What if you knew little of the walled villages,
Of religion, of belief, of faith, and philosophy,
And then experienced, one day,
What seemed, when considered after the fact,
A loss of consciousness,
The vanishing of Everything from Awareness,
Including yourself as the one aware. and yet…
Awareness continued?
And what if the nature of that Awareness,
Pure and unsullied by space, time, and objects,
In which even you, the experiencer, had vanished,
Was so Ineffably Sublime that words did not exist,
To express its Ecstasy, its Rapture, its Perfection,
The Fulfillment of your Heart's Desire,
Fullness, Completion, Bliss, and…
Love?
And what if you found yourself, thereafter,
Imbued always with the touch of that Heaven,
Felt as a Radiance in the Locus of your Heart,
Sometimes the ambient background of experience,
Sometimes flooding the foreground, acutely,
Ever available to the mind's Attention,
Ever available to the Heart's Remembrance…
A Wellspring of Grace?
And what if you then entered the spiritual marketplace,
In search of someone, anyone, to explain the Mystery,
Wandering the rows of stalls, past the shouting sellers,
Each declaring the “Truth”, and decrying the others,
Until your eyes and ears could bear it no longer,
And your Heart, bruised, pleaded with you to leave,
The pedantry, the arguments, the profaning of Love…
And return to the Simple Experience?
The simple Experience, not yet debased by the mind,
Beyond knowledge and understanding,
Not poured into the mold of another's interpretation,
Not bound by prescription, proscription, and dogma,
Not requiring you to do this, and refrain from that,
Without cause, without condition, ever present,
A touch of Heaven ever Shining…
Grace, Unimaginable.
And what if, in time, that Presence in your Heart,
Like a Wellspring of Transmutation, within,
Diminished the terrible pain of your self,
Leaving intact all that you had taken yourself to be,
But stealing from your experience, the felt sense of “you”,
That very felt sense that had vanished that fateful day,
So long ago, in time, when time and all things Vanished…
And only The Mystery remained?
And what if, now free of the need for knowledge,
You returned to the spiritual marketplace,
Moved now only by Curiosity, Wonder, and Love,
And found yourself Dancing through the stalls,
Stealing this jewel from here, that jewel from there,
Until, your satchel full to overflowing,
You Blessed them all, and returned again…
To the Simple Experience?
And what if you then were moved by Delight,
To declare in poetic verse,
“Ah… this Most Beautiful Presence,
This Shining Radiance within,
This Exquisite Rapture,
This Fulfillment of all desire,
The Divine Thief that has stolen ‘me’…
I will call it God,
I will call it Brahman,
I will call it The Beloved,
I will call it The Holy Spirit,
I will call it Emptiness,
I will call it The Inner Light,
I will call it The Unnameable…
I will call it Love.”
And what if you were told,
To your surprise and amazement,
By some among the Friends you made,
That the ember in their Hearts,
Ignited, to their Delight and Inspiration,
In moments of Relationship with you,
Shining ever more Brightly, over time…
Until they found themselves, in time,
Imbued always with the touch of that Heaven,
Felt as a Radiance in the Locus of their Heart,
Sometimes the ambient background of experience,
Sometimes flooding the foreground, acutely,
Ever available to their mind's Attention,
Ever available to their Heart's Remembrance?
I will call that… a reason to live.
And what if these Illumined Friends were told,
To their surprise and amazement,
By some among the Friends they made,
That the ember in their Hearts,
Ignited, to their Delight and Inspiration,
In moments of Relationship with them,
Shining ever more Brightly, over time…
Until they found themselves, in time,
Imbued always with the touch of that Heaven,
Felt as a Radiance in the Locus of your Heart,
Sometimes the ambient background of experience,
Sometimes flooding the foreground, acutely,
Ever available to their mind's Attention,
Ever available to their Heart's Remembrance?
I will call that… the Transmission of The Flame.
And what if you found, in the course of your life,
No finality in the milestones come to along The Way,
No flag to be planted, no summit declared,
And that however Profound and Transmuting,
More should not be made of them,
Than should be made,
Each being merely a juncture arrived at…
On a Journey of…
Endless Enlightening.
Of religion, of belief, of faith, and philosophy,
And then experienced, one day,
What seemed, when considered after the fact,
A loss of consciousness,
The vanishing of Everything from Awareness,
Including yourself as the one aware. and yet…
Awareness continued?
And what if the nature of that Awareness,
Pure and unsullied by space, time, and objects,
In which even you, the experiencer, had vanished,
Was so Ineffably Sublime that words did not exist,
To express its Ecstasy, its Rapture, its Perfection,
The Fulfillment of your Heart's Desire,
Fullness, Completion, Bliss, and…
Love?
And what if you found yourself, thereafter,
Imbued always with the touch of that Heaven,
Felt as a Radiance in the Locus of your Heart,
Sometimes the ambient background of experience,
Sometimes flooding the foreground, acutely,
Ever available to the mind's Attention,
Ever available to the Heart's Remembrance…
A Wellspring of Grace?
And what if you then entered the spiritual marketplace,
In search of someone, anyone, to explain the Mystery,
Wandering the rows of stalls, past the shouting sellers,
Each declaring the “Truth”, and decrying the others,
Until your eyes and ears could bear it no longer,
And your Heart, bruised, pleaded with you to leave,
The pedantry, the arguments, the profaning of Love…
And return to the Simple Experience?
The simple Experience, not yet debased by the mind,
Beyond knowledge and understanding,
Not poured into the mold of another's interpretation,
Not bound by prescription, proscription, and dogma,
Not requiring you to do this, and refrain from that,
Without cause, without condition, ever present,
A touch of Heaven ever Shining…
Grace, Unimaginable.
And what if, in time, that Presence in your Heart,
Like a Wellspring of Transmutation, within,
Diminished the terrible pain of your self,
Leaving intact all that you had taken yourself to be,
But stealing from your experience, the felt sense of “you”,
That very felt sense that had vanished that fateful day,
So long ago, in time, when time and all things Vanished…
And only The Mystery remained?
And what if, now free of the need for knowledge,
You returned to the spiritual marketplace,
Moved now only by Curiosity, Wonder, and Love,
And found yourself Dancing through the stalls,
Stealing this jewel from here, that jewel from there,
Until, your satchel full to overflowing,
You Blessed them all, and returned again…
To the Simple Experience?
And what if you then were moved by Delight,
To declare in poetic verse,
“Ah… this Most Beautiful Presence,
This Shining Radiance within,
This Exquisite Rapture,
This Fulfillment of all desire,
The Divine Thief that has stolen ‘me’…
I will call it God,
I will call it Brahman,
I will call it The Beloved,
I will call it The Holy Spirit,
I will call it Emptiness,
I will call it The Inner Light,
I will call it The Unnameable…
I will call it Love.”
And what if you were told,
To your surprise and amazement,
By some among the Friends you made,
That the ember in their Hearts,
Ignited, to their Delight and Inspiration,
In moments of Relationship with you,
Shining ever more Brightly, over time…
Until they found themselves, in time,
Imbued always with the touch of that Heaven,
Felt as a Radiance in the Locus of their Heart,
Sometimes the ambient background of experience,
Sometimes flooding the foreground, acutely,
Ever available to their mind's Attention,
Ever available to their Heart's Remembrance?
I will call that… a reason to live.
And what if these Illumined Friends were told,
To their surprise and amazement,
By some among the Friends they made,
That the ember in their Hearts,
Ignited, to their Delight and Inspiration,
In moments of Relationship with them,
Shining ever more Brightly, over time…
Until they found themselves, in time,
Imbued always with the touch of that Heaven,
Felt as a Radiance in the Locus of your Heart,
Sometimes the ambient background of experience,
Sometimes flooding the foreground, acutely,
Ever available to their mind's Attention,
Ever available to their Heart's Remembrance?
I will call that… the Transmission of The Flame.
And what if you found, in the course of your life,
No finality in the milestones come to along The Way,
No flag to be planted, no summit declared,
And that however Profound and Transmuting,
More should not be made of them,
Than should be made,
Each being merely a juncture arrived at…
On a Journey of…
Endless Enlightening.
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