A houseplant and I
Share the same space,
The only two living
Beings in the room
And I wonder,
Does it know
Who provides it
With water
And without whom
It would die?
Then I reflect
Do I?
Life
Category: Spirituality
The Nature of Self
Thoughts arise
Jostling one another
Like beads on a necklace
But
If you can find the space
Between the thoughts
And see the string that
Holds the beads together
You have found who you are.
The toll gate
On the road to understanding
there is a tollgate that bars some travellers.
Reason is forbidden and also it’s cousin
rationalisation, as is explanation.
Science bans itself, cast out
into a rational wilderness of its own making
unable to escape its mechanistic view
of a universe beyond its understanding.
So who travel the road beyond the toll gate?
Poets. Painters. Lovers. Artists. The people
who make others uncomfortable.
The odd people who don’t quite fit in.
And of course, all of those who have experienced
a Love and Bliss beyond comprehension,
who have come to know
the name of the Divine.
The bookshelves of my mind
The bookshelves of my mind
must be tumbled and jumbled
unsteady and cluttered, in urgent need
of repair and refiling or shredding.
How do I know this?
Because on the floor of my mind I constantly
find stray memories that have slipped, though
from which volume I know not.
Some are familiar, picked up and put back
innumerable times, but somehow always finding
their way back out, to flutter unbidden into
my consciousness. Usually embarrassing and
from decades ago. Mixed in amongst, sadness,
friends and family, gone, vanished, but not forgotten.
How rare the happy memories that arise spontaneously.
My antidote to this is simply to count my blessings.
I am what I am, and I am loved. I breathe in the scent of flowers
and feel the wind on my face. And above all of this,
I simply smile and record with joy all the good things
in my life and this world.
And they are many.
Yesterday
So you think you are unchanged?
The same as you were
Yesterday? But that cannot be
So who are you today?
Never the same for
Another day has dawned
And flown past, bringing with it,
New thoughts, feelings, experiences.
But can you recognise
What has changed?
Who is the new you?
Answer – if you can.
The Toll Gate
On the road to understanding
There is a tollgate that bars some travellers
Reason is forbidden and it’s cousin
Rationalisation, as is Explanation.
Science bans itself, cast out
Into a rational wilderness of its own making
Unable to escape its mechanistic view
Of a universe beyond its understanding.
So who travel the road beyond the toll gate?
Poets. Painters. Lovers. Artists. The people
Who make others uncomfortable.
The odd people who don’t quite fit in.
And of course, all of those who have experienced
Love and Bliss beyond comprehension
Who have come to know
The name of the Divine.
Wisdom or Foolishness?
As I grow older
I understand
The difference
Between wisdom
And foolishness
Less and less
The Compass
What compass divines
your direction as you pass
through life
from birth to death?
Blind fate, simply casting
the runes that determine
what future lies before each
and every one of us?
Predestination maybe?
The road already marked
that you will blindly follow
believing that you choose?
Karma? The pull of the previous
life, lives, that sweep you along,
atoning, overcoming past failures
moving you ever closer to nirvana?
Free will? You are your own
agent, making choices,
moving hither and thither
as you and only you determine?
Whatever the mechanism
that moves the wheel that moves
us from birth to death,
May you find peace and happiness
In this journey that we all make.
Where the Divine dwells
Inside each of us
Lies the place
Where the divine
That is the real
You dwells
And
I sometimes
Wonder
If the real
Purpose of life is
Simply to tread
The path that
Leads to where
The real you
The divine you
Dwells
Where were you ..
Where were you
before you were born?
is an ancient Zen question
without an answer
except for
illumination.
Reflections on life in Poetry and Prose. 