Chapter 197 - The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)

CXCVII Humility does not imply lack of confidence. * * * * The muck of the matter usually belies the glory. * * * * How many blame their suffering On everyone but themselves. * * * * You do not necessarily have To find love with another To be in love with your Self. * * * * In making an assumption, You may be missing the real source Of both the problem and it’s inherent solution. * * * * You must endure such imagined torture To overcome your fear of sovereignty. * * * * You are wherever you are. Being out of sync with the nowness Stresses an otherwise innocent container. * * * * There’s not much point to arguing with a pinhead vision. * * * * The garden will one day, In one way, or perhaps many, Prune humanity to a manageable size. * * * * What is the body but a harbor From which dreams manifest. * * * * You are compelled by whatever life inspires you to want. * * * * What need have you For the quagmire of sorrow This world so often brings about? * * * * As wrong, stupid or foolish as it all too often is, Might makes right. Always has, always will. * * * * Pandora’s Box is not often closed. * * * * The synergy of greed is overwhelming. * * * * What’s truly ironic Is that someday These will be called The “Good Old Days.” * * * * Please don’t ruin it by opening your mouth. * * * * The measure of pride Is one’s resistance to reality. * * * * What prisons excess can fashion. * * * * It’s all about you, and not all about you, at the same time. Your existence is but a negligible role of the larger stage, But in your own dream, you are the center stage creation. * * * * You cannot force your fate Into what it is not destined to be. * * * * Irony, always irony. * * * * Wishful thinking is just that. * * * * In the manifest reality There is a pecking order To which all forms must abide. * * * * Who was that madman, Kemo Sabe? * * * * Something for divisive minds to chew on. * * * * Lust is perhaps the most demanding force In this frail, very temporary existence. * * * * The truths and lies of history Are left for time to distill. * * * * A remarkable thing to fully examine one’s life, eh what? * * * * What doesn’t annihilate you today Often makes you stronger tomorrow. * * * * Each moment poses a new reckoning. So many choices can easily make For such a harried existence. * * * * Narcissism needs but one reflection. But in a house of mirrors, conceit Attains an infinity of potentials. * * * * Freedom is its own reward. * * * * Drink deeply of your existence In whatever way fate allows. God or no, this mortal play, Is truly an amazing mystery. * * * * What a travesty the dogmas of organized religion. * * * * Ponder anything and everything Until nothing is left to ponder. * * * * Demons and angels are bound by their oneness. * * * * So arduous, so simple, To comprehend the truth of the matter. * * * * Habitually cleaning your plate Is not necessarily a beneficial thing to do. Very challenging it is to stop when the body is sated. The mind will gorge forever, if allowed. * * * * The beast is not bound by the moralities of consciousness. * * * * To be human is more Than walking on two legs And manipulating one’s thumbs. * * * * Pain and suffering are certainties of life. A measure of detachment is the challenge. * * * * The only bona fide choice Is unconditional surrender To that which you truly are, And the fate that it inspires. * * * * A true gift is freely given. * * * * In the game of win and lose, There are ultimately no winners. * * * * If it fits, pass it on. If not, drop it, And wander on. * * * * Morality is not about vain, dogmatic assertion. * * * * What would you say If you could do it Another way? * * * * It’s all about fulfilling your fate. * * * * All remedies are but temporal jousts. * * * * All differences are imagined. * * * * Confusion is sewn of the desire For life to be more than it is. * * * * Tranquility is a gift that few truly attain. * * * * Negate everything and you will see. * * * * There is history unfolding every moment, Individually, collectively, infinitely. No stone will left unturned In the annuals of time. * * * * Passing along what you know Creates realities you will never see. * * * * Drift as you will, all time is an ephemeral spigot. * * * * Too bad we will never get past ourselves. Ponder all the things we could really do If humanity was infused with heaven. Such joy there could be if wisdom Were as commonplace as water. * * * * What a role each plays in their own vain dream. * * * * Who is it who witnesses Through any sensory apparatus But the same one in all? * * * * The only thing holding you in this 3-D mirage Is a body bound to fall off some moment in time. Will the freedom be too much to withstand rebirth? * * * * You are the unknown dreamer Dreaming all the becoming real, Caught in the web of vain division And dread of the absolute aloneness Of reality prior to all imagined attributes. * * * * Few others will ever see you as you are Unless they, too, have remembered. * * * * You choose to be burdened By your own imagination. Discerning reality leaves you Choicelessly, freely light-headed. * * * * Amazing to realize how many Are incapable of empathizing with others. How many are so self-absorbed as to have no vision Of anyone or anything but me, myself and I. * * * * Truth has nothing to do with any lightshow. * * * * If god is as vain as we, Then what’s the point? * * * * All form is the ephemeral fluid of eternity. * * * * If you are still seeking, Then perhaps you need To re-think your path. * * * * What can you have any feeling about That isn’t one illusion or another? * * * * What madness will you endure this day? * * * * Don’t kid yourself that science Isn’t as thick with politics as anything else Concocted by the human mind. * * * * First they make you feel guilty, Then they absolve you, Then they as for ten percent. * * * * You become what you imagine. Together, we create theater. * * * * How can fear truly inspire? * * * * Chances are you will find whatever it is you seek. If it is the messiah, you will find the messiah. If it is a Buddha, you will find a Buddha. If it is nothing, you will find nothing. * * * * No worries, mate. * * * * For that is all it really is. * * * * You just never know when one or more Of these little ditties will bubble up. * * * * It doesn’t need to be published To ripple across the world. * * * * What was it you wanted to remember again? * * * * There seem to be few human foibles into which you have not Intentionally, accidentally, foolishly, or unavoidably demonstrated. * * * * True perfection is impossible At all but the most essential level. Question the assumptions of any ideal. * * * * The routine of day after day after day Can be both exhausting and enlightening. * * * * At some point, all the collection of data requires a decision. No decision is, of course, one of the most likely selections. * * * * It’s an interactive universe. * * * * The world was doing just fine Before humankind wandered along. One day, in the relativity of geographical time, Signs of our vain presence will have long since evaporated. * * * * A little ignorance goes a long way. * * * * Passivity versus aggression is an irony About which humanity has much to learn. * * * * What is wisdom without foolishness? * * * * Any extreme runs the risk of addiction. * * * * Left requires right, odd-even, coarse-fine. One is not, cannot be, without the other. * * * * You are what you are educated to be. * * * * By the thread of imagination, You wander the abyss. * * * * Rest assured that ultimate reality will be Long after your presence has evaporated. * * * * We are herd animals, social beings, Yet so competitive and limited by tribal views, That we seem unable to see the inherent commonality Of all life, all forms, no matter the nature. * * * * What melodrama we so willingly wade. * * * * That to which you react demarks the fate you travel. * * * * Be cautious that your loyalties are not naively misguided. * * * * Do you really need to know anything? Even your Self? * * * * How interesting that we fabricate glory From the hellish destruction of war. * * * * Pause and reflect as possible upon your true timelessness. It is the eternal liqueur in which you actually reside, A transcendent state if ever there was one. * * * * What would you do if there was no other To impress with your worth, or lack of it? * * * * To take anything personally is the vanity. * * * * So many believe there really is something to become, Yet such a minority are truly interested in or able to discern That the answer to all seeking is simple, profound awareness. * * * * Every possible distraction Is planted within the maze of time. One must disregard all to discern clearly. * * * * When you see all this and gaze back Into the many perceptions of your dream, What a girder-ridden, complex edifice it all is. So preposterous, and the same time so binding. As long as the body-mind continues to function, One has little choice but to breath in and out The ceaseless mirages of manifest reality. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Stillness Before Time (Compendium) © Michael J. Holshouser 2009 World Rights Reserved