before the story

if you could go back my dear

to the time before mind 

where would you be now?

exactly as you are 

but without the suffering 

and divisive mind play

you would be here as light and beauty

and unending peace 

which is what always lives within 

and never goes 

you would be here 

as yourself 

shorn of the false 

if you could go back my dear

to the time of calm waters 

the time when mind knows nothing 

and has not come forward to create a haunting 

world of pleasure and pain

that keeps one chasing the shadows about 

and by doing so misses the substance

you would be nothing special at all

not striving to become anything

you would be as you are 

filled with peace and contentment

no matter the transient happening 

you would be settled always 

in joy

if you could go back my dear 

to the time when you were eternally found 

and never lost 

without fear and hope 

without a story of me that is a such and such

that is a person doing and making efforts to become more of this 

or less of that 

and be set free of these waves that go on and on 

you would be your true self

simple in nature 

ordinary

not different in any way than anything else 

just living always as pure presence 

if you could go back my dear 

to the heart that is truly yourself 

you would be lacking the grasping ways 

that are alway seeking to define appearance as some-thing 

and not seeing clearly the true nature of reality

that is impersonal

not owned or possessed by any-body

just simply present 

not coming and going 

but empty in nature 

full 

rich in life in it's purity

zero