which is simple is made complicated
Because we refuse to live with Reality.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

A Mature Education

To realize is greater than
To be informed.

To understand is greater than
To simply know.

To offer is greater than
To be provided.

To lose is greater than
To possess.

To have faith is greater than
To have certainty.

To enjoy yourself in solitude is greater than
Enjoying yourself in company.

To be awakened by a question is greater than
Being asleep on given answers.

To be merged in silence is greater than
Standing out in eloquence.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Culture

I’ve often wondered about nakedness
Not just of the body
But also of the mind…
And how we’ve constructed
The meaning of virtue with so much nuance.

The human is a creature of meaning;
Of perception enhanced by learning.
We understand the extent of a day
By learning to ‘see’ the night.
Differences perceived make clear the definition.

The dressed body is intentional
It is a desire to be seen on one’s own terms
Not simply as a naked truth
But as a presence that is simultaneously
Human and divine; here and beyond.

We must dress up, not because we are vain
But because we are seeking who we are–
Not just naked bodies, but in our nakedness,
We are a vast cosmos of possibilities.
Through dress, we come to see newer versions of ourselves.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

The Lines And What Lies Between Them

What absences do you feel?
What do you feel
Is missing from your life?

What presences are you ignoring?
What are you refusing to see
That patiently awaits your attention?

While life must be lived
And its pains and pleasures experienced;
Life’s beauty lies in being read
In being noticed and beheld.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

What Do You Know?

Knowledge is a gain
That comes to those
Who sincerely seek it.

Books hold stories, theories
And philosophies.
On their own
They’re not knowledge.

Experiences too,
Are granted to all
But on their own
They don’t yield knowledge.

Knowledge is an invocation.
For knowledge to enlighten
There must first be
An awareness of darkness.
There must be acceptance
That one does not know.
There must be a question…
There must be wonder…

There must be the recognition
That Existence is the greatest teacher
But to Existence one must go.
She will not come to you
At a scheduled hour.

Have you ever wondered
What the trees know?
Or the wind?
Or waters that travel
Fearlessly across lands
To reach the vastness of the ocean?

What knowledge do they hold?
What knowledge holds them?
And do they ‘know’ about it?
Or is their knowledge of a different type?

Must knowledge be about mastery?
Does its value lie in its saleability?
What value does understanding have?
Must we know how to survive above all?
Or, must we know what it means to give
And how to sacrifice, and how to die
For the sake of something greater?

That is what is worthy of seeking
How the ordinary is so rich
With promise; seemingly simple
Yet so phenomenal.
So self-contained and yet so giving.
So weak, yet so strong.
Knowledge is important
So that you don’t waste your life becoming
That which you never were.