kisses

kissing the walls of my house,
thank you, wall,
thank you, light switch,
thank you, railing

a virgin house lover,
thanking the "door" for the very first time,

the steering wheel,
the dashboard,
the ceiling,
the bed,

so much love here,
no need to wait
another instant
to love this pen,
this chair,
my hand,

all is worthy
of a 1,000 kisses,
falling in love with the world,
images,
no need to retreat

that floor is
my very heart!

oh to kiss the floor...

i forgot
for a while,
it seems

yet all the while,
She loved me.

is there anything
i'm are failing
to notice
in this moment?

right here,
right now
is everything
i could ever possibly
want

can't do it

you can never make a rope
be a snake

no matter how upset you get!
no matter how long you are upset for!
no matter how many people you get
to agree with you,
or how many people disagree with you,
how much money you have
or how much power and influence

no army can do
no bombs can do it
no education can do it
no amount of reading books
or degrees or certificates
can do it

no matter how much you
think you know

how brilliant you are

it just isn't possible
to turn a rope
into a snake

so good to know

a friendly
universe
is friendly

what's the point?

if you saw someone stabbing themselves
over and over and over again

would you pause
to watch
as the steel
entered the flesh,
severed the veins
tore open
the body
in hopes of ending this torment?

would you watch the blood
flow into puddles on the floor?

would you watch
as he fell limp to the floor

until death?

would you wonder
what it all means,
why we are here,
seeming but to suffer so much,
only to die?

would you desperately utter,
what is the point?
(or this should be different)?

what is the point to all this suffering?

exactly

we must all come to ask this,
and to answer it
we must ask,
what exactly is suffering?

isn't suffering but
to demand that
something be different that it is?

isn't that the lifeblood of suffering?

so what is the point
of demanding
something be different than it is?

is it ever possible?

what is the point of a tantrum, child?

it does seem a child's lesson, doesn't it?
that what is, is simply what is

and can't be anything but what it is,
ever

how very very simple reality is.

some of us say the Work is difficult...
yet isn't it perhaps harder to grasp
how confusing
we try to make such a simple thing?

ashes

after the forest fire
the space is cleared
for the sun
to reach again
the bare soil

what couldn't grow
in the shadow
of the ancient towers

now easily
and naturally
springs,
shoots
out in all directions

let the fire begin,

my babies
are waiting

playing in the ashes
of my life,

the ashes
of my dreams...

no credit

i can take credit for absolutely nothing

kaleidoscope

colors
shapes
hands
faces
"death"
birth
growth
flags
parades
trumpet
harmonica
home, home on the range

stove top stuffing
cranberries
toilets
toothbrushes
making love
arriving arriving arriving

kaleidoscope
shifting
falling stars
flashing like the most brilliant
heart shaped beet,
hoof beating
dust
clouds of
genie

i can take credit
for absolutely nothing

kaleidoscope
colliding
bursting
emotions
exploding
in this chest
arm
foot

i watch

i can take credit
for absolutely  nothing

being right

what do i get for being "right"?

i get to prove my worth,
to have worth, value,
intelligence,
knowledge
to be ahead,
to have more,
to be solid,

my existence is justified,
i get to simply exist

i get to solidify,
to have substance

justification for my existence,
a reprieve from guilt for my "taking",
just by existing.

wow! no wonder!

i get to be separate--
me against the world--
the ignorant,
behind,
asleep ones...

wow...exactly like the "war on communism"
or against the "prejudiced ones",
the unenlightened--
meaning...
they disagree

LOL

i get to have a
chemical high
(and a chemical low)
in my brain/body

opposition
is the ego's
whole existence

the body
is proof,
a symbol,
i am separate
and need others to agree
with me so i can survive...

survival of the ego--
just a thought

what would i have
if i never made anyone else
"wrong" again?

listening,
understanding,
taking nothing personally,
defenseless,
kind,
soft and receptive

yes, honey,
i can find where i once believed that, too.

gratitude
wholeness
connection
compassion

wanting

everyone who comes to this world
wants something

we all walk on equal ground;
if you are here,
you are one with me

remember this
as you judge your neighbor

who isn't (here)
cannot be named
nor recognized
in a state of wanting

this is about ownership--
the heartache of wanting

pretending to be ok,
to be spiritual,
to be innocent
(while you still view
your neighbor's guilt)

holds you here
as much as
your wanting

there is no lie
that will ever
give you what you want

i swear to tell the truth,
the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth,
so help me God
is the most loving thing
you can ever do
for you,
for your lover,
for the world

make love

what if that's it?

an obstacle is just waiting
for sex,
for making love to it,
with it,
engaging in foreplay with her,
that's all

she thought you didn't love her.

every obstacle is a call for fertilizer--
the sharing of your deepest self
with her,
your own children,
your vulnerability,

to bare your soul,
not your armor

extending an ear,
that she too
can drop her seeds
all over the ground,
every single one,
hold nothing back

no wonder it's called
the garden of eden--
the space where
every obstacle has been
made love with,
appreciated--
nothing left untouched;
so gently, tenderly
and ravenously
embraced

make love,
not war
(with your thoughts)

being done

it's as if you are living on a barge,
and the barge is moving you,
and the ocean is supporting the barge,
and the earth is supporting the ocean,
and the space is holding the earth,
and the sun is holding the earth in its orbit,
and the sun,
well, the sun
is this gargantuan blazing fire
extending out everywhere...

and you take all the credit,

even for those "thoughts"
that continually keep arriving...
just like the sun...

you actually think you can
and do operate
completely on your own

isn't that a really wild
perspective?

consumption

consumption

one bite,
one purchase
beyond real need...

do you feel empty or full?

time out

stillness
pauses
slows it all
down

it's enough to make you stop,
to see a that a million carcasses
won't ever be enough

i can never get
what i am denying

i can never ease
the pain of a lie
with a hamburger
or a new thingamabob

rest is the only thing
that can offer rest


truth is the only thing
that can offer truth

consumption only gives me less and less and less--
it just keeps telling me over and over and over:
you are a body
you are a body
you are a body,
and the truth is
i am not

(after seeing the movie Samsara)

painting

you paint the picture,
and then insist it's reality

you paint a victim,
you paint an evil one

but you painted it,
you are the only one involved

is that what you want to paint
for fun?

or would you paint the Giver,
the Generous One,
the friend,
the love that falls from the stars,
and carpets the ground on which i walk?

where falling is cushioned
by love
and headwinds caress,
cleaning out all clutter
i would no longer carry

where hurricanes
are in a hurry
to clear the coast
so i can see
the sea?

would i paint the seen,
the storms rising
but to fall and rise again

or
rain water for cleansing,
quenching, nourishing,
growing, transporting,
floating, supporting...

the Giver,
the endless giver

as this brush dips toward the palette,

what color, friend, what color

would you paint me?

ingratitude

the virus of ingratitude
topples the blessings,
like dominoes they fall
into denial,
blocked from awareness

ingratitude looks,
but doesn't see
the innocent
fresh
unfathomable

it does not see
it does not see
it does not see

while yet the heart is filled
and bursting ever open,
ingratitude walks right by
the hands out held with gifts
and sees only lack

sees only a problem,
while an entire amazing
universe
shimmers,
just waiting
to be tasted

just sitting there
ripe

only gratitude
will ever show it to you

that newborn infant,
that baby smell,
in your arms
now

really?

you are not a body,
yet look how you struggle to drive the car,
to get ahead of the other spiritual seekers,
just one step ahead,
get there first,
know just a bit more
as you respond to a fb post

feel it,
feel the hell of that

watch as you try to be bigger
than you are,
to reach out of your car window
and drive your neighbor's car!

could cause quite a wreck

as you resign your own job
of driving your own car.

c'mon, just pause for a moment
and answer this honestly,
are you really capable of driving
two cars at once
down different roads?

it's really quite absurd,
isn't it?

get down

"the body doesn't live or die" (acim)

"you don't have parents" (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

you are not in charge,
get down off your horse

sit down,
do nothing,
simply wait
for your direction

do you find this insulting?

lay down upon the ground,
wait for it to rain,
do you see you did not make it?

feel the earth under you,
do you see you did not make it?

breathe the air deep into your lungs,
do you see you did not make it?

do you see
you did not make your lungs?

do you see there is not one plant,
one rock, one animal, one house
you had anything to do with?

perhaps you moved a few
things from here to there...

but of yourself,
no thing

you are not in charge,
get down
off your horse

do nothing,
simply wait
for direction

without the possibility of failure

without the possibility of "failure"

eyes open wide,
heart opens wide

lush,
luscious every where,

even "cement",
for Heaven's sake!

everything, creation

mind is so fertile,
endlessly fertile

wisemen,
not three,
but billions

what but Love could produce
such endless variety,
such subtlety

without the possibility of failure,
there's only the Lamborghini!
whatever it is, brilliant,
God/Reality,
not apart from you,
but You!

Everything,
Everything,
Every thing
is You!

it would take a real stretch of the
imagination to see all that is
as a failure...

money

Money is necessary (to survive). Is it true?

No.
I can't eat it,
breathe it,
wear it,
take shelter in it.

Money itself doesn't really do anything
for me,
or give me
anything.

just some metal disks
and paper.

My body cannot use it
in any way.

wow!

It is necessary for me to give,
to extend,
to express
what i am

a transit (of love)
a giver of thoughts,
insights,
inspiration...

to transmit,
emit,
light
Love
openness, clarity, understanding--
to cease war--death, confusion

listening is required,
silence is required
for peace,
sanity,
to realize what i am,
for health and wholeness

literally,
my life depends on it.
This feels much truer.

without Love,
my true nature,
i want to die.
Millions of people kill themselves
when they lose touch with their true nature.
They start wars, bomb, kill, blame, criticise.

Love is clarity;
Clarity is what i need--
expanded consciousness
where all possibilities/wisdom is revealed;
where fear is not present to block the way
of proceeding and living out of love.

Joy is necessary to flourish.
Gratitude and appreciation of all that is--
receptivity TO SEE
the abundance that is,
the abundance I am
and how it is ALL GIVEN.
I am graced with awareness.
To be able to see that
I am awareness.

Awareness needs nothing
to survive, to exist.

Awareness does not need money
to exist.
Money needs awareness to exist.
Yes. Absolutely truer.
Nothing exists without awareness.

Awareness is completely free
(no cost, no charge, no payment, no sacrifice).
Pure Grace.

Awareness needs no thing. ever!

What a place to bask!
just wanted to share...
it's just my nature
to share...

so true

don't know

what do you really know
about a tree?

a specific tree,
not just a concept

an actual tree,
the one that lives nearest you?

can you really know
if it feels,
or thinks,
or loves?

this life...
is it really just wood?

those so tiny buds,
the tenderest of leaves
just opening

what do you really know?

are you sure
it's a "tree"?

does that really tell you anything
at all?

have you ever really been present
with her?
her slightest motion,
have you listened to her,
felt her sways,
her relaxation,
her swish?

her beauty,
flexibility--
mind
that rests so easily,
so gently

body/tree follows mind;
mirror follows mind

thank you for this grace,
nothing stuck,
nothing separate,
no one the "star",
nothing more special than any other "part",
no part separate from the "whole"
nothing that doesn't belong

what do i really know about this "tree",
its communication with itself
and all...impossible to separate from "air",
"water", "sun"...
nothing at all

She
is my teacher.

I know nothing at all.
I can't even call her leaves "green".
What in the world would make that so?

how righteous!
why wouldn't i ask her,
listen to her
if i really wanted
to know
her?

is it possible
she has a language
i haven't learned

that i haven't bothered
to consider

so i thought
mistakenly
that she couldn't talk?

is it possible
i've turned my back on her,
walked right by her every day of my life,
and never yet,
really met her?

let me be still now

still
now

and see...

with out the thought
that is a tree...

on a platter

What is it for?
it's value,
it's helpfulness?

everything
is for my freedom

every thought
serves my freedom

thoughts piled high
for you
on a silver platter

laundry

just.one.

is here.
now.

to be met,
held

open your arms wide wide wide

she wants to come Home!!!
she wants your gentle caress,
your fingers in her hair,
your sweater absorbing
the tear from her cheek

your whole "life"
has been for this

to come to this moment
and hold her hands,

this precious
kindergardener

you
are her mother

bruises
rest
on this ancient platter,
long awaiting your kiss,
your ear,
your humbleness

the tray is ready;
the meal is served.

This One.
The One closest to you.
Your Gift.

Now.