Poems

Nightly, we are obliterated in sleep.
Are you terrified to drift off,
or relieved and eager?

Word thoughts go silent.
The curtain closes
on our chattering monologue.

Experiencing abyss,
we are renewed.

Chaos within, chaos without,
a calm boundary delineates.

Choose your focus level.

Are you aware?
You have a choice!

A superior option:
the ability of retreat,
surrender to both at once.

Flowing with the present,
a Released One exists only herenow…
and herenow… and herenow!

Time is another word,
more invented noise.

Our sounds travel and arrive,
are perceived later.
We wait to hear the falsity.

Do ears ever capture truth?

We divide One into a fractured cacophony,
splintering ourselves with categories.

The “I” dissolved into nameless Tao,
without laughing, without striving.

The Unlabeled does not ponder.

Now-here is no me.
Now-there is no thee.

We merge into We,
then immediately with All.

Uniting with Tao,
untying in Tao.

Self applied labels fade.

“My” thoughts quiet.
“My” emotions settle.

Peace pervades.
I am unwound.

Open beings have no barrier.

Tao flows through,
unhindered yet guiding.

In merging we become nameless.
Indescribable is the non-being.

We disappear in this truth.

Hop aboard, Anonymous One.
Leave your self at the station.

Looking from nobody,
strong individuals seem insane.

A platform of intense ego
perceives the Awake
as dead blobs.

These two are the same.

The difference:
a concentration of self labelling,
the dilute and the compressed.

I pretended I was nothing
and calmness penetrated.

I pretended “I” was illusion
and “my” mind stopped.

Was my suffering counterfeit?

Did I simulate being a this or that
“my” whole life?

If you value chaos,
you will judge:

“This false me
is perfectly correct!”

If you value peace,
you will accept:

“I have no idea.
I relent!”

At worst, “I am certain.”
Slightly improved, “I am confused.”
At my best, “I am clueless!”

Enlightenment, realization,
liberation, ego-death

A plethora of terms
Applied to “no-self”.

What does the labelling?

Is it a self,
reaching for recognition?

Perhaps a spiritual marketer?

“No labels”,
the most accurate.

No label maker
is the truth.