Awakening

I was born into a prepared place here,
Where geniuses leave their marks,
That everything is better still.

Thank you you who first sung a song.
Perhaps the birds led the way.

Thank you you who first baked a pot from clay.
Perhaps fiery stones led the way.

Thank you you who first made a word.
Perhaps the call of sheep led the way.

Thank you you who first picked berries and nuts as food.
Perhaps you watched the deer and squirrel.

Thank you you who first made a wooden spoon.
Perhaps you saw rainwater gather in a cleft of wood.

I love to see things that are so tangled they defy all logic to untangle or even understand their pattern.

Near our house is a Byzantine church. That in itself is so beautiful when they play the church bells with something like a piano keyboard. Anyhow, there is a huge nettle, a giant, wild hedge with small birds darting in and out.

Hundreds of birds seem to live in there. It is so amazing that they can so quickly and accurately navigate this dense and obtuse tangle of hedge at such a high speed. They must be geniuses.

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts. And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart, you live in your lips. And sound is a diversion and a pastime.

And in much of your talking, thinking is half-murdered, for thought is a bird of space, that in a cage or words may indeed unfold its wings, but cannot fly.

Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather “I have found a truth.”

Say not, “I have found the path of the soul,” but say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”

For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line. Neither does it grow like a reed.

The soul unfolds itself like a lotus of countless petals.

Your heart knows in silence, the secrets of the days and the nights.

But your ears thirst for the sounds of your heart’s knowledge.

You would know in words, that which you have always known in thought.

It is amazing how our subconscious can change what we actually see.

I remember reading about a person, who when hypnotized could not see another person. Their mind was able to completely eliminate that other person from anything they were looking at. Their mind would fill in the background so the person looked invisible.

What does this say about us?

Every day you get up and you head to work. You drive the same way. You take the same roads, the same highways, you make the same turns. But perhaps you commute via train or subway. Five days a week, for the last five years, and it’ll be going on for the next ten years.

To Be Done

Pedro was a 97 year old man from Cuba who was always at the Senior Center where my wife goes.

She really liked him and would often talk with him.

He was funny, upbeat, and filled with life, dancing even into his late 90’s.

He died. That day our grandfather clock stopped. The grandfather clock had been running continuously for over a year. A few days later, when I opened it to see what had happened, I saw the chime mechanism was incredibly stuck. I needed a force of about 5 pounds to unstick it. This had never happened before.

If the stars are out there in the daylight, and we don’t see them, what else don’t we see?

Perhaps we need the contrast, the foil, the opposite to see what is hidden.

It really is a gift to appreciate what we have, and not take it for granted. There is a saying, that some dream of what we see as everyday normal, common place. I’m not saying this is bad, or that we are decadent.

Rather, it’s the difference between seeing objects and seeing essence. Being thankful for a spoon is just as important as being thankful for a smartphone.

I close my eyes and open my mind to a scene.

It is simple. The same person always appears. The person is near a tree. The person is dressed in a robe, standing. It could be Jesus, Buddha, or some master. But I like to think of the person as my higher self, the part of me that is still on the other side, and has access to great wisdom.

I’ll call the person “the master.”

I don’t speak. The master doesn’t speak. Yet I know the master knows what I need, and always gives me what I need. Something really happens. It isn’t pretend. It only takes 20 seconds.