On shoe shining

On shoe shining                                                                                       

On the path of Love, every moment is devoted to God

while moving through the world, in everything you do. 

Shining shoes?  Shine them – God in your heart

and thoughts, taking the extra care and attention

demanded, perhaps, murmuring under your breath

with each buff, your intimate name for Him.

The Zen method while shining shoes

is to concentrate on shoe shining –

as a way to honor the given task,

the extra care and attention required

in surrendering wholeheartedly

to the holy moment – its great mystery 

ceaselessly arising and intertwining

where the form and formless, the One

and the many, the eternal and fleeting,

where God and humanity, meet and touch.

O child of God, the Masters’ every sundry methods

are designed to remove your pernicious ignorance.

The author of chaos

The author of chaos                                                                             

At the center of attention, I’m the author of chaos –

things ever-shifting outside myself and within –

rise and fall, come and go; strong winds afoot;

east and west never to meet; time marching on. 

But when I make it to the periphery,

a hush falls over existence; a timelessness

comes to the ever-changing scene.

Things settle into a pristine order; 

beauty rises on the wind; subtleties

become obvious and celebrated.

Moving from the center to the periphery

the center disappears – God has my back.

I’m no longer surrounded;

the past forever behind me,

returned to that sustaining,

mighty arena of the Unborn.

When I lose my grip on the periphery I am told,

I’ll go hurtling off into Oneness.

O child of God, the great illusion, Meher said,

is that you have ever been separate from the One.

Hitch a ride

Hitch a ride                                                                 

Viewing the moon’s rise and flight

cater-corner across the backyard,

rearranging the shadows and reflections

as it goes. Only so many more left to catch

this time around, like a giant pearl

rising from the green wood.

Take me with you, I want to shout.

If I could hitch a ride, sit atop its soft light

making its rounds, illuminating, befriending,

without preference or intention;

always up there to fade into, to lift up

with one strong arm and plant me on its back

so we might leisurely patrol together

the heavens with a quiet non-attachment

toward the busy, frightful workings

of this illusory, binding world below.  

O child of God, ride the moon that never rises,

never sets, neither waxes nor wanes.

--------------------------------------------------------
(photo by Petra Fischer - pixabay)

Speaking of God

Speaking of God                                                                                               

Make Me your constant companion,

gestured Lord Meher, speaking of God.

Like an imaginary friend,

I told myself . . . but, no, not imaginary –

beyond imagination and conception. 

From Aloneness God created loneliness,

the illusion of separateness, of other,  

to be eventually quenched,

so love could run its course

and God could find Himself

though He was never really lost.

God alone is Real, my Lord gestured also.

O my friends!  It is you and I,

His playmates, who are imaginary.

O child of God, apparently, everything is love.  Love

the verb, love the noun, love the ongoing mystery of God.