Righteous

I found myself carrying a two-ton weight.
Proud. Justified. Righteous.
Righteous defined: "A weak man carrying a heavy treasure
that turns out to be worthless."
The mighty belief that I know what should unfold.
So tempting, and strangely, finding an
Unending spark to convince myself.

So great if you think I'm right too.
But it leads to
A modern Sisyphus,
Forever rolling the great weight
up to heaven for
An imagined pat on the head.

The only remedy I see is to
notice that under all that righteous air
That seems so solid, is just
a crumbling notion.

X Factor

Think that you can create the life you want? That there is a state in which all things will be created according to your ideals? You may assume that this unnerving impulse to have a life other than the one that is showing up is a tap on the back to improve yourself, stop wasting time, get a grip. Waiting for clarity about your goals and the knowledge of how to achieve them is a common state.

Instead, Life is creating the sense of you right now. This state is the perfect combination of all the forces at work including your conditioning, outside events, and the emotional state of the moment. Even your bottled up, forward moving energy is given.  Don't forget to include that factor representing what even the most practical will call a mystery, or the "X Factor."

The X factor means you are not in charge. Your most frustrating and doubtful moments are the result of things you can't name. You can not not swim in the life you have now. You are just the noticing of this energy unfolding.

Where is all this movement heading? Speculation is only dreaming. Stop resisting the parts you don't like and you can be more present to what is actually happening. By noticing the resistance that arises, you can be aware of the story it creates. You can truly see if the pendulum of all this energy really means anything about you or the "quality" of the living. Question it.

Next week, next month, or next decade will only bring more of the same. Present awareness with bubbles representing a trail of memories and tomorrows daydreams. Nothing else is possible. Give yourself over to that. Find out what would it be like to be completely present to that. 

Shields Down

Don't keep forgetting that steady, silent, platform.
Upon which this flows.
The reminders are, "Is Life here?"
"What is awake?" "Existence is."
When I look from the viewpoint,
of no particular focus.
I forget I.
Patterns of light and color shift and change.
Shields down.
A sigh.

One Line Note #1

Worry is mind trying to manage the world by remote control -- without batteries.

Bearing the Energy of Change

It can be hard to bear the energy arising that we interpret as a signal to change. Your mind tells you it is time to move in another direction. The mind wants to coopt this energy for its own story of you; to manage it, describe it, and help you along by assimilating it.  It can be very tempting to believe the dialog.  But the mind can only write captions under a process that has its own life, its own beginning, own end.

Yes, it may turn out that you knew where this energy was going. Energetic shifts have their own purpose that may not be clear. Try to bear this emergent energy by noticing its power but not focusing on your story about it. You may get a new job, break up with your partner, start a diet, find a new house. Relax. Often enough, this forward moving energy dies without producing anything.

That something should be produced is only an idea running through the mind. Even if the event you anticipated occurs, you don't really know what was actually accomplished.

One Line Poem #5

Turn your head, and a whole new world appears.

The Sandbox

I lived in a sandbox,
Took a stick and sectioned off the whole.
This part is you, this part is me.
This part is them.
Over here, I will create home.
And here, work.
Finally down here, I will outline trouble.
Stay out of this section.

Along comes the slightest wind,
the rain, or even my dog.
And my clever lines are gone.
Leaving me staring at the clever shining cubes
that once told a story.

Start again? Or just bask in the vacuum?

Outbreath

Stillness breathes new life into every moment.
The inbreath reveals, the outbreath destroys.
And when we don't notice? Same.

Wide Open Joy

On a morning walk there is wide open joy.
Trees contribute, birds join in, the stream provides movement.
I stop to watch a mother duck follow her troop across the grass.
She keeps her eye on me but does not jump to conclusions.

Names do not apply if eyes are wide open and there is but the seeing.
I hear a woman tell another," I walked my dog in this park every day."
The sweetness had not left her.
The brown of dying grass has emerald patches.

Everything knows what to do.

The All

The sages keep talking about freedom.
Whatever they mean by it might be called all.
Not free from any thing or no-thing.
Not free to do any thing or no-thing.
But defenseless receptical, all things welcomed.
In which nothing is denied and everything imagined.
Is it a sweet place of embrace? Yes!
Or a terrible place of storms? Yes!
Rest here.

Daydream

What is a daydream but spinning a tale in between dimensions.
I pull myself up short, chiding the air for dreaming.
But isn't the dreamer, the same knower of the dream?
Whether I made this dream or not,
I am the maker of nothing.
I've always wondered if the dream spirals away,
In an energetic whirl,
And catches the eye of some other dreamer.
Or flashes off slowly,
Like the sound trail of a crystal bowl.

One Line Poem #4

A tiny bit of openness brings in a ray of light, a day of life; the whole world.

What Do You Want?

Just WHAT are you waiting for?
A new identity? Certainty? Confidence?
A big event, a small event, a trickle of recognition?
You say others seem to have that.
What do you know? It's all talk.
The silence that holds life.
The gentle hand that rocks the earth.
The mighty fierce bloodthirsty tsunami.
All blow through you.
Life waits for nothing.
Its energy spins and the next moment appears.
You think you value life?
Do you not eat, tread the earth, drink?
Even a blink kills mites!
Stop at nothing.
Give over. It's happening!

Without Asking

Don't ask, "How should I live?"
You never asked how you should breathe.
You don't choose the year.
The weather comes without asking.
The day follows night.
The bird sings without your permission.
Your stomach growls before you know it.
Who just scratched your nose?
Your dog licks your hand and goes to sleep.
Where do you come in?

One Line Poem #3

A man wanders the globe for 20 years looking for his own left foot.