An Unfinished Poem by Adyashanti
Listen now, or lose your life,
for what I have to say is what you have imagined in quiet moments
but have failed to realize in full.
Perhaps you were too timid or astonished at the critical moments,
or couldn’t find the courage to step through the veil of your frail life
when the door was opened for you.
Or perhaps you wanted to keep your life as your own,
and chose to hold onto a few pennies
when you could have had gold.
No matter,
for yesterday has passed into the dust of remembered dreams,
and tomorrow’s story is yet to be written.
Which is precisely why you and I are now here together.
You and I.
You and I.
Oh, the sheer mystery of it—how could anything be more grand?
Stand with me here at the precipice and take my hand in yours,
for I am good company to those ready to depart familiar ground.
If not, then let loose of my hand now
and take that of a more familiar companion.
For where we stand is known,
but our next step will not be—nor the one after or the one after that.
…Let us not waste any more time on discussions or debates;
you have surely been caught in those tide pools too long already.
Too much talk is wearying to the soul
and evades the spirit of things.
Longing is the true measure of a man or woman
and alone has the power to draw us out of ourselves
and into the vast air of eternity.
But we shall not rely only on the winds of longing,
for they can be fickle
and unpredictable.
We shall also need the fire of intent
—that fine-tipped arrow of courage
flying true and straight to its goal,
piercing through the fabric of our dreams as it goes.
It is time to begin watching your steps, dear companion.
For you have already wasted the goodness of too many days
stumbling along with the unconscious drove.
Today I bid you to place no foot upon the earth without feeling
the sinews, skin, and bone of your feet with each step.
How awake you are to the least of things
will determine how awake you become to the greatest in due time.
For in the play of time, the great and manifold diversity of things
in the end proves their unity.
And it is toward the end that we are headed,
for it is only by means of the end that we arrive here,
on this spot, free and immortal.
I can see in your eyes a fear and confusion.
All this talk of endings brings a tremble to your bones.
But fear not,
for I do not speak of death or chaos
except to point out
that you have already fallen prey to both.
No,
I talk of awakening from the death of sleepwalking in dreams and veiled imagination. Beyond the veil all is well, and more well than I can attest.
Within the immortality of what you are,
there is a contentment and peace born only of your true identity.
…I seek only to remove untruth from your mind
so that you may be restored to the unitary vision
which is your everlasting inheritance.
I have abreviated this and changed the line alignment.
You can read the full unedited version for your self. Right Here. And I have used one of my own versions of Small Deaths, by way of illustration, scould you want to click of the picture here. Namatse
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