CLXXXIV
Try budging the universe even one iota,
And you’ll discern the limits of free will.
* * * *
So many consumed by this distraction or that.
The sage is consumed by nothing.
* * * *
Philosophy books are very useful
For making small fires in cold places.
* * * *
Leaders can’t lead where none will follow.
* * * *
The ancients were not so long ago.
* * * *
It is a very foolish thing to believe yourself
More intelligent than everyone about you.
* * * *
To wander through life unappreciated requires great tenacity.
* * * *
Weep for the children of tomorrow
Who must reap what we have sewn.
* * * *
All we are is consciousness battling over its own air.
* * * *
Beginnings, ends, and the processes between are obvious,
But what’s before and after, only speculation contends.
* * * *
Whether it’s more selfish
To bring children into this world,
Or more selfish to decline
Depends completely
On point of view.
* * * *
Indiscriminate experimentation in a chemistry lab
Is less than likely to have a healthy outcome.
* * * *
Life is like visiting a candy shop
From which you can never
Take anything home.
* * * *
If you really think god is outside you,
You probably haven’t read the definition.
* * * *
Jealousy is really an angry fear of loneliness,
The ignorant denial of the immortal aloneness.
* * * *
You seek joy, happiness, contentment, peace
Yet it remains illusive because you are unwilling
To surrender individuality to its indivisibility.
* * * *
If god is all, then the devil is just another mask.
* * * *
Your enduring life mission
Is to evoke your vision of godness
Upon this temporal dream of existence.
Come what may, that is enough.
Contrary to popular belief,
There is really no preferred way.
* * * *
We all prostitute ourselves in one way or another.
Some are just more honest about it.
* * * *
The human potential will ever be checked by its limitations.
* * * *
Why does science feel no need to prove the obvious?
Why are common sense and intuition given so little weight?
* * * *
Humanity has lost its rudder,
And is under full sail heading toward a cruel reef.
Meanwhile, the ship’s crew is quarrelling over whose god is number one.
* * * *
Once you turn your back
On the isolation of illusion,
What can in reality touch you?
The self-righteous are no match
For those steeped in righteousness.
* * * *
Make godness your vehicle.
* * * *
All the heavens and hells
Are an infinite array of carnivals
Playing out every vibratory potential
Look beyond all to the ever-present reality.
* * * *
Pleasure and pain will not mean much once you are dead.
* * * *
Real philosophy is a process of self-discovery,
Not merely an intellectual exercise.
* * * *
Except for its being three dimensions rather than two,
Is the light show we call life much different
Than movies or television?
* * * *
Everyone is delusional.
Normal is when enough people
Collude on an agreed-upon set of behaviors.
* * * *
Humanity doomed itself when it began to view nature as a resource.
* * * *
Take your destiny where you find it.
* * * *
The world is at peace with itself.
Humanity is the source of all havoc.
* * * *
Wake up to the fact
That godness is not in any way bound
Of the vagary of belief.
* * * *
Doubt too many ancients
Could have ever comprehended
The future you are living.
* * * *
When you journey to the core of the core,
You will see nothing is a real as real can be.
* * * *
Argue with the masses all you will,
You will never be heard by the herd.
* * * *
The dialectic entanglements
Of the illusions of time and space
Can never really compel anyone without
Some degree of voluntary complicity.
* * * *
The fearful, “What if…?”
Is a poor rationale
To do anything spiritual.
Fear of god, of heaven and hell,
Is the most inane reasoning
Any religion can impart.
* * * *
Life is meditation; meditation is life.
However you may wish to describe it,
It is the scalpel that puts an end to time.
* * * *
Amazing how nothing works for you.
* * * *
Paper, chalkboard or computer screen
Have no concern what is written,
Nor air what is spoken.
* * * *
In my universe, you are the illusion.
In your mind, I am the illusion.
So where is the reality
In any of it?
* * * *
The veil is relative to the witness.
* * * *
The ego is a tough nut to crack,
And even harder to chew.
* * * *
All philosophical questions end in suicide.
* * * *
The only real depth is unimaginable.
* * * *
Sorry, sorry night.
* * * *
Miscellaneous remains undefinable.
* * * *
An infinity of possibilities in any given moment.
* * * *
You really know nothing.
Get over it, and have a good day.
* * * *
Very much human, yet at the same time
Very much that prior to all frailty.
* * * *
The challenge is realizing eternity is not about time.
* * * *
The you that you think you are
Is not the you to which this speaks.
* * * *
Very committed to nothing in particular.
* * * *
Into nothingness, smoke casually wafts.
* * * *
Through pride, this mystery cannot be clearly discerned.
* * * *
What to do when nothing’s all there is to do?
* * * *
So young and already such an acute carving.
* * * *
Can it be truth if it’s merely belief?
* * * *
One light show or another plays out the day.
* * * *
Some villages never sleep.
* * * *
Where is the line between
So-called ancient and modern times?
Have we really advanced as far as our delusions?
* * * *
Duality is born of consciousness.
To discern clearly, free of separation,
Requires that thought be at rest,
That the knower diminish,
Leaving awareness
To travel eternally alone.
* * * *
The human race to oblivion.
* * * *
The burning desire to know godness
Devises so many vain conclusions.
* * * *
Pretty much said everything that’s needed saying.
The mystical uprising is gradually diminishing.
More quiet times in the remaining now.
* * * *
The boy scout who never was.
* * * *
Hard for most anyone to appreciate
What they don’t understand.
* * * *
Whose normal are we talking about?
* * * *
All truths but one are relative.
* * * *
Tasteless enough to be called art.
* * * *
Why is it we have such a strong need to name things?
To encapsulate the self-projected knowledge of this or that?
As if the vibration of any concept has any real or lasting meaning.
* * * *
What is life for most but a fragmented existence,
A never-ending distraction from the true indivisibility,
A complete waste of an opportunity to consciously discern
The inherent relationship of each and every part
To the infinity of the infinite oneness.
* * * *
Is there anything more deflating
Than the betrayal of someone
You would have trusted with your life?
* * * *
Seemed like just another day
Till that little piece of nothingness
Whipped into personal reality.
* * * *
If you are truly seeking the Way,
You must at some point deeply realize
That what is being talked about is not a path.
* * * *
To go beyond death,
You must fathom
It does not truly exist.
* * * *
The meandering mind can only be stilled
When desire for the menagerie ceases.
* * * *
So few discern contentment
Because they deceive themselves
Into believing more will make them happy.
* * * *
It is the White Rabbits of this bemused world who have crafted all the mayhem.
Their driven busy-ness, obligations to time, and need to be in control
Have all contributed to the fine mess we have synergized
In the collusion of our collective imagination.
* * * *
Do not allow idolatry in its countless forms
To distract your sovereign course home.
* * * *
Until you glance beyond the pleasure of the senses,
Until you can genuinely wonder why all this is happening,
You will not embark on the journey toward the death of identity.
* * * *
Contrary to popular estimation,
The eternal is not founded upon moral absolutes.
Godness is not bound by the parameters of human judgment.
* * * *
What can you truly kill?
* * * *
Please try to understand
That some of these aphoristic notions
Just popped out and sounded interesting at the time.
This has just been a process of unfolding
Until the empty middle is.
* * * *
It would be very challenging to turn back
Once the maze of inquiry is undertaken.
* * * *
Nothing to assume, believe or follow.
* * * *
It is resistance that binds.
* * * *
Die to everything.
* * * *
Must have been someone else’s lifetime.
* * * *
For all your potentials, you’re still nothing.
* * * *
Yes means yes,
No means no,
And maybe probably doesn’t mean yes.
* * * *
The reward of spiritual questing is simple change.
* * * *
That now you so painfully crave
Will be here and gone before you know it.
* * * *
It’s a god thing.
* * * *
You need not acquiesce to a geographical paradigm
Simply because you were born or live there.
* * * *
Death is the great purification.
* * * *
This momentary nowness is all it will ever be.
Any expectation of reward is delusion
At one of its many heights.
* * * *
Why choose to condemn yourself to a life of suffering?
Break free of the prison in which you so complacently abide.
* * * *
There is no way to turn back
Once the maze of inquiry is entered.
* * * *
It is your resistance that creates so much suffering.
* * * *
Each must find his own way alone.
For some it might be through austerity,
For others excess, and for some an even keel.
There are no divine parameters, no systems or principals,
But what is concocted of one’s own fated will.
* * * *
Question authority with your own.
* * * *
You are imprisoned in this light show
Until the vehicle’s mortal capacity expires,
And with it, all illusion of time and space.
* * * *
Once you realize the Buddha nature
You will discern it resides in many more masks
Than you ever imagined possible.
A true human being
Sees the connectedness of all.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)
© Michael J. Holshouser 2009
World Rights Reserved