CCIII
Allow life to unfold in the pursuit of wisdom, not dogma.
* * * *
What power, fame and fortune
Can do to a soul
Is often not a pretty sight.
* * * *
What a strange thing, ambition.
* * * *
Greed is rarely charitable to the welfare
Of the many dreams yet to come.
* * * *
Assume this is your last life.
That way, you are more inclined
To avoid muddying it up with regrets.
* * * *
Sometimes you have to slap someone,
Figuratively, of course,
To get their undivided attention.
* * * *
Zen cowboy.
* * * *
Is happiness really any more real than sorrow?
More pleasurable, but still just sensory in nature.
* * * *
There is only one Way.
From it, all dreams spring.
* * * *
An ancient tree is seemingly set in its rigid time-bound form,
Yet its essential nature is as free as madly rushing water.
* * * *
Even god cannot possess illusion.
* * * *
More words in a world with too many already.
The upshot of a mind whose purpose is unknown.
* * * *
The field of consciousness
Permits every dream its play.
Glory and defeat comes and goes,
And as the field was before,
It will be long after.
* * * *
No thing truly changes.
* * * *
There is no other before you,
Nor will there be another after.
* * * *
Assertions that it is this or that, or not this or that,
Must be understood with an eye of discernment.
* * * *
Those who delve resolutely into the original nature
Will each have their time of awakening in one place or another.
It may be in the arid isolation of a desert, or beneath a massive ancient tree.
It may be upon a mountain, beside a river, or well beyond the waves.
It may be in the ebb and flow of a gridlocked commute,
Or the bedlam of a fierce battlefield.
Wherever or whenever it may come to pass,
It will be the unwavering vision of the essential reality,
And all those so blessed are ever consecrated
In the absoluteness of its eternal purity.
* * * *
If it is without beginning or end,
Where is there time for birth and death?
Where is there anything but the eternal nowness?
Where is there anything but the infinite indivisible nature?
The grand theater is but a dream, a lightshow to which empty words
Are filled with vain importance for each dreaming to perceive and transcend.
* * * *
Be a light unto thy Self.
* * * *
There is no going back.
* * * *
Again and again the veil deceives you.
* * * *
No end is known.
* * * *
Where are you when doubt ceases and questions end?
* * * *
Humility happens naturally
As personal existence is discerned ultimately unreal,
And insight into what is true fills the container
With the ground of nothing special.
* * * *
What is there to argue about but distinctions
That fade quickly in the stillness of eternity.
* * * *
Even god wants a buck now and then for a cup of joe.
* * * *
It takes time to erase all doubt,
But when doubt is gone,
Will there be time?
* * * *
Truth is hidden within the sands of time.
Most wander the shoreline dunes,
Never seeing that reality
Is ever-present,
No matter
The time and space
* * * *
Time is the quantification of the mind.
* * * *
Just sharing a vision.
Make of it what you will.
* * * *
All that really matters is in this life
Is that you were chosen to be a witness
To the veil of your sensory allotment.
Anatomy is, indeed, one’s destiny.
* * * *
Integration within brings about integrity without.
* * * *
Purpose and meaning
Is whatever consciousness
Makes of the choices it is given.
* * * *
Looking ahead, it’s free will.
Looking back, it’s fate.
* * * *
Any way you might look at it,
It’s really a very brief dream.
* * * *
To see the immeasurable,
You must be immeasurable.
* * * *
Most find it challenging not to take one side or another,
To entertain all facets, and at the same time none.
* * * *
You cannot know the unknown,
Only become it.
* * * *
Death wraps up another busy year.
* * * *
The only now there is, ever was, or ever will be.
* * * *
Neither alive nor dead,
The eternal essence is without attachment
To any play of light or sound.
* * * *
The stillness of the nothingness
Is the unutterable solitude.
* * * *
So simple
That you must surrender everything
To discern it.
* * * *
What a mystery the voice
That articulates so many languages,
Devises so many universes
In so many minds.
From the same fabric,
So many differences woven.
* * * *
Let it be.
* * * *
You are not a dreamer,
You are a dreaming.
* * * *
Don’t let language bind your thinking.
* * * *
Solomon had it much easier
Compared to the insanity we suffer
Only a few millennium later.
Humanity is on trial,
Facing a harsh judgment
Of unavoidable consequences.
* * * *
Enjoy the timeless beingness.
It is really the most precious gift
With which you are endowed.
* * * *
Merely a matter of convenience, comfort and security.
* * * *
Don’t allow cynicism to mold you bitter.
Find your inner smile, for, truly,
It is far too amusing
To endure too seriously.
* * * *
Inside each of us is forever young,
But it is wrinkles and gray
We must play
At the end of the day.
* * * *
How to give your all
And remain detached
Is an imposing challenge
Discern the effortless effort
That abides in every moment.
* * * *
By whatever course this mortal dream has been reached,
To even begin discerning the realized nature is a daunting task,
But to attain unconditional liberation, to be free of the imaginary prison,
To move beyond all attachment for the offerings of the sensory manifest realm,
That is, indeed, a pathless path only the rare are destined to journey.
* * * *
Freedom is when birth and death, creation and destruction,
Meld into the unborn awareness of the eternal nowness,
When all sense of otherness dissolves into oblivion.
* * * *
To wait for some indicator of god
Is to miss out on the fact
That you have been
The unitary movement
Through your entire existence.
No sanction from any other is required.
* * * *
Care if you wish,
But also feel free not to,
If that is your choice.
* * * *
Life, it’ll kill you,
But it’ll drive you crazy first.
* * * *
The ocean is just water at the lowest point gravity will allow.
* * * *
And what, pray tell, would be the point of doing that?
* * * *
The belief systems of organized religions,
Are founded upon societal conditioning,
And anything founded upon brainwashing
Rarely has little, if anything, to do with reality.
* * * *
You are all and none,
The eternal oneness
Witnessing the creation
Of the dusty storm forming.
* * * *
All worldly pursuits are for amusement only.
The ebb and flow of birth and death
Are the proof that nothing
Should be taken too seriously.
* * * *
History is just a long play.
* * * *
Fairytales and imaginary friends are not reality.
* * * *
The I who I really am will never leave you.
The body, the mind, the personality,
Is doomed as are all forms.
* * * *
Serve your illusion as faithfully as you can.
* * * *
More to forget.
* * * *
Any given piece of paper
Is really only as functional
As the person who earns it.
* * * *
Consciousness can only witness itself.
Imagination cannot grasp
What it is incapable of grasping.
* * * *
From known to unknown,
Alone you must journey.
* * * *
Why are so many so insecure
As to believe others should want
To embrace their purpose meaning?
* * * *
How did you ever convince yourself
That the impermanency of space-time
Will ever bring about anything forever?
* * * *
I seek those who seek me.
* * * *
Would it even occur to oneness
That there were two or more
Without the reflection
Created by light?
* * * *
As a fish returns upstream
To its birthing ground to spawn,
So does the sage to insight to know.
* * * *
Passion cannot exist without time.
* * * *
How arduous to remain in the world,
To take a step without a sense of greater good.
What delusion so steadfastly blinds you to the wholeness?
* * * *
To think only of you and yours
Is to remain deaf and blind
To the reality of all life forms.
* * * *
Let the taint of dualistic notion
Wash away from its unconscious domain
And the jewel of eternity will shine brightly within.
* * * *
The Song of Godness is for all to hear.
* * * *
Complexity and strife is the unconscious path.
If we cannot discern harmony within our minds,
How can we ever put away the tools of destruction?
* * * *
Many play the game of ideals,
But have no intent of bringing them to fruition.
Why the pretense?
* * * *
The order of anarchy creates a democracy of spirit.
* * * *
These thoughts are a gift.
To evoke the virtue of Eden
Within all born to see.
* * * *
If you believe them,
Labels, like flypaper,
Are difficult to pry off.
* * * *
The grace of serenity is a state of being.
* * * *
In any play there is a collusion of actors
Working toward some synergistic conclusion.
What ending will this human tale play out?
* * * *
That’s exactly the point.
* * * *
Detachment takes a lifetime of practice.
* * * *
Living for recognition
Is like walking around
With sand in your mouth.
* * * *
Is it me?
Is it you?
Is it anyone in particular,
Really?
* * * *
If you are open to all possibilities,
Where is there need for judgment?
* * * *
What is life but a series of sound bytes,
To which you may succumb or ignore.
* * * *
Revenge is the elixir of hate.
* * * *
Be free of all judgment
Of yourself or any other.
* * * *
Unclench your mind.
Sweep away the ruts.
Sew the seed of eternity.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)
© Michael J. Holshouser 2009
World Rights Reserved