Chapter 21 - The Stillness Before Time (Compendium)


XXI

These many random thoughts are for those
Who have the intelligence, the strength, the desire,
To manifest wisdom, righteousness and truth,
The potential that resides within all.

* * * *
Coin whatever words you will,
They are ever nothing more than tokens
To a state, a quality of beingness
That cannot be counterfeited.

* * * *
Who does the killer kill,
The thief pilfer,
The rapist rape,
The liar deceive,
The torturer torture,
But themselves in another form?

* * * *
Now has you forever.

* * * *
It is you, you trickster.
You, you, you, ever again.

* * * *
You must dredge the mind deeply
To be clear of its confusion.

* * * *
At first dust is just dust.
Then it is not dust.
Then it is dust again,
And then you wipe it off the table.

* * * *
Across time that distant voice in the wilderness
Can still be heard within you:
I am that I am.

* * * *
Better that reunion with your true state be filled
With merriment, laughter, good will and playfulness.
There are times to be serious, but be somewhat cautious,
For too much seriousness can so easily lead
To divisiveness and aggrandizement.

* * * *
Your mind is the fiery forge
Through which you shape your heart.

* * * *
Here you are, godness, experiencing mortality.
How is it?

* * * *
Compassion is the fruit of understanding.

* * * *
In seeking the truth
You must someday fathom
That its fabric is you.

* * * *
You are the divine mirage-maker.

* * * *
You see it, therefore it is.

* * * *
Words like these can bind you
If you are not discerning enough
To see they do not exist.

* * * *
We have lost faith in leaders and heroes because over and over again
So many have to their own ends used, abused and manipulated our trust.

* * * *
Are you a cynic, or merely a realist?

* * * *
Deceiving yourself is the worst offense.

* * * *
Always give opponents a way out.
Tigers do not take well to corners.

* * * *
All attempts to be invulnerable
In this mortal frame are futile.

* * * *
Give it back
To the oblivion
From whence it came.
Take no credit for any of it.

* * * *
Stop trying to fit into this definition or that.
Nothing can ever define the real you.

* * * *
From unmanifest, awareness.
From awareness, consciousness.
From consciousness, your identity.
And beyond that, the unmanifest.

* * * *
Every problem usually boils down
To one attachment or another.

* * * *
Faith is not a fearful act of contrition.
It is the timeless knowing of eternal intuition.

* * * *
Sink in to the silence of no other.

* * * *
Serve god as clay would the sculptor,
But know that you are ever Self.

* * * *
Rekindle all the goodness and innocence you knew as a child.
If childhood was taken away too early to remember,
Find a few children willing to teach you.

* * * *
Fools know they are neither the disguise nor the act.

* * * *
So much taking.
What do you give in return?

* * * *
Discipline need not be torturous.

* * * *
Read between the words, between the lines
In as many ways as your mind can fathom.

* * * *
There is no string long enough
To plumb the depths of this mystery.

* * * *
You are burst upon time.

* * * *
Commit to everything and nothing.

* * * *
The limits of mind
Are unlimited imagination.

* * * *
Nothing distinct in the reality of truth.

* * * *
Must the soul be bound
Buy the body’s suffering?

* * * *
Humanity, not really much bigger than ants,
Crawls about, feeds and clothes the body, completes tasks,
Builds dwellings and pathways, exercises mating rituals, customs and wars,
All the while thinking itself so important to the welfare of the universe.
God will surely save us for we are humble and deserving
Of a better fate than we have chosen to create.

* * * *
Submerge a bottle of water beneath the ocean's surface.
What separates it is the container, but once the bottle disappears
When was it never not that which it apparently is?

* * * *
Bright or dull, reality is.
All value is the same sand.

* * * *
The self-imagery you concoct, you are not.

* * * *
We delude ourselves believing
That we learn anything from history
Other than how to slaughter one another
More efficiently in as many ways as possible.

* * * *
Even the most valiant warrior
Must someday submit to mortal nature.

* * * *
Little do you realize that hell
Is not some far off harsh, future fate,
But the here-now you in isolation create.
And that heaven is that same space
But wherein you see your Self
Well past the human race.

* * * *
The only difference possible between right and wrong is you.

* * * *
That you exist makes anything possible.

* * * *
It is that source within you must embrace.

* * * *
Some call it father, others mother.
It is both, yet neither
In this unfolding immaculate birthing.

* * * *
Of the billions of human beings who have lived,
How many have had the luxury of never knowing hunger,
Of a warm secure bed, clothing for any occasion,
And material wealth far beyond need?

* * * *
The most glaring timber in anyone's eye
Is that it is they who are doing anything at all.

* * * *
Indeed, among all the traps the mind may weave,
Playing sage poses the most subtle vanity of all.

* * * *
How many project their vanity upon god.

* * * *
Sooner or later it all passes before you.

* * * *
What does education imply
But passing on the same mindset
Which created what life must now endure?

* * * *
Personal codes, principles, rules of order, laws of any sort.
How inevitable that the discerning buzzer sounds
And the resolutely insightful cane pulls
Self-righteous moralists off their vain stages.

* * * *
The mind can be like quicksand,
Ever clutching, tugging at your feet
In whatever direction you are least wary.

* * * *
Vanity, vanity, at every turn vanity.
Ahh, such a crafty coyote residing within,
All for dust and ashes, both the beginning and end.

* * * *
Any expectation or hope that humanity will change
To some more insightful route anytime soon
Is a grievous jaunt for any idealist.

* * * *
Many terms are used herein to describe that which is indescribable,
Yet no word can ever capture, much less tame it.

* * * *
How far are we from that moment when all can freely comprehend
That they are players united of the same harmonic dream?
How long must fear and ignorance continue?

* * * *
It is not easy to suddenly be told you are it
When you have been conditioned your entire life
To believe that someone else knows better than you.

* * * *
Face with courage and compassion the life you have sewn.

* * * *
Your relationship with totality
Is even now unfolding within.

* * * *
Unless they deny all help,
Abandon none who are capable
Of finding that seed within.

* * * *
We have all lived our lives discovering
In every way what it is to be a human being.
You must forgive yourself for the errors you have felt
And till that soil which has ever been and will ever be perfection.

* * * *
To judge another is to play a most unenlightened way.

* * * *
The body is a seething bag of chemistry,
The interactions which each must face alone.
Some lessons are, indeed, very difficult.

* * * *
Philosophy not culminating in an awareness beyond time
Is like an eternal game of chess lost to stalemate.

* * * *
Fool, madman, sage, who can tell?
For their words also come from that well.

* * * *
If you cannot stop and laugh at yourself,
Take a close look at your state of identity.

* * * *
How many become so solemn and serious
When switching into so-called spiritual mode,
As if being the light is separate from daily living.

* * * *
Until you seek the reconciliation of all forms,
Of all mythos, you cannot traverse unity.

* * * *
Lighten up.
Literally and figuratively.

* * * *
Whether you like or dislike thoughts of yourself
Becomes immaterial once you see your ultimate nature.

* * * *
Do you ever watch why you seek recognition?
Anonymity within is your ultimate state,
But it is the drive to become more
Which creates the wheel of suffering
Upon which you go round and round again.

* * * *
What we have done to this world across the board
Makes Rome's lead pipes seem like a harmless prank.

* * * *
You live at the level of mortal existence
Which you unconsciously or consciously choose.
Whether it be pagan, worldly, saint or sage,
It is ever the choice of the manifest I am.

* * * *
Real religion is the dance of mortality.
It is every aspect of daily living as each of us knows it.
Physical manifestation is both grand and mundane, joyful and sorrowful.
It is an opportunity to understand and embrace to your capacity.

* * * *
These words tinker with the destiny of humanity.

* * * *
Do not take the body so seriously.
It has never been what you really are.

* * * *
There is no one who can forgive you
For all your trespasses but yourself.

* * * *
Proclaiming your god nature means
That you are the same stuff of godness,
That god awareness is your potential.

* * * *
Life finds many ways to challenge any heart.
Do the best you can without regrets.
No matter what you may do,
You are ever perfection.

* * * *
Armageddon is merely a predictable juggernaut
Born of the inertia of humanity's dualistic synergy.

* * * *
Fate cannot be denied.
To one conclusion or another,
All must surrender a lifetime of process.

* * * *
Just another day in the madhouse.
And are you the sanest or the craziest.
Hard to say, hard to say.

* * * *
What is the point of being bound
To any school of thought?

* * * *
Though there have been many
Who have seen there is no mountain,
There are really no tracks for you to follow.
You must forge your own pathless path.

* * * *
What need for a guru
When your entire universe
Requires only undivided attention
To teach you everything.

* * * *
An aphorism is a mystic’s poetry.

* * * *
Every birth a new world, a new universe,
A new creation, a new genesis, a new backyard.
Nothing new under the sun, except you.

* * * *
Take reasonable care of your body
In the same mindful way you do your vehicle:
Change the oil, fill up with good gas,
Put it through the paces.
A no-brainer.

* * * *
A curious thing how hatred
Generates such creatively destructive energy.
And even more curious is how those who least understand their passion
Invoke so much suffering upon those who least deserve it.

* * * *
Personality is akin
To the shape of a wind-blown tree,
To the restricting ruts in a path wandered to and fro.
The predicable result of all the narcissism that our kind inevitably fosters,
And so often believe real to the end … and beyond.


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