Seeking safety
Desiring freedom
Holding on tightly
Struggling to let go.
Turn into a butterfly,
I watched mesmerized,
A caterpillar
whose beauty I didn't know.
Did the caterpillar know
of the butterfly?
Or did the cocoon whisper
softly, that it could fly?
The desire of a caterpillar
a butterfly is not
It knows nothing of it
It is not its thought
Can I then be
Without wanting to be?
I am not that
Which I want to be
But I am a human
Not a caterpillar
I can think
Which wants me to be?
My surrender
Is just another thought
Another desire
Waiting to be
Whatever I do
Is to become
A dream it seems like
The possibility to be
Perhaps in the awareness
Of becoming, is the being
Maybe there can be freedom
From the illusion of the unseen
Endlessly, I keep moving
Thinking I will arrive.
Knowing not that reaching
Is nothing but the end of strive
31 March 2009
24 March 2009
Flowers for Algernon
'Flowers for Algernon', a book title, is the story of a science experiment that attempts to make a genius out of a person of very low IQ. The experiment succeeds, but then fails in other ways. The main character's name is Charlie. Algernon is the name of the mouse on whom the experiment was done first. An eponymous movie was also made about it which went on to win an Oscar.
In Charlie's life I could see reflections of my own and images of all of our lives. The acceptance and love which we seemingly find as a child - where we do not have sufficient 'intelligence' to differentiate between when people are pleased to see us versus when they are making fun of us. Where we have faith in everyone and everything and believe in the good intent behind all actions no matter how malicious.
It is the story of our lives as they evolve into adulthood where receipt of such unsolicited affection is replaced by a never ending effort on our part to seek acceptance and love. And the story of our life can be written as the tale of this path that we take to reach that goal - through accumulation of wealth, or power, or knowledge, or spirituality, or a myriad other things - only to discover that that which we sought to unite us with another only served to isolate us even further as the other became envious, jealous, or simply lost the ability or the desire to relate to this alien that we had become to him or her.
It is a story of our lives in which we see all our accumulations crumble upon us. How we lose that which we so cherish and hold dear - to time, to world, to circumstances. And how in the loss of each little thing there is a part of us that dies with it. Little by little, until one day there is nothing left of us.
But man has succeeded in creating a great illusion of hope which keeps him driving until the end. Even then hope does not end and tugs on ones sleeve with a promise of reincarnation or an afterlife or a business like exchange promise for the deserving results of this life's actions in the next.
It is quite ironic that that which we depend upon to unite, brings about division, that as the number of people increases, so does the loneliness of each person. Life is perhaps an irony, perhaps a paradox. One leaves home and travels far and wide in search of that home.
In Charlie's life I could see reflections of my own and images of all of our lives. The acceptance and love which we seemingly find as a child - where we do not have sufficient 'intelligence' to differentiate between when people are pleased to see us versus when they are making fun of us. Where we have faith in everyone and everything and believe in the good intent behind all actions no matter how malicious.
It is the story of our lives as they evolve into adulthood where receipt of such unsolicited affection is replaced by a never ending effort on our part to seek acceptance and love. And the story of our life can be written as the tale of this path that we take to reach that goal - through accumulation of wealth, or power, or knowledge, or spirituality, or a myriad other things - only to discover that that which we sought to unite us with another only served to isolate us even further as the other became envious, jealous, or simply lost the ability or the desire to relate to this alien that we had become to him or her.
It is a story of our lives in which we see all our accumulations crumble upon us. How we lose that which we so cherish and hold dear - to time, to world, to circumstances. And how in the loss of each little thing there is a part of us that dies with it. Little by little, until one day there is nothing left of us.
But man has succeeded in creating a great illusion of hope which keeps him driving until the end. Even then hope does not end and tugs on ones sleeve with a promise of reincarnation or an afterlife or a business like exchange promise for the deserving results of this life's actions in the next.
It is quite ironic that that which we depend upon to unite, brings about division, that as the number of people increases, so does the loneliness of each person. Life is perhaps an irony, perhaps a paradox. One leaves home and travels far and wide in search of that home.
20 March 2009
Who Am I?
In an ocean’s reflection
A snowflake surrendered
A droplet trickled,
inspired a stream
The stream surrendered,
became a a mighty river
The river which then roared
bursting through the seams
She strode forcefully through the mountains
Meandered through the longing planes
Bathe her self through sparkling falls
Playfully passed by shimmering rocks
She laughed her way on and on
Oblivious to the gain or loss
Abiding in her own true self
Finding her way back to herself
I am the snowflake that can't let go
Holding tightly to my piece of ice
Convinced of what perils do lie
On a journey to which I never arrived
I seek not courage
I seek no ocean
What is this fear that keeps me frozen?
Perhaps I await a warm summer
to ignite the heat of an easy surrender?
I can't let go until I know
What it is that I will find
Upon the end of that
Which today for me stands well defined
On and on I keep on going
Perplexed by my own efforts
Incessant questioning and an endless strife
Imprisoned within my own desires
In such misery I looked around
Many others struggling I found
Same grievance, similar pain
Oh! How hard to remain the same
My heart swelled, reached out to all
I understand your suffering, was my call
I closed my eyes and looked inside
To seek an answer to another's delight
I witnessed the river then join the ocean,
The stream giving the river embrace
The trickling droplet that made it happen
The tiny snowflake that led the way...
A snowflake surrendered
A droplet trickled,
inspired a stream
The stream surrendered,
became a a mighty river
The river which then roared
bursting through the seams
She strode forcefully through the mountains
Meandered through the longing planes
Bathe her self through sparkling falls
Playfully passed by shimmering rocks
She laughed her way on and on
Oblivious to the gain or loss
Abiding in her own true self
Finding her way back to herself
I am the snowflake that can't let go
Holding tightly to my piece of ice
Convinced of what perils do lie
On a journey to which I never arrived
I seek not courage
I seek no ocean
What is this fear that keeps me frozen?
Perhaps I await a warm summer
to ignite the heat of an easy surrender?
I can't let go until I know
What it is that I will find
Upon the end of that
Which today for me stands well defined
On and on I keep on going
Perplexed by my own efforts
Incessant questioning and an endless strife
Imprisoned within my own desires
In such misery I looked around
Many others struggling I found
Same grievance, similar pain
Oh! How hard to remain the same
My heart swelled, reached out to all
I understand your suffering, was my call
I closed my eyes and looked inside
To seek an answer to another's delight
I witnessed the river then join the ocean,
The stream giving the river embrace
The trickling droplet that made it happen
The tiny snowflake that led the way...
04 March 2009
Endless search
All I know is all I seek
What I seek is what I know
In separation only I discover
Unity and Union I do not come upon
Ah! My ignorance makes me search
Says Look! Look! What I have found!
Holds ecstatically to the thing without
When end of search is what it's found
What I seek is what I know
In separation only I discover
Unity and Union I do not come upon
Ah! My ignorance makes me search
Says Look! Look! What I have found!
Holds ecstatically to the thing without
When end of search is what it's found
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