All That There Is
Everyone seems to only want good things
Positive things
Sweetheart deals
Shopping bags filled with rich gifts
Second helpings served with silver spoons
More
Nicer
Newer
Faster
Bigger
Better
Good things are nice
Nice things are good
Accepting wholeness
Some parts aren’t easy
Some parts aren’t nice
Walk into fear at the beginning
Walk into fear at the end
Then there is a place for love to live
Then there is wholeness
Allowing life’s fullness to pass through
Unabated
Multi dimensions emerge and unfold
Bowing and retreating into infinite space
Families are diverse and alive with difference
Beauty and ugliness are sisters
Comfort and discomfort are married
Dark and light are brothers
Sweet and bitter are grandparents
The strongest medicine is often bitter
Without catalyst cement just doesn’t hold
Good wine is matured in cool cellars
Fine cheese is aged in humid caves
Great art comes from despair, longing and love
Beauty is everlasting
It springs from the well of all that there is
Denying the dark
Delays the inevitable
Imbalance can only result
Silently accumulating in dank corners
There are stockpiles of old bones
Lumps of coal in the bowels of old buildings
When there is a need to draw on deep reserves
Where is the light?
Where is the energy?
The freshness needed to feed and quench
It is downstairs where you left it waiting to be burned
Shovel the black rocks into the fire
While you sit on your pillow and meditate
Watch the flames dance
Watch the fire burn
Or are the reserves gone?
Consumed in a feeding frenzy
Stuffed with sweetness at the buffet of illusion
Decadent desert denial and delusion
Gluttonous and flabby bellies full of worms and fungus
Weak middle core lacking support
Back aching
Luxurious bedsores
Atrophied muscles too weak to lift limbs
Painfully stiff
Too weak to meet the day
Where is spiritual discipline now?
The nugget acquired in the moment
The one you thought was still in your silk lined pocket
It was left on the side of the road
While the party was driving by
Next to the wrappers, bottles and vines
There still is time
Now
To turn in again
And see what is already here
Refuse the limousine and walk in the dark
Into the fresh night air
Take comfort in alone-full-less-ness
Turn off the music and listen to nothing
Decline the invitation
Numb skulls
Chattering teeth
Words without meaning
Better to say nothing
Better to have the sky above as a home
Than the elegance of a soft velvet prison
Morning awakening fills the nostrils
The exquisite breath of freedom
Breathe deeply to the bottom of the lungs
Breathe it all in
Hold it for a few seconds
And then do it again
And again
Until you forget who you are
Lost between the inhale and exhale
Found only in the breathe
Warm bowl of rice in an earthen bowl
Grass mat on the monk’s dirt floor
The comfort of the soul is simple
Walk on rocks and then walk on water
Relax into the cold wind and warmth will overwhelm
Say what is left unsaid and you will be pleasantly surprised
