Chapter 195 - The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)

CXCV We reside in the purgatory between heaven and earth, Between sublime and absurd, between angels and devils, Between bliss and horror, between godness and Eden. * * * * ‘Tis a world of fallen angels. * * * * Your aloneness is a sovereign issue. * * * * What headline will your death get? * * * * Truth is as nebulous as the workings of the mind. * * * * Once it falls away, The veil never stays up Quite the same way it once did. * * * * Is free will a fluke of evolution, Or a determined result of divine origin? Who knows, who cares? * * * * It must be you. * * * * The sense of limited presence Is solely the result of the energy, The food body and its sensory reality. When the body falls away, it will again melt Into the unconstrained timelessness, The eternal without attributes, Without the existence Born of imagination’s eye. * * * * Words are like clay in the way they mold into concept. * * * * Life is a temporary state of knowing, A brief, impulsive conspiracy Of unknown origin. * * * * When you stop recognizing yourself, You will be your Self. * * * * Can push know what it is to pull, Or pull to push? * * * * You were told that it matters, And you believed them. You had no reason no to Until you wandered outside their box, And suddenly, truth, reality was a lot more confusing. * * * * Ripples tell of an event, but are not the event. The event is a mystery, and the ripples an echo. * * * * You are the source of your dreamy universe, Free to participate, or not, as you choose. * * * * Cause is not effect, nor effect cause, Yet each sustains the other, And renews all. * * * * You are the primal cause personified. * * * * Humanitarians care about humanity In an abstract, ideological, impersonal way. Other humans are more notion than flesh and blood. * * * * Funny how some people’s avenue to power Is threatening others with their god’s revenge. * * * * You’ve never really done anything before. Now is always the first time for everything. * * * * Reality is so simple. Knowledge can never attain The pot of gold at the rainbow’s end. * * * * Analogies and metaphors have a way Of being applicable to so many ends. * * * * How responsible can you ever be For what any other might think of you? * * * * The newborn has yet to discern The limitations inspired by time. * * * * Mind shields itself with every form of imagined concoction. * * * * Each devises his or her own sense of success and failure, And lives and dies with the reckoning etched of imagination. * * * * The mind imagines a continuity that does not exist. Yet even discerning this as a fact prior to mortal dispute, Does not entirely free one from the shackles of material drama. * * * * Time can be fragrant like a blossom Or annoying like a mosquito. Attitude ranges the conscious spectrum Despite the ceaselessly vain attempts at consistency. * * * * Language may articulate it in myriad ways, But is akin to the spokes of the wheel Pointing to the empty center. * * * * Each plays out a perceived, choiceless role. * * * * The burden of time cannot tarnish any But for ardent clinging. * * * * Water is the liqueur of the gods. * * * * The maintenance Of any right or wrong Is a personal projection. * * * * For drama to fabricate, There must be consciousness, And a determined sense of otherness. * * * * A total misunderstanding, For which your forgiveness Is humbly requested. * * * * All the wisdom ever gleaned Is as important as a gnat’s ass. * * * * Who is not enamored in one way or another With the mask and body that the genetic lottery has spun? It is an endless attachment that absorbs godness into such vain pursuits. * * * * If god’s creation includes both heaven and hell, How is it possible that he and the devil Are not one in the same? * * * * Any given universe is precisely What conviction inspires. Attitude is all. * * * * Some are made to couple, Others to single. * * * * Is there such thing as too much humility? * * * * All ways share equal legitimacy In the oneness of infinite possibility. * * * * To understand the nature of goodness Is to perceive without doubt That nothing is not. * * * * We have all been brainwashed in one way or another. The only question is, how much of the wash Are you willing to wash away In the pursuit Of the ultimate freedom? Attachment to imagination is the crux. * * * * What has all that glory truly done for you? * * * * One moment the veil drops away. The next it is created anew. On and on the play flows in the mind, The continuity of space-time’s sensory illusion. * * * * Death is the flower of freedom. * * * * Sounds good, anyway. * * * * Sure, it’s all pointless, but isn’t it rather ironic How you enjoy certain parts of the pointlessness? * * * * You think anybody really has a choice To be anything other than what they are? * * * * Management folks who sign the paychecks Tend to get a lot of tolerance, even approbation, For their many eccentricities and abusive behaviors. * * * * Are you a who? A what? A where? A when? A why? Or a how? * * * * A-nothing we will go. * * * * Torn between heaven and earth, You suffer the purgatory of continuity. * * * * Imagine a newborn child Who has yet to develop a sense of self. What an incomprehensible journey Every human being wanders From cradle to grave. * * * * From nothing to nothing, And really nothing All the while. * * * * Has there ever been A species as cruel and harsh As that which regard themselves human? Do not confuse the instinctual savagery of other life forms With the brutal calculations of the human mind. * * * * Seeker and sought are the same. Only the mind bound in the absurdity of consciousness Asserts the delusion of separation. * * * * What is it that holds one back from ending it all. Suicide really is the only philosophical question. * * * * Do you realize how often You use a history you don’t really know To rationalize an existence you have no need to justify. * * * * Assumption, all. * * * * Consciousness is not ultimately real. It is the brief, ever-changing recreation of energy That dissipates as soon as the host container disincorporates. * * * * When the filament is no more, Where goeth the light? * * * * Wander beyond all the stories born of time’s theater Discern the nothingness, the unfathomable Prior to all words and deeds. It is there that you will at last be free Of the prison born of temporal consciousness. * * * * It is not easy, but standing aloof, disinterested, Is the key to discerning your true homeless home. * * * * A man with a grain of sand That no one else sees or values Is a pauper to all but him Self. * * * * Let the silly god be the judge. There are healthier things To do with your time. * * * * Take away the assumptions, The judgments, the measurements, The calculations, the fabrication, The personality, the knowing, And what could possibly be left But the still silence of awareness? * * * * Can consciousness be without duality? Doubtful in this world. * * * * Seeking credit for your acts, Even if you did them, and did them well, Tends to corrode the future. * * * * Better to cultivate loyal opposition Than vengeful adversaries. * * * * Ironically absurd. * * * * You can only know The theater of light and shadow. Of the mysterious source, You know nothing. * * * * What innocently ruthless concepts numbers can be. * * * * We create gods that cater to our vain whims. * * * * Who are you to judge any one? * * * * Humanness is both baneful and noble. It is the duality of consciousness Which must ever be. * * * * Angels and demons come in all flavors, And can at times be difficult to distinguish. * * * * Chaos is an order to which dis- does not apply. * * * * Everything has its time, And in the end There is nothing to remember. * * * * The subtlety of nuance is infinite. * * * * Any true experiment Requires accurate control of variables To avoid the taint of speculation. * * * * Fate is the sculpture of free will And so many currents Beyond any one’s control. * * * * Let all the Very Important People Move ahead and tailgate each other. * * * * Why do some feel so much freer than others? * * * * You are under no obligations To anything or anyone But through your own collusion. * * * * Duped again. * * * * It is whatever you know, Which, by the way, ain’t much. * * * * In the garden of good and evil, It is easy to forget. * * * * May you find peace in eternal life. * * * * Are your sure you really want to be free? All for nothing? All or nothing? * * * * So many hooks dangling In this mysterious garden. * * * * Fourth-dimensional logic. * * * * Amazing what suffering so many endure to continue living. * * * * Nothing personified. * * * * An opportunity to invent your Self. * * * * Another case of mistaken identity. * * * * Is knowledge really anything more Than assorted permutations of belief. * * * * First, there is a mountain, Then, there is no mountain, And then, a mountain again. * * * * Guilt and shame are the fabrication Of minds who probably are and should. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Stillness Before Time (Compendium) © Michael J. Holshouser 2009 World Rights Reserved