The No-Answer Answer
Find and connect with the stillness within,
for this is the you that you seek:
your unconditional, non-judgmental, accepting self,
the peace that passeth all understanding.
Connect with others,
for you need them
no less than they need you,
as we’re all in this together.
Let’s generously give of ourselves
and gratefully receive from them,
one to the other,
the self to the self.
Let’s be just as we are,
the OK and the not-so-OK,
and see that all of the not-OK
is just as OK as the OK.
Don’t try to be different from how you are, or how it is.
Never compare yourself with anyone in any way.
Be your unique, authentic self,
true to yourself, speaking your truth.
Have no answer to those unanswered questions.
Allow the questions to come and go,
and see them as passing thoughts
that mean only what we say they mean.
Have no interest in trying to heal yourself
or in trying to fix others.
Lovingly take notice of how you are right now
and attend to those in need of your loving presence.
Be with the truth of not knowing:
not knowing what you should do
or how you should be,
open, curious, spacious.
Pay no attention to each appearing thought,
and allow your emotions to freely flow.
Align yourself with the natural coming and going
of thought, of feelings, of life.
We don’t need time
to get things done.
No past, no future,
just now, now, now.
No answers, no comparing,
no time, no you,
just this present-moment experience
as we live with what is happening now.
You see, there are no separate ones,
there is only the connected one,
and just like me, you are that.
You are the one.
I Am the Love That I Seek
I am the love that I seek.
I am that,
and that is me,
what else is there to be?
You are the love that you seek,
really, truly, deeply.
It’s who you are right here,
not something unobtainable,
over there.
They are the love that they seek,
but they don’t know,
not those who look no more:
the great unwashed.
I am as dirty as they are,
for I’ve done my wrongs to others,
just as I’ve done them to myself.
But I have found what they were looking for.
There are those over there,
and then there are those who are right here.
Our enemies and friends are all with us,
no one is missing.
I see you, and you see me.
Why can’t they all be like
our self-actualized selves?
Living so unhappily in a world of them,
where no one is like anybody else.
We live with the robotic sheep,
not thinking in their sleepwalking ways,
but who am I to say
how we all compare?
For when they look over at me,
imbedded among the herd,
they see I am the same as them:
a clock-working human.
Are we more evolved and developed than them?
Well yes, of course, that’s true.
And more damaged, with less holding us together?
Oh, that would be me, too.
We are the enlightened corpses,
wandering in the darkness
with all our deformities, insecurities and frailties,
waiting for the world to catch up.
Broken and beaten,
yet with all this clarity,
in a sea of mud
of our own creation.
As Beatle Paul and Beatle John wrote.
“I am he as you are he as you are me,
and we are all together.”
I know you see that,
for we are all the walrus.
I see him as he sees me,
he sees you and you are him,
and I am you and you are me.
But why was I always seeking love
from over there, when it was always here?
I was always the love that I sought,
for I am he as you are me,
as we are all love together.
We are the very love that we seek,
but who would know it?
You Are Not Just You
You are not just you,
a you so afraid
to realize
just who you are.
Your life is happening now.
There is no you outside of this now,
and there is no now outside of your existence.
You are the experience of yourself, as you exist right now.
That’s all you can ever be,
and all you can ever know.
We want this precious life
to be so sweet and perfect,
so kind and giving
and unconditionally abundant.
We want to be so grateful
for what we have,
and so much more so
for what we wish and hope
is to follow.
But we never got all of what we wanted.
Instead, we received this,
and what is to come, eventually,
is going to be totally unwanted, feared and dreaded;
perhaps brutal, oh no.
Eventually, we get to see that what we wanted;
who we were supposed to be and what was supposed to happen;
didn’t happen, didn’t come and never arrived,
and sometimes we dreamed our worst nightmare.
Instead of getting what we wanted,
we received unconditional reality,
a reality that we didn’t plan, see or ask for.
We didn’t order any of what we didn’t want
from that lovely menu we imagined,
the one we created for ourselves.
Just like you, I lived for the fantasy of my ideal self,
anticipating the living of a wonderful life
that was sure to come, eventually.
A fulfilled life of acceptance and gratitude,
for that was how it was meant to be.
So, what is here now, my friend,
as we bathe in our decline,
as Rome burns,
and we lay dying?
Well, there is no need, anymore,
to uplift ourselves into the glorious now
of an imagined meaningful and fulfilling future,
full of gratitude and appreciation.
We can stand down,
no more repeating our feel-good affirmations and mantras,
or imagining and convincing ourselves
to be something we already are,
but don’t believe.
So we hold on for now,
for dear life,
how precious,
until it’s time to let go.
Can you see that now
is not the time to let go?
For those that have done so
have gone, are no longer here,
and how we miss them.
All the while we are here,
we chose to hold on,
without knowing why.
We hold on for dear life,
while others have let go.
So take it all away,
And then let’s see what’s left.
This is here:
this, which can’t be named or explained.
So is ‘this’ who I am?
Will ‘this’ be here when I’m gone?
Was ‘this’ here before me?
Let’s leave those questions unanswered,
and be with this,
this life, this now.
Everything there is, is this,
this ‘this’ is everything.
There is nothing that isn’t ‘this,’
this is everything there is.
So I am this,
and this is me.
I am nothing but this,
and this is who I am.
So, you see, you are not just you,
for you are this life, living right now.
You are life, you are now.
You are everything, my friend,
and I love you.
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