Chapter 158 - The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)


CLVIII

Why we even bother pretending
The tsunami of human greed,
Negligence, delusion and stupidity
Can be turned around is beyond laughable.
All the words mean diddly-squat.
Pity the future.

* * * *
The manifest realm requires a selfishness to survive.
Just how selfish is an issue for free will to determine.

* * * *
Objectivity is the cornerstone of science
Which crumbles like an Egyptian mummy
Upon the slightest serious examination.

* * * *
Know your mind as no other.

* * * *
Once you know beyond doubt
That you are that which is godness,
You see that all other things must be as well.

* * * *
Free will has blinded you to your origin.

* * * *
Turn around the microscopes and telescopes,
And gaze deeply into your own eye.

* * * *
Pleasure is tempered by many painful boundaries.

* * * *
(sic)

* * * *
The highest high is god-awareness,
And even that doesn’t really exist.

* * * *
Since life’s origin, all creatures have
Grappled with each other in countless ways,
But humanity’s assault on Mother Nature,
The adjudicator of this realm’s law,
Is very, very foolish, indeed.

* * * *
As still as death, aware.

* * * *
The mystery is how you’ve survived this long.
So many close brushes with the Reaper.

* * * *
An experience,
Tasted even just once,
Is won for eternity.

* * * *
You swore you’d never forget,
And, of course, promptly did.

* * * *
Religion is really a mockery of god.

* * * *
Without history you are what you are.

* * * *
Life is about shoveling it in and shitting it out.

* * * *
The whole world,
The whole universe,
Is one huge back yard.
Everything is connected.

* * * *
You do what you are,
And you are what you do.

* * * *
The changing sameness.

* * * *
Civilization requires a level of empathy to function smoothly.

* * * *
Imagine the farthest reaches of the universe,
And you end up right where you are.

* * * *
The only real practice
Is not getting attached
To all your thoughts.

* * * *
When you deny or destroy the diversity of all life,
You separate yourself from the divinity of your origin.

* * * *
Anticipation of times to come,
And guilt regarding times gone by,
The many ways we to choose to suffer
Are well beyond counting.

* * * *
To own the wealth of godness,
You must swim the gold of Soul.

* * * *
Do not be deceived by any mask.
They are all you
Playing out myriad forms.

* * * *
Your pain is no different than any other’s.

* * * *
You think you have a part in this play,
But where is the boundary that makes you distinct
But the attachment born of imagination.

* * * *
If you deny the devil, you deny your Self.

* * * *
Be your own prophet
And partake the good news
Of the oneness in which all diversity
Roams in aimless wonder.

* * * *
You cannot prove time truly exists.
There is no space-time continuum,
Only a space-time collusion.

* * * *
Caesar’s gold is sand.

* * * *
You are that which is I am.

* * * *
Set aside your senses.
Sit quietly and let the boundaries of the body
Dissolve into the infinity of totality.

* * * *
It does not matter on iota
The means by which
You come to this understanding.

* * * *
A ladder’s just a ladder.

* * * *
How can you still be content if you want?

* * * *
As long as the human mind wants so much,
We will ceaselessly charge the cliffs of self-destruction.
We much unlearn our discontent if we wish our seed to continue.

* * * *
Attachment to any one school of thought
Assures your continuing limitation.

* * * *
You will endure separation
As long as you cling to denial.
* * * *
All you know is your own
Or another’s speculation.

* * * *
Whatever distinctions you may fabricate
In the trek to the ultimate vision,
Are all equally illusory.

* * * *
So many think their version of god
Is more real or better than anyone else’s,
That there is some sort of contest
And the most determined
Will be the heaven-bound winner.

* * * *
Rapture over personality is pointless distraction.

* * * *
Each will have their own version of the way,
But it is the same way nonetheless.

* * * *
Are you sure what you heard is what was said?

* * * *
What happens when imagination ends?

* * * *
Who are you to deny another’s reality?

* * * *
The myriad forms will not cease to confuse you
Until you see them within their ultimate context.

* * * *
You cannot hear these words
Until your are empty enough to be receptive.
A full container cannot acquire that for which it has no space.

* * * *
Your universe is an arbitrary set of assumptions
From which you observe and judge all others.

* * * *
You are a beach for an ocean of air.

* * * *
The power to control
Uncensored by wisdom and compassion
Fosters endless cycles of self-absorption and its resulting hell.

* * * *
The inability to say “No” to indulgence and gratification,
Declares a paucity of insight, fortitude and self-discipline.

* * * *
To be vulnerable,
And at the same time
Fully participate in the theater
Is as challenging as it gets.

* * * *
Of the five senses dancing about in the mind,
The visual aspect is the most divisive,
The greatest cause of illusion.

* * * *
Any given demon can get so far from goodness,
That he forgets how simple it is to get home.

* * * *
You may be able to kill yourself,
But you can never kill your Self.

* * * *
The other you try so hard to please is you.

* * * *
You will find completion in your aloneness.

* * * *
To discover what you truly are,
You must die to time.

* * * *
Seek that from which all gods are born.

* * * *
You have created your version of the universe,
And still are not satisfied?

* * * *
Swig the eternal vintage.
It is a priceless drink.

* * * *
The irony is that so many believe
Their worship of some idol is really holy union
When in reality they are still pointing away from themselves,
Continuing their dualistic, isolating context.

* * * *
All is one,
Everything and none.

* * * *
There are prophets everywhere,
But seeing them is the trick.

* * * *
The space prior to concept
Is
Without conceptual foundation.

* * * *
We are all very much alone together.

* * * *
Words such as these will touch you
As you are ready to be touched.
Though they may seem
Very general,
You will ultimately
Find them quite specific.

* * * *
Insight into this dance of personal and impersonal
Is merely transforming consciousness
Into that which it is not.

* * * *
Eternal salvation is not what you think.
It is that which is prior to time and space,
Prior to the play of consciousness.
It is the surrender to godness
And the illusory dream
From which all blossoms.

* * * *
Trust that the body will fall off in one fashion or another,
That birth, life and death are merely appearances
Temporarily cloaking that which is real.

* * * *
How enticing imagination
Until you grow weary
Of its time bound nature.

* * * *
Meditation is consciousness examining itself
Until it dissolves into simple awareness.

* * * *
Violence is born of the desire to survive
Magnified by the mind’s insatiable greed.

* * * *
All these thoughts vaporize once the eternal is realized.

* * * *
An aphoristic elixir for all thirsting essence.

* * * *
Allow time to do what time does.

* * * *
What will the future say of this time?

* * * *
You could certainly argue
That if this time doesn’t consume it,
The future undoubtedly will.

* * * *
Would you want what you’re doing to that stranger
To happen to you or someone you cherish?

* * * *
Don’t recall you asking if I cared.

* * * *
Even Jesus wasn’t Jesus.

* * * *
Very little intelligence goes a long way in this world.

* * * *
Can’t sell you what you don’t want.

* * * *
What’s it like having your head up your ass?

* * * *
All glory is really quite insignificant.

* * * *
Sometimes the doctor gives it to them
Whether they want it or not.

* * * *
The continuity which seams real.

* * * *
Life is complete
When you wouldn’t trade lives
With anyone.

* * * *
Seamless but for our minds.

* * * *
The good news is not dogmatic.
It is the free-flowing nature of the universe
As perceived by each and every one
In an amazing spiritual play
Playing out a spontaneous design.

* * * *
In meditation, consciousness subsides;
Identity and conditioning dissolve into awareness.
Thought’s return plays out the same attributes,
But perhaps with a little less attachment.

* * * *
The jewel sees all its facets,
Siding with all and none.

* * * *
You were born of the light,
But are that which is prior
To its shimmering nature.

* * * *
If you believe the universal nature
Requires the play of consciousness,
You had better re-evaluate your position.
Sand shifts quickly in this light-bound play.

* * * *
The personal sense of identity is bound up
In perceptions concocted by the trick of memory.
Only when experience becomes experiencing,
When time ends, when the now flows within,
When the mind halts all attempts to grasp
The vapor which can never be grasped,
Only then can one begin to fathom
The ubiquitous, eternal essence
Permeating every particle
Of this ephemeral play
Of time and space.

* * * *
Wilting flesh tends to diminish one’s craving.

* * * *
Play out whatever process you feel you must,
But realize that clinging to the changing
Is the source of all your suffering.

* * * *
Identification with thought is like flypaper,
And a fly that cannot fly is in deep shit.



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The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)
© Michael J. Holshouser 2009
World Rights Reserved