CCXVII
Call it faith, call it knowing, call it what you will.
When that separation you have felt for so long is done,
The you you really are becomes clearly that which is.
* * * *
Hatred is an isolating intensity
Which feeds on its angry mindless path
Like a cartoon snowball does a mountainside.
All introspection is lost and the mind
Becomes the ferocity known
Within the most ancient creatures,
A reality difficult to consciously unravel.
* * * *
Relearn that which children know
And for which it is we they may thank
For that which you must now again sow.
* * * *
There is only one lifetime that counts.
This one.
Make the best of it.
Find your way home.
* * * *
Smile, you coyote trickster,
It is you, ever you, and you alone
Who has manufactured this inane game.
So enjoy it while you may,
For to its mortal ending
You will soon enough succumb.
* * * *
Fascinating how ancient sages
Are used to whatever scholarly ends
Can be molded into a more current scam.
* * * *
Can it end anyway but confusion?
* * * *
Much easier to be romantic
With someone you really care for.
* * * *
Like a string of pearls,
Time is ever the same now
Sustained by the eternal mystery.
* * * *
Mind was created to explore
The play of light in whatever way
Imagination may choose.
* * * *
What becomes of the harmony of duality?
* * * *
The separation of church and state allows humanity license
To avoid weighing political and economic decisions
With long range ramifications on the whole.
* * * *
Once you lock yourself into a narrowing competitive mode,
You become more isolated and deprive yourself the opportunity
For real fellowship with the diversity this world offers.
* * * *
It is this garden world, this life which each of us must make work.
Feeding just what we consider ours continues it hellish nature.
Feeding all things in spirit is the transformation into heaven.
Such a simple paradigm, but somehow each must transcend
The desire and fear that has brought us to this challenging time.
* * * *
Elitism in any form creates caste discrimination.
All parts in this diverse play are equally important.
Without the little people, the people who make it go,
The rich and powerful would be without a game.
* * * *
Real religion deals with the untainted whole,
Not vested interests or single-issue views.
* * * *
How many mystics have seen through drugs?
* * * *
Bask in the nakedness of pure, untrammeled Soul.
* * * *
Courage takes much practice.
* * * *
In fairy tales the couple only dances.
Who washes and mops after the party?
* * * *
So much, so little.
* * * *
If you look really close, that body
In which you invest so much vanity
Is really just an alien encampment.
* * * *
If you discern you are really,
No matter the size, god’s equal,
What fear of wrath is left?
* * * *
Who ever tells you a booger’s
Leaning out your nose?
* * * *
He already returned and was killed
At the wrong end of a bayonet
When he was three.
* * * *
Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.
Again and again.
* * * *
Desire, fear, anger and sorrow are signposts
That you are not giving enough attention
To either your thoughts or your breathing.
* * * *
A little anticipation is rarely unwise.
* * * *
It does not matter what is playing at the theater
When you realize you are the projector.
* * * *
The most effective caring is in the day to day
Wherever you are, whatever you do.
* * * *
The gist of it is everything and nothing.
Played out each and every timeless moment.
* * * *
That life which you grieve for was never born.
* * * *
Look at your face and body from the inside.
What are those senses anyway?
* * * *
What appears real is a short-haul proposition.
What is real has never not been.
* * * *
You are raised to participate in this world,
To prove your worth to your family,
Friends, acquaintances and even strangers.
Yet in reality you need prove nothing to anyone.
You are free to live your life as you alone will.
* * * *
Believing this world is real
Is the source of all suffering.
* * * *
That need for approval from others is a strong psychological urge.
It is the longing for wholeness muddled by duality's divisiveness.
* * * *
Just as the ocean has always been, so has its surface.
The drop is not without its appearance.
* * * *
How vicious we are with animals
In the arrogance of scientific research.
Would you do the same to your children?
* * * *
There is only one religion.
Its source is in your heart.
* * * *
Wherever you are you are.
Resistance fans the fires of suffering.
* * * *
Take responsibility for your life
To the capacity you are able.
* * * *
The garden did not disappear.
You just stopped seeing it.
* * * *
What to do with all this gibberish
But let it unfurl in the windstorm of time,
To what end only imagination allows.
* * * *
Melt the heart
As butter caught in flame.
* * * *
On fire, the words come unbidden,
Unsought, to the receptive scribe.
One’s life, the only true teacher.
* * * *
How can one explain divine madness?
Ignorance is deaf to any but false truth.
* * * *
The jewelry into which you have been shaped
Is not the gold you are.
* * * *
The only thing personal about god
Is your speculated projection.
* * * *
Though there is no way,
I am is.
* * * *
To seek godness is the highest goal.
To see past godness the final destiny.
* * * *
Wisdom happens.
It is not a commodity bought and sold.
* * * *
When ego is finally ready for totality,
The encasing chrysalis of consciousness
Is like a seed bursting from the ground,
A bud blossoming into full flower.
* * * *
So many want to change the world,
Not understand why it is the way it is,
Or what it actually is.
Confusion only creates more confusion.
* * * *
Few allow all diversity without judgment.
And who is worthy of judgeship?
Who is without sin to cast the first stone?
Self-righteousness is a heavy and false load to bear.
* * * *
All the labels you paste on your consciousness
Paint your life into a corner of your own choosing.
They are like a security blanket that secures nothing.
* * * *
No matter what material spiritualism you veil yourself in,
If any sense of smugness, of vain superiority
Continues residence within,
The only one you really fool is yourself.
* * * *
if you cannot find the courage,
You may well know the regret.
* * * *
Whether by calculated shearing or fire’s roar,
Any garden overgrown must someday be trimmed.
* * * *
Love all forms equally detached.
* * * *
What an art
To not letting people know you have no memory
Of ever having talked to them before.
* * * *
What of the uncompassionate Buddha?
* * * *
Excesses today set limits tomorrow.
* * * *
All the games of religion
Continue to play to vanity's many faces.
This is not about costumes, masks or other ornate trivia.
* * * *
That structure of identity you carry in your head
Must be shattered and swept away
To be that beyond known.
* * * *
This world would not be what it is
If humanity were content.
Discontent foments injustice.
* * * *
We all make it up as we go.
It is all unrehearsed.
It need not be because we are all
Playing our perceived parts so believably well.
* * * *
Probably the most important things in your life
Are tethered firmly to your vanity.
* * * *
Many great teachers left your temples long ago.
What makes you think they would ever return?
* * * *
With all the seductions Maya creates,
It is most challenging to be in the world and not be of it.
* * * *
Your mythos may not accept it,
But there is no heavenly dictate denying freedom.
* * * *
Never let someone's else's law dictate your own.
* * * *
Can you abide in this world of mystery
Without destroying it so unnecessarily.
Can you become a gardener of Eden?
* * * *
The body's chemical concoctions
Can be notoriously good at what they do.
* * * *
The object exists because the subject does,
Because the senses believe the play
Unfolding in your imagination.
* * * *
How can you feel sorry for yourself
When what you think you are was never real?
* * * *
The ideal relationship for many
Might well be with themselves in another's body.
Your desire for love is the serenity you must find within yourself.
* * * *
Hope for a better time
Is generally distraction from the pain now.
* * * *
You get born and for the rest of your life
Maintenance of the body, submission and resistance
To the countless pleasures and pains it offers,
Is your chief occupation and interest.
* * * *
You are the unmanifest awareness in conscious form
Born into whatever circumstance the pattern has dictated.
Discern the common lessons obvious in each and every part
Of this infinite mysterious dreamy manifest whole.
* * * *
To those who have experienced material wealth at any given level,
What have you learned from its subtle or glaring teaching?
How tightly do you clench your fist?
* * * *
How do to take this world?
As something vitally important in itself?
Or as a sandbox from which to learn from whence you came?
Perhaps both.
* * * *
What a silly show so many make of their birthright.
Vanity over what has never not been
Is such a misdirected path.
* * * *
Where are then and when but now?
* * * *
To smugly label yourself this or that:
Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Taoist, Shintoist,
Hindu, Confucianist, Rastafarian or ad infinitum what you will,
Is so much pandering to meaningless vanity.
* * * *
What have you ever known that lasts?
What have you ever seen that remains the same?
What have you ever grasped which has not slipped away?
What have you ever claimed which has been possible to maintain?
* * * *
Enlightenment is seeing you are greater than the part.
Liberation is unconditionally embracing the whole.
* * * *
Sometimes you must surrender
To time and circumstances beyond your control.
The flexible continue.
* * * *
You may live long or die young.
Is long short or short long?
* * * *
I give you nothing.
Do with it what you will.
* * * *
How embarrassing to play this role.
How ridiculous anyone has to.
* * * *
Who musters anything but mystery
From the infinity within?
* * * *
If your sense of balance and bearing
Is totally warped from the beginning,
How can you ever hope to regain it?
To lose touch with the natural rhythm.
Is to be blinded to fundamental reality.
* * * *
DNA ha the potential to throw dice
An incalculable array of permutations.
* * * *
Can you look into another's eyes
With nothing but affection?
* * * *
The union of mind may be described
In many ways with various conclusions,
But its reality is ever the same.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)
© Michael J. Holshouser 2009
World Rights Reserved