the sound of pure life

oh soul,
what blew in with the wind?
did it bring a sweet fragrance
to your senses and lull you to sleep
with that familiar lullaby of I-I-I?..
or did it bring with it a scythe
sharp and swift to cut that old
tree down that bears the fruit
of worldly vision?
my love,
what bears this kind of coming
is a gift wrapped in a package
ego cannot understand
or ever know
because it is the gift of life
the gift of cutting the fetters
of that tune so haunting and
masquerading in so many clothes
this coming of grace
will rent asunder the chains
that bring you to believe that
you are captive in this body-mind
reality

now hear it coming
on the wind in the evening, day or
moments that flow;

i am here as that which rises above
the shadows
tossed aside by most and loved by few
but given to those that are completely
surrendered to me
those ones are the ones that will hear my
tune so very subtle to the ear, nose, mouth
and eyes
so very subtle to the tongue too
so very subtle to the organs of that
form of yours
because it is heard only in the heart of
all
that sound quiet, still and pristine
so violin-like, so harp-like, so dove-like
and so fruit ripened lovely and sweet, so
timeless in it's beauty
that sound completely denuded of the personal
that sound so lingering in the one that hears it
and secret and abundant in it's quake and waking
up of the entire being to be in love with it and to be
in it and of it
that sound singles itself out to be the holy of holies
measured only by itself, free of all boundaries and
spacial confinements
that sound placed rightly (always in the heart of all)
that sound complete
moving in it's fullness and heavenly spellbound
because it is lifted out of the confines of ego-nature ...
that sound that defies all conceptual arguments and logical
order that is mental in nature..
that sound crested with jewels that shines light-filled
that sound pride, jealousy, desire, vanity, affluence, poverty
covetousness, confusion, sinking low or rising high,
constraints of any sort or ways or anything imagined cannot
be touched by
that sound is the hearing and seeing and
knowing when one is out of the mind-spell
that sound, that tune is the remaining ground
is the remaining heart
the remaining fragrance ....
and nothing can be different from it
for this is the sound of life free
untouched
and always the best to be in

amazing grace

he wanted only for *his life*

to be good and full of things 

that brought happiness 

he did not understand that true 

happiness resided in his own soul 

when the coverings fall away

and that what was termed 

*his life* 

was as false as the shadow 

that dies at the arising of light 

he did not know that 

wanting to cling to *his life* 

as a separate thing 

was what was bringing suffering 

so he went thru life this way 

but when the Guru came 

he found that he had misunderstood 

so much

as that which he thought was real

and true before 

was challenged to the core 

and began to fall away like 

meat from the bone 

he then was able to see clearly 

what is true and false 

and how he was his own worst 

enemy to believe the mind 

in his ignorance he did not know 

but once his eyes were opened 

as painful as it was to see 

his mistaken knowledge

he could no longer go back

to the traps that brought 

only a seeing that was 

caged in conceptual understandings

and conceptual judgements that 

arose from conditionings long ago

how very false they were 

he then moved forward 

into the heat of Kali's fire

sometimes not even aware 

that this flame was consuming 

the underpinnings of his world 

that was held up by false beams 

of thought and conditionings 

kali's fire was consuming these

beams and moorings 

little by little 

until the whole structure was to fall

into the sea that was the life force of all

in this walk to the truth 

he did not know his life was never truly his 

to begin with 

for what he called his world was a private thing

and this was not real

it was as a dreamer dreaming 

it was as an illusion on the hot dunes 

in the desert that one races after again and again

he was not aware of any of this 

until the Guru appeared 

and set his little private reality to flame 

had he not stepped into the flames 

where would he be now? 

lost in some other place within his head 

as all that are lost in the world 

set out to find that which can never 

be obtained 

and thru his deep desire to be free and 

out of suffering he came upon this path 

though he knew not what he was asking for 

and what that meant 

because before,

the righteous path was 

merely a *concept* in mind 

and now to *live* it and embody this truth

how completely different than a philosophy 

about it 

how completely more real this was

onward he went 

his private reality fading fast
as mist on the ocean

and this was a very good thing my friends 

as what replaces this world

that he has guarded and protected

so fiercely

is sat chit ananda

what amazing grace 

and what good fortune that has come

to his heart 

where the light filters

are you catching up to me?
because i am falling farther behind
my mental processes are slowing
and slowing
to where i have not understood what
i thought i understood before
it was all so put in place then
you know, how i was this way and that
but now i cannot grab so easily to that
persona

are you catching up to me?
because as you go forward, i go backward
into that unwinding coil
that eats it's own tail
and as you grab onto what you think
is solid
i have vanished like a dream
never to be held

are you catching up to me?
because i will not be found in that
crowd of worldly men ahead
look behind you and i have fallen back
gazing at the lake quiet and filled with
mystery
oh love,
i will be that one touching my cheek
to the earth listening
and the one that holds the small new
leaf in my hand and feels it's soft downy
skin
and find me here too where the light filters
softly
and makes patterns on the pavement
and the perfume of the flower
wafts through the air

are you catching up to me?
because i have no more desires, save one
to be rid of this spell of maya
and leave that which speaks of duality
to wash away for all eternity
and lay to rest those dreams that chant
of people and places and things
that are ephemeral truly

are you catching up to me?
for the faster you go
the slower i get
and slower and slower
and the more i simply fall into
silence

he was shining

shiva, he was shining
when i saw him there, so beautiful
and not of this world
unsoiled and burning of freedom-heart
he laid eyes on me
and i forgot myself to be who i thought i was
he, in his comeliness, unclothed of ego-mind
cleansed of dross and like a cleaned out room
untouched of the clutter of time and dust
wearing nothing but stillness
came to my consciousness
i, looking on him did not understand his coming
you know, like what is this?
but he lifted a wall and those images of heart
flowed like a waterfall
why? who knows?
then he vanished like a dream
i was not looking for shiva, yet he found
me

oh saint

oh saint
that which lays hands on heads
that are bowed down to pray to thee
how comely you are
made of beauty and perfection
how you light up every eye so perfect
and spread yourself out over the green earth
when you walk your footsteps leave no dust
of time
so holy is your being
when you talk your words sound like heaven
in all things
saturated with heart
oh saint
you live in all things, pure like fire
you burn the coverings that cloak the gentle
waters of clarity
how you burn so fiercely the walls created
by imaginings
and take to yourself this love so rich
take it and make it the center as it should
oh saint
merciful and pure
you tread on the ground where all live caught
up in the shell of ego
and remain untouched
like the most glorious sun
never to set
holy, holy
saint