XCII
You
cannot change a pattern
Until
you want, or are forced to,
And
even then it is a tough show.
* * * *
Life’s
choices are more akin
To
wandering through a funnel
Than an
infinite set of possibilities.
Hardly
this vain notion we call free will.
* * * *
Over-consumption
creates an inevitable future.
* * * *
Why
live in fear of that which
You aid
fully in creating?
* * * *
If you
want to change something,
Change
the paradigm.
* * * *
A brief
dream in which you cannot do more than long.
* * * *
Where
to go once every assumption
Is
exposed to question?
One
becomes very still, very silent
In the
facelessness of the inevitable answer.
* * * *
It is
the highest science.
* * * *
You
deal with relationship
One
moment at a time.
* * * *
No
thing is forever.
* * * *
The
only reason these writings have been penned
Is
because of your self-taught discipline as a writer.
* * * *
See
what an education can do.
Kind of
scary, isn’t it?
* * * *
How
silly that so many believe heaven
Is
somehow patterned after all humanity’s
Vain
petty and insignificant hierarchies.
* * * *
What is
life but an opportunity
To
enjoy and suffer your creation.
* * * *
Did
what happen?
* * * *
Great
oceans are built with tiny drops.
Great
mountains with tiny grains of sand.
Great
universes with tiny iotas of matter.
Put it
together and what have you got
But
you?
* * * *
Some
follow because they cannot stand alone.
Other
cannot follow because they cannot stand but alone.
* * * *
Children
are very much in the present
Because
they have no baggage to contend with.
* * * *
Whoness,
Whatness,
Whereness,
Whenness,
Whyness,
Howness.
* * * *
The
form is only as useful as the user.
* * * *
Pray
tell, what is there we have not done,
Seen
done, or thought about doing?
* * * *
From one,
all.
Far too
many to count,
Despite
countless vain attempts.
* * * *
Organized
religion is as contradictory as military intelligence.
Co-opting
wisdom does not for truth make.
* * * *
They
hedge their bets by praying Sunday service
Will
turn aside their six days of hypocrisy.
* * * *
As long
as you don’t step on my toes.
* * * *
The
problem with hero worship
Is that
close scrutiny so often
Calls
the assumption into question,
And
then the duped followers get upset.
* * * *
Death.
The
final frontier.
* * * *
You
think godness
Will
want to play you forever?
Dream
on.
* * * *
Back
off occasionally
To
illuminate the landscape.
Charge
in to glean its subtle parts.
Challenge
and retreat, thrust and parry.
Fluid
like wind, like water, like fire.
* * * *
The
elements are teachers
For
students of life’s wisdom.
* * * *
Measure
everything as much
Or as
often as you might.
It
don’t mean squat .
* * * *
How
could it be if all possibilities
Were
not equally present?
* * * *
Sometimes
you wish you still wore
A
younger man’s clothes.
* * * *
Glory
is in the small,
Unacclaimed,
unspoken
Unrewarded
things.
* * * *
Humanity
really doesn’t see that it,
In
separation, is the devil it so fears.
* * * *
You
tell me I am not realistic,
And I
say there is much greater reality
Looming
ahead in a now yet to be perceived.
* * * *
How
amazing how all these words materialize
Upon
this tiny two-dimensional screen.
* * * *
Pleasure
you enjoy, pain you endure.
Flip
the coin again and again
Till
breath’s death do you part.
* * * *
Squash
a fly and know
You won
part, your own fate.
* * * *
How
vain to think you deserve more.
* * * *
Any
assumption can have far-reaching consequences.
* * * *
How
much do you put in your head
To call
yourself educated?
* * * *
It is as
it is
As it
has ever been
As it
will ever be.
* * * *
We
burden the unborn
With
our synergistic irresponsibility.
* * * *
Why do
so many require applause?
* * * *
What
would you do if a knock sounds in the middle of the night?
What
would you do if they came to put you in a boxcar
Whose
destination was shrouded by ashes?
How
passive are you to your fate?
* * * *
Harsh
winds calm, calm turns harsh.
Which
time is more interesting?
* * * *
How
many doors there are to open.
* * * *
Humanity
is just not as great as its vanity pretends.
* * * *
Take at
least a few moments each day
To
fathom some contentment, some serenity.
The
little tastes of the grace which is your potential.
* * * *
The big
lesson here is about who’s in charge.
A ship
cannot right itself unless it balances its reckoning
Within
the natural forces through which it tacks.
* * * *
Amazing
what lies we will believe.
* * * *
Holding
the universe together is a full time job.
* * * *
Words
can only convey what we all know.
* * * *
To be
an individual yet a participant,
Separate
yet indivisible, a part yet one with the whole
Is a
state of grace from which right action flows
As does
a healthy mountain spring.
* * * *
Alone
together.
* * * *
Your
wings are quickly melting
And you
are hurtling into the ground.
* * * *
How
much of your life
Has
been spent justifying
An
existence you did not ask for?
* * * *
Even
the harshest wind cannot touch a still mind.
* * * *
That
you might kill or die
To
possess a mountain of gold
Is an
intriguing set of values.
* * * *
Good
dogs mind.
* * * *
Free
the chi.
* * * *
What a
vast difference
Between
the conjured ought to be
And the
realistic way it is.
* * * *
Why be
concerned about impressing
Those
who see no further than the surface?
* * * *
Welcome
guests help keep the house clean.
* * * *
Those
who see bear the burden
Of
those who do not.
* * * *
A world
run by demons,
Some
even well-intentioned.
* * * *
Megalomania
to say you are godness,
Megalomania
to think you are not.
One big
Catch-22 paradox.
* * * *
Do you
come to terms with the world,
Or the
world to you?
* * * *
Try to
be easily amused.
Expectations
can turn one bitter.
* * * *
Why
deny yourself?
Moderation
allows all things.
* * * *
This is
your dream.
Spend
it whatever way you will.
* * * *
Humanity
cannot help be but what it is.
* * * *
Find
Eden within.
* * * *
More
energetic souls than you
Have
sought to change this mystery.
Yet has
anyone really changed anything?
* * * *
Make
plenty of friends
On your
way to the ovens.
* * * *
You
need justify nothing.
* * * *
Ride
the fence and see all sides.
* * * *
Does
one thing bring out another,
Or
another one thing.
* * * *
Once
you’ve gone beyond all form,
What
need for any flag?
* * * *
You
abide in the realm of possibilities.
* * * *
You are
the only one.
* * * *
For
these things you have a great memory.
* * * *
You
were born into the Chinese curse of interesting times.
Will
anything ever be uninteresting for humanity again?
* * * *
Whose
universe shall rule?
* * * *
Why
allow your confidence
To be
controlled by any other?
* * * *
The
world will never, can never
Give
you everything you want from it.
Deal
with it, get over it, get past it.
* * * *
Where
is the identity in an empty mind?
Without
attributes, what is existence?
* * * *
Clarity
comes with inner stillness.
* * * *
Less
rigorous is the road less traveled.
* * * *
What
was matters no more.
What
will be cannot be altered.
Fate
happens; you will complete it.
* * * *
Was it
never not so?
* * * *
A
speedy death
Is a
great opportunity
To
discover if you’re going
To wake
into some tomorrow.
* * * *
Once
you’ve seen the source,
What
can hold you?
* * * *
Does
being the outlet for some part
Some
peculiar portion of the play
Somehow
make you superior?
Every
part played is what
Entitles
you to yours.
* * * *
How
simple to ignore it.
* * * *
How
deluded we are that we would laugh
At
other creatures if they behave as we do.
* * * *
It
takes but a moment to create the universe anew.
* * * *
The
mind born of knowledge, a product of chaos,
Is the
creator of order’s temporal reality.
* * * *
Delusion
is a form of self-hypnosis.
* * * *
God
must be desperately lonely.
* * * *
Play to
the dream.
Complete
your solitary fate
In
whatever way you will.
* * * *
Face
after face sifts through
The
hourglass of eternity.
* * * *
Stardust,
clayness, essence.
All the
same implication.
* * * *
The
stain of time,
The
grit of personality,
The
smudge of awareness.
* * * *
Words
are so fallible.
* * * *
“Consumed
by their existence”
Might
read humanity’s tombstone epithet,
Were
the universe to even register our rumored existence.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The
Stillness Before Time (Compendium)
©
Michael J. Holshouser 2009
World
Rights Reserved