Rabbit
hole
Words
again (and again) after
waking
up from some rabbit hole dream
to
the more familiar one (known as my life),
having
lost my command of words,
especially
the verbs, which demand
I
take some sort of remedial action.
After
a lifetime of interpreting/
explaining
myself (and life) to myself,
my
stable of words has become as rebellious,
untethered
and empty now as the rabbit hole itself –
(not
a scintilla of wonder or adventure left in it).
I
chalk out one more two-dimensional conjecture,
tasteless
and stale on the sidewalk at my feet
as
it is in my mouth and ears
and
I ask myself – is it my words
that
are so ineffectual or is it the dream itself?
O
child of God, how difficult it is to put into words
that which you know
nothing about.
(drawing by Rich Panico)
Imagine
God
To
realize God (say the Mystics),
extinguish
your candle.
God
in His Oneness, manifests
only
when duality is broken
and
the seeker is no more.
In
the interim between
the
first crush and annihilation,
the
lover must in all good faith
imagine a life of Oneness
and
behave accordingly –
with
inviolate composure and devotion,
marking
time until the Truth reveals Itself.
O
child, take God to be the Sole Doer
and become the Truth
you already are.
Under His thumb
He
was the distant Observer of my youth,
remote
enough not to cramp my style.
By
middle age, I sought a deeper bond,
hoping
to escape my fears by settling
securely
under His thumb.
These
latter years, I take Him for granted,
the
Great Sustainer, without Whom
there
is no Existence and no reason to exist.
O
child, God is immutable; only ourselves
and our perspectives change
with time.
From
the inside out
Don’t
worry, be happy, said my Lord,
which
seems, at first, a mere pleasantry,
but,
o pilgrim, where does your happiness abide?
And
on what does your happiness depend?
If
it comes from the outside
(rather
than from the inside out),
if
it’s something you must
repeatedly
chase down;
if
it is, in fact, dependent on anything
apart
from your relationship with God,
you
are forever vulnerable
to
its capricious abandonment.
And
how to be happy (per Meher)
from
the inside out?
Surrender
fearlessly to the terrible
vagaries
of the original Whim.
O
child of God, surrender is when
happiness transcends
into sublimity.
