Posted on by solangesuri2015

What is Beyond is Here

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.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

The Truth is in the Paradox

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.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Get Real

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.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Let the Haze Clear

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.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

What The Problem Demands

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.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

From the Imagined to the Unknown

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.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

One is a Discovery

Did our separation hurt
Because we weren’t able to go beyond
Seeing ourselves as separate in the first place?

I saw you as ‘You’.
I saw me as ‘Me’.
Our coming together was designed
To thrill, to excite, to give pleasure…
But lurking in the shadows
Was always the threat of betrayal,
Of disappointment, of emotional pain…
Of love being a shallow lie.

We never reached the state of Oneness
We didn’t know how to
We thought an enduring love
Was about commitment;
And commitment was about
Arriving at intermittent compromises
So each could have their way in turns.

But a relationship is not built
On a scorecard.
It involves embracing, absorbing
Giving of your presence.
It’s about arriving to a harmony.
It’s about arriving at an understanding
That you are in essence,
A complement to another.
You are a fraction of a whole.

To be one
Is to give up insisting
On a separate existence
So that you can come to see
That in the presence of the other
You are adequate. You are enough.
You are one.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Do I Feel Your Grief?

I talked with you
I was collected and calm
While you were visibly shattered.
You could barely talk through
Your quivering lips and shaky voice
Your words had lost their stability
Your tears had wiped off
The ground beneath their feet.

I wondered after you had left
Why had your tears not flooded my heart;
And poured out through my eyes?
Has my heart toughened over the years?
Have I lost my ability to feel?
Does another’s grief no longer touch me?
Or, is it just intelligent design that each
Should only shoulder their share of grief?

Perhaps your grief does enter me…
However, it wears a different face.
Your tears live in me as a perpetual restlessness.
Your shaking voice lives in me
As unresolved anger…
Your words become a filter in my mind
Like a cloud of worry that follows me
No matter what the season.

Oh yes… I see it now
I do feel your grief…
In fact, I wear it on me…invisibly
Even as I dress and undress…
I know I too will get my chance to heal
And be relieved of this shroud of normalcy I wear
The catalyst of a personal loss
Will free me to feel all that you feel.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Where Have You Reached?

I see around me a desperation
A rush to reach somewhere…
To arrive…
Where? Anywhere…
Something, somewhere may hold the key
To guaranteed ecstasy…
And then some peace and happiness…
I see people scrambling like paupers
For a taste of life…
Not knowing what a great life should taste like…
Whiskey? Butter chicken?
What should a great life smell like?
Chanel no 9? Cigarettes? Sex?
No one knows…
But we all desire…

I hear it often said
That it’s wise to live it up
That we have but one life.
But think about how absurd it is
To have life but to know nothing of it
To educate yourself over hours, days and years
To learn about a world
That is essentially all myth.
For all its attractions, it is
At the end of it all, a black mirror.
Ready to be whatever you conceive of it.
To know life, it’s enough to simply live
Neither chasing nor being chased
By ideas, by demons, by desire…
To come to see that a life well-lived
Has required nothing more
Than simple presence.

Posted on by solangesuri2015

Return and Wait

It’s confusing
When there are many possibilities;
When you have before you
Choices to make
When there is so much happening
That needs your attention.
You don’t know what to do;
You don’t know how you’ll do it.

It’s easy
When you recentre;
Stand where you are
And know that in a world of possibilities
And tough choices
And to that which needs your attention
You will be conveyed.
You will come to know
That which you have always known.

All you have to do
Is be willing to do
nothing;
So that what needs to be done
Gets done.