Old fetishes

Old fetishes
 
The world (per Lao Tzu) is gained by daily loss,
loss upon loss until at last comes rest.
 
Neti, neti offers the great reward 
of seeing through and past old fetishes,

abandoning hope after hope after hope,
 as the thick tangle of each binding

becomes suddenly transparent 
and then shatters into nothingness.

While little Truth is gained, 
multiple illusions are detected 

and then discarded and it feels like progress, 
gradual but certain – an unburdening, 

one step in ten thousand  
nearer to emptiness, stillness and silence.
 
O child of God, subdue your tongue
but allow your pen to freely flow.