She walks in beauty like the night*
And the moon cloaked in heaven casting shadow and light.
Her life knows no boundaries, in it her soul takes flight,
My lover, sweet beloved, soft Mother of Sight.
Her eyes see beauty, perfection and no fight
Between yes, no, high, low, dark and light.
Cherishing diversity, celebrating its play,
Honoring even those closed to the day.
Mistress of Truth, Master of Love,
Stretched out in surrender, so below as above.
Infinity I do see when I meet her gaze;
Eternal, supernal, beyond mind's maze.
In her arms I rest from future and past,
Until the prayer comes for it to ever last
Where she laughs and laughs and laughs in my night,
Tickling all of the cobwebs out of their fright.
A child, her innocence giving birth to creation,
Seeds sprouting spirit within manifestation.
All of this she sees so equally in me,
Embracing every opportunity with her lover to be.
In joy, in gratitude, at each other's feet we meet.
Alone, together, always complete.
Greater a whole our union creates
Freedom, healing, opening new gates.
Our trust in God, revealing life impersonal.
Our alignment with Truth and what is invincible.
Our focus on Love and what brings greater balance.
Our insurance a surrender to the present and its Silence.
Splendour is the Grace which brought her to me
as my sun as my moon as my mystery.
In each other we see ourselves and the Divine,
Masks thinning, spirits winning, souls forward to shine
And the moon cloaked in heaven casting shadow and light.
Her life knows no boundaries, in it her soul takes flight,
My lover, sweet beloved, soft Mother of Sight.
Her eyes see beauty, perfection and no fight
Between yes, no, high, low, dark and light.
Cherishing diversity, celebrating its play,
Honoring even those closed to the day.
Mistress of Truth, Master of Love,
Stretched out in surrender, so below as above.
Infinity I do see when I meet her gaze;
Eternal, supernal, beyond mind's maze.
In her arms I rest from future and past,
Until the prayer comes for it to ever last
Where she laughs and laughs and laughs in my night,
Tickling all of the cobwebs out of their fright.
A child, her innocence giving birth to creation,
Seeds sprouting spirit within manifestation.
All of this she sees so equally in me,
Embracing every opportunity with her lover to be.
In joy, in gratitude, at each other's feet we meet.
Alone, together, always complete.
Greater a whole our union creates
Freedom, healing, opening new gates.
Our trust in God, revealing life impersonal.
Our alignment with Truth and what is invincible.
Our focus on Love and what brings greater balance.
Our insurance a surrender to the present and its Silence.
Splendour is the Grace which brought her to me
as my sun as my moon as my mystery.
In each other we see ourselves and the Divine,
Masks thinning, spirits winning, souls forward to shine
*The first line, "She walks in beauty like the night" is from a poem by Lord Byron called She Walks in Beauty. - It was given in a radio poetry contest as the first line of poem to complete and I didn't know it was from Byron and hadn't read his poem until several years after writing my poem.
and
here
a
text
(among many others)
on
enlightenment :
On Enlightenment
I generally do not like to use the term "enlightenment" because as it is understood it tends to stigmatize or specialize within our awareness what is our "always already" true essential being thereby separating ourselves from the experience of it more. It is a term of assessment which employs the comparative, measuring mind in ways that I have noticed has tendencies to pull an aspirant into separating themselves in their belief and identification from that for which they aspire.
As soon as one speaks of the "real" as being what one thing as opposed to other things are or one speaks of the "enlightened," one speask from awareness that sees also what is other than real and other than enlightened. In other words, it is a term of measurement from a dualistic and relative place of awareness. There is nothing wrong with this and it is what we do to create markers for ourselves in differentiating within our Self-experience. But what happens is that the markers become bars rather than gateways to that realization when we believe ourselves to be other than "real" or that there is something to do to become "enlightened." As soon as we act out of the belief that we are other than that towards which we aspire, we concretize that belief and create tension obstructing the realization of that which is already, always, nondual suchness.
Enlightenment can be seen as the spacious awareness of what is prior to all conditions and conceptions and is not the end of Becoming which is the nature of manifest existence, but the (perceptually) unobstructed or unobscured unfolding of that unconditioned being, our true nature, as Satchidananda (essential Being, Consciousness and Love-Bliss) within manifestation.
We might ask, what is it in me or us that sees what enlightenment is and what is it in you that recognizes it? Is it not enlightened awareness itself? Only enlightenment itself can be enlightened. There is no one separate from anything to be enlightened in relationship to anything else. In that sense, the terms "nondualist" and "enlightened" are oxymorons.
In addition, enlightenment is not some measure of great knowledge attained. In fact the Truth Consciousness is birthed from the unknown and nothing previously conceived. So it can be said that in essence enlightenment is not knowing (and being at peace with it) and living in the realization of being no one. ;-)
Defining enlightenment is like trying to point to nothing, (and nothing pointing to itself). Enlightened awareness lives in/as the embrace of what is here now and a relaxation that allows for a fluidity and flow that doesn't hold to where it was or think it needs to be where/how it isn't, yet includes change and movement towards change. It is more a context of awareness allowing what is without dividing against it, or fixing an identity in relationship to it, rather than a specific knowing or achieved outcome. Whatever experience, no matter how profound, inclusive, far-reaching, multiperspectival, nondual or beautiful, whenever held to, becomes a concept and reflection of the identity holding to itself, and in that light it is no longer true, is no longer within the context of this fluid, breathing awareness. Whatever we can call enlightened or unenlightened are ideas, concepts and therefore experienced as separate from this living awareness that can only start from not knowing, from having no idea and the inquiry that breathes discovery and its truth from here.
If we are to look at a state of enlightenment as an achievement, we still find that the process of discovery and realization never ends. There can be a living awareness of what is prior to or not at the effect of conditions, unity consciousness, living eternity in time and nondual awareness, in an integrated, embodied way within manifestation and therefore freedom, liberation and/or "enlightenment" in an individual. But insofar as the individual is connected to or one with all other beings and in a body, until all beings experience and know themselves as That, until every cell and molecule is alive with the truth-consciousness, unconditionally, "enlightenment" is a relative term and state. Each relationship, condition and appearance potentiates a new and greater possibility for Self-realization, in the one and the many.
I generally do not like to use the term "enlightenment" because as it is understood it tends to stigmatize or specialize within our awareness what is our "always already" true essential being thereby separating ourselves from the experience of it more. It is a term of assessment which employs the comparative, measuring mind in ways that I have noticed has tendencies to pull an aspirant into separating themselves in their belief and identification from that for which they aspire.
As soon as one speaks of the "real" as being what one thing as opposed to other things are or one speaks of the "enlightened," one speask from awareness that sees also what is other than real and other than enlightened. In other words, it is a term of measurement from a dualistic and relative place of awareness. There is nothing wrong with this and it is what we do to create markers for ourselves in differentiating within our Self-experience. But what happens is that the markers become bars rather than gateways to that realization when we believe ourselves to be other than "real" or that there is something to do to become "enlightened." As soon as we act out of the belief that we are other than that towards which we aspire, we concretize that belief and create tension obstructing the realization of that which is already, always, nondual suchness.
Enlightenment can be seen as the spacious awareness of what is prior to all conditions and conceptions and is not the end of Becoming which is the nature of manifest existence, but the (perceptually) unobstructed or unobscured unfolding of that unconditioned being, our true nature, as Satchidananda (essential Being, Consciousness and Love-Bliss) within manifestation.
We might ask, what is it in me or us that sees what enlightenment is and what is it in you that recognizes it? Is it not enlightened awareness itself? Only enlightenment itself can be enlightened. There is no one separate from anything to be enlightened in relationship to anything else. In that sense, the terms "nondualist" and "enlightened" are oxymorons.
In addition, enlightenment is not some measure of great knowledge attained. In fact the Truth Consciousness is birthed from the unknown and nothing previously conceived. So it can be said that in essence enlightenment is not knowing (and being at peace with it) and living in the realization of being no one. ;-)
Defining enlightenment is like trying to point to nothing, (and nothing pointing to itself). Enlightened awareness lives in/as the embrace of what is here now and a relaxation that allows for a fluidity and flow that doesn't hold to where it was or think it needs to be where/how it isn't, yet includes change and movement towards change. It is more a context of awareness allowing what is without dividing against it, or fixing an identity in relationship to it, rather than a specific knowing or achieved outcome. Whatever experience, no matter how profound, inclusive, far-reaching, multiperspectival, nondual or beautiful, whenever held to, becomes a concept and reflection of the identity holding to itself, and in that light it is no longer true, is no longer within the context of this fluid, breathing awareness. Whatever we can call enlightened or unenlightened are ideas, concepts and therefore experienced as separate from this living awareness that can only start from not knowing, from having no idea and the inquiry that breathes discovery and its truth from here.
If we are to look at a state of enlightenment as an achievement, we still find that the process of discovery and realization never ends. There can be a living awareness of what is prior to or not at the effect of conditions, unity consciousness, living eternity in time and nondual awareness, in an integrated, embodied way within manifestation and therefore freedom, liberation and/or "enlightenment" in an individual. But insofar as the individual is connected to or one with all other beings and in a body, until all beings experience and know themselves as That, until every cell and molecule is alive with the truth-consciousness, unconditionally, "enlightenment" is a relative term and state. Each relationship, condition and appearance potentiates a new and greater possibility for Self-realization, in the one and the many.
Thank you Michel... This is quite helpful...
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