A Tendency to Shine

There is also Adyashati's poem, “A Tendency to Shine.”

That phrase rings out in my mind. It recalls how in the earliest of Becky’s leaving, I found that my love for her, my heart, my chest now appeared to shine. It was as if my love had become a burnished breast plate. It had become the love I had always wished to offer her.

So here are Adyashanti’s reflections upon that shining and Truth and becoming “fuel for a fire without end.”

A Tendency to Shine

If you prefer smoke over fire
then get up now and leave.
For I do not intend to perfume
your mind's clothing
with more sooty knowledge.

No, I have something else in mind.
Today I hold a flame in my left hand
and a sword in my right.
There will be no damage control today.

For God is in a mood
to plunder your riches and
fling you nakedly
into such breathtaking poverty
that all that will be left of you
will be a tendency to shine.

So don't just sit around this flame
choking on your mind.
For this is no campfire song
to mindlessly mantra yourself to sleep with.

Jump now into the space
between thoughts
and exit this dream
before I burn the damn place down.



And now, bowing to her wisdom and her own courage, I have to say, she exited the dream.
I wish everyone could understand this.