eric solibakke
agora html edition
agora press
Oslo, Norway
second edition 1998
1994, 1998 © eric solibakke
to the one without a second
who through the force of irresistible love
awakens every individual to divine wholeness,
the only one worthy of worship
peacefully truthfully lovefully
no separation is possible1. this mind is your servant, oh indivisible one
2. the creation resembles ice afloat in the ocean
3. fell in the all-pervading ocean
4. it doesn't matter how many thoughts i have
5. mind is a division multiplier
6. oneness is like a plank of seasoned wood
7. christ renewed the world by the force of his love
8. i resist to say i am you
9. no matter what the mind thinks or says or feels
10. the entire creation rushes forward
11. when many becomes one
12. during an avataric age
13. the light of the sun radiates
14. dualities in mind are not dualities in reality
15. worldly wines and whiskeys bring on spells of darkness
16. the tree of love sets roots deep in the heart
17. oh mind, cease backbiting and slander
18. those who love the world
19. mind is the world
20. oh untouchable one, nothing reaches you
21. the sun shines with the seven times diminished
22. drop becomes river
23. oh drop ocean of all-pervading oneness
24. within the unchanging climate of oneness
25. heart finds the beach
26. when even the most insignificant of us misses the mark
27. silence tells more than words
28. so intimate
29. i fell in the ocean
30. you're a different kind of beloved
31. the thought of you drives the mind
32. the beauty of bilateral symmetry
33. the silent laughter of god's eternal humor
34. god has one son
35. what the creation ultimately creates
36. you are the one who returns again and again
37. the bees of the world come
38. if i hold on to your daaman
39. "nothingness" is a concept of mind
40. loving you is sometimes
41. i am the moon of your sun
42. for my birthday
43. the avatar is our own soul
44. how strange to wish happy birthday
45. ballroom dancers and figure skating champions
46. at the moment of emptiness
47. the action-attraction of mind's dramatic dance
48. in my confusion, i didn't know who i am
49. they all said, "i will come again!"
50. since god runs the universe
51. beyond reality and illusion
52. mind without contradiction goes beyond mind
53. you were the first to roll, the first to crawl
54. one longs to die to all the controversy and conflict
55. a child hears the earth is round and believes
56. real knowledge creates freedom
57. my heart empowers me to speak as a white european
58. the fundamentalist mind starves
59. in the parliament of mankind's shared experience
60. illusion because of projection
61. the world uses every trick it can come up with
62. if there were not practitioners
63. when the quarreling rowdies of mind
64. i feel the discomfort of those who attack me
65. one never goes beyond the mind by stopping it
66. oneness hides within the mask of two
67. the creation unfolds the imagination of god
68. soul discovers the identity of all manifestation
69. eye cannot see one nor can ear hear one
70. real oneness supports a weave of opposites
71. through the intense medium of divine love
72. the golden rain of grace rises as a mist
"Combine this with the Ocean of What We Were
Before Creation.
Roar the Lion-Knowledge.
Write this with gold Ocean-Ink,
so that whoever reads it
can grow in the Spirit." --- Jelaludin Rumi, MATHNAWI
Trans. Coleman Barks, Delicious Laughter, p. 87, 1990
no separation is possible
- eternal perfect beloved
this mind is your servant, oh indivisible one,
who stands in awe of his beloved master
and longs to serve to the limit of his capacity.
this mind is your hands and feet, oh undivided one,
that create a landscape wherever they step
while gathering and distributing your love's largesse.
this mind is your vehicle, oh nondual one,
powered by the charge that sparks between plus and minus.
moving slowly and quickly, it shuttles you near and far.
this mind is your appearance, oh one without another,
that fills the mirror with your lovely features
while also giving the impression of an ugly shadow.
this mind is your wealth, oh one and only one,
a treasure chamber overflowing with valuables and baubles
presented as gifts by all the kingdoms in creation.
this mind is your entertainment, oh incomparable one,
which amuses and disappoints you in quick succession
as it strives to be worthy of your attention.
this mind is your kingdom, oh eternal one,
where citizens and foreigners alike obey and disobey
as they curry favor and attempt to conceal selfish schemes.
this mind is your laboratory, oh immeasurable one,
where natural elements come under exacting scrutiny
and theories are formed and discarded like calendar pages.
- eternal perfect beloved
the creation resembles ice afloat in the ocean.
it's solid, and can be molded by imagination
into any conceivable form -- landscapes, creatures.
they retain their form as long as the temperature
remains below freezing.
when the temperature rises above freezing,
the ice returns to the ocean.
the ocean is god,
and the creation is never other than god,
though it appears so as long as it's frozen.
the freezing point marks the division
between ignorance and knowledge
of the truly divine nature of the creation.
in fact only god exists.
all that appears other than god
has its source in the ability of ignorance
to shape innumerable forms from god's substance.
for ages the deeply frozen consciousness of humans
views itself and all others as separate.
as the love of god warms that consciousness,
it begins to notice the similar substance of every form.
when the temperature rises above freezing,
true knowledge dawns.
all forms melt and return
to their original formlessness in god.
human consciousness recognizes itself
to be none other than the original, ever-existing ocean,
which is god.
- eternal perfect beloved
fell in the all-pervading ocean.
dissolved.
ocean disappeared to the last drop.
that became "i."
ocean reappeared in all fullness.
that became "am."
- eternal perfect beloved
it doesn't matter how many thoughts i have,
nor how wild they are.
no separation is possible.
separation and union are themselves
false divisions of oneness.
no separation is possible.
no matter what mind thinks, heart feels or body does,
no separation is possible.
no separation between identity and divinity.
no separation between self and other.
not even everyday mind can separate from you,
not even gastrointestinal mind,
not even denial.
no separation is possible, no duality real.
- eternal perfect beloved
mind is a division multiplier
that chisels all from undivided oneness.
imagination revels in these false divisions of manyness,
but it has no power to divide reality.
nothing, not even death, can separate true lovers.
no knife is sharp enough, no wedge strong enough
to divide reality in two.
the nature of the mind is such
and the nature of the truth is such
that every thought is both right and wrong.
no separation is possible, no duality real.
- eternal perfect beloved
oneness is like a plank of seasoned wood.
desire is like a plane.
thoughts are shavings that curl off the blade's edge.
who's the carpenter?
- eternal perfect beloved
christ renewed the world by the force of his love.
he sent the joy of victory into men's hearts.
saints and lovers ascended to him in large numbers.
his love built monumental buildings and institutions.
his joy inspired divine music in the ears of mankind.
his hand gave comfort to all who suffered grief.
but the world of christ became old and lost its vitality.
it fell and could not rise again.
nursed by anarchist, communist, fascist, it nearly died.
meher baba's divine love has again renewed the world.
its sores are healed, its vitality restored.
ordinary hearts fill with extraordinary love.
the tide turns and the ocean of oneness floods,
bringing the joy of victory again unto suffering mankind
in the original truth of man's eternal oneness with god.
- eternal perfect beloved
i resist to say i am you
in order to avoid the possibility of offending you.
but truthfully i can be no other than you.
only you exist.
you are both god and man.
therefore am i both man and god.
man considers the possibility of offending you,
while god knows the truth beyond doubt.
in the form of man
god attends to the niceties of the creation
as if to his personal toilette.
in the form of god
man lives in the heart of eternity
with hands and feet in time.
- eternal perfect beloved
no matter what the mind thinks or says or feels,
nor even what the body does,
no separation is possible.
oh meher baba, you are the foundation of oneness
that nothing can touch with the fingers of manyness
nor hold in the clasp of hand's duality.
the moment i attribute anything whatsoever to you
i've dropped my eyes from your face
and settled them on the appearance of your dress.
your absence is the source of your presence.
in response to our longing you appear.
your presence cannot be separated from your absence.
- eternal perfect beloved
the entire creation rushes forward
with enormous momentum
just to be in the embrace of your arms.
when the interlocked thoughts of mind
let go like an opening zipper,
you show yourself as you really are.
everyday items in illusion are full of you
but appear empty to the ordinary eye.
only a rare person sees through your disguise.
- eternal perfect beloved
when many becomes one
and one becomes none,
many becomes one with none
and only the beloved remains.
- eternal perfect beloved
during an avataric age
the golden rain of grace continues falling
until the rivers of return overflow their banks
and all creation disappears in a golden flood.
the ocean of love comes to the lover
and drowns him in god's grace.
this advent amounts to the initiation of mankind
into the knowledge of avatar.
god does care. god is everywhere present.
he's in charge of the entire creation.
he knows and bears the burdens of human beings.
indeed, he comes to mankind as a man among men.
he is not only the truth of only love,
he is also that love in human form, the godman.
oh oneness at the center of mind's symmetry,
whoever meets you knows you to be god.
whoever loves you knows himself to be god.
the creation is your appearance
and the ocean of oneness your reality.
mind is your undergarment,
energy your suit of clothes,
matter your outer wrap.
oh undivided oneness who binds the world together,
you are distributed evenly throughout the creation
like water in the ocean.
your stillness quiets the mind and silences the tongue.
- eternal perfect beloved
the light of the sun radiates
your realization of who you are.
its warmth is your invitation for us to join you
in recognizing the truth of who we are.
anyone who thinks he's a man or a woman
doesn't know himself, doesn't know self.
consciousness is fundamentally lost in darkness
until it recognizes the light of self.
the creation is an expression of ignorance
in search of knowledge.
level after level of ignorance dawn and depart
until the knowledge of self becomes visible.
then dawn and departure no longer apply.
mind like a wax labyrinth
melts in the heat of truth
and disappears in the flames of love.
- eternal perfect beloved
dualities in mind are not dualities in reality.
mind is a division multiplier
producing appearance upon false appearance
in order to create consciousness,
set energy in motion and project the material world.
the entire creation appears here
in all its variety and detail,
while at the same time only the oneness
of absolute vacuum is really here.
the other appears to arise from the one,
yet the one remains entirely without other.
in reality no creation has ever been.
- eternal perfect beloved
worldly wines and whiskeys bring on spells of darkness
but the intoxication of your love, oh awakener,
opens inner vision of the astonished creation unfolding
from a single omnipresent point of intense oneness
like an eagle from an egg or phoenix from ash.
what one experiences is one's own consciousness.
what determines the quality of one's experience
is the condition of one's consciousness.
heart helps the mind to see truth
and truth helps the heart to love,
but we understand only what we want to understand,
and don't understand what we don't want to.
those who believe that god doesn't exist
relate to matter as if it were god.
those who see god as energy
relate to power as if it were god.
those who sense the presence of god in consciousness
relate to truth as god.
these illusions are dualistic projections of opposites
unworthy of clinging.
nothing stands so firm as reality,
free and independent, whole and indivisible.
the entire creation sits on this pinpoint
which is the exterior manifestation of one's own true self.
only real love holds the universe in place.
- eternal perfect beloved
the tree of love sets roots deep in the heart
and lifts its mighty trunk through the crown of the head
into the powerful light of supreme truth.
great limbs spread all directions
offering transformative fruit to hungry beings
throughout the entire creation.
this fruit tastes of life abundant
and fills the belly with the will to love.
the worlds rest like bird nests
in the branches of this wondrous tree,
which seekers long hunger and search for,
eventually to sample its rare fruit.
- eternal perfect beloved
oh mind, cease backbiting and slander.
you're like a tiger cub attacking its own shadow.
you bite your own foot, chase your own tail.
oh mind, cease rolling from side to side.
you're like a ship in a seaway
at the mercy of waves, wind and current.
only good seamanship brings you to port.
oh mind, cease wandering.
you're like a stag grazing on new greens in the spring forest.
you taste this, hop over for a nibble of that
and grab a bite of the other on the way by.
oh mind, cease laboring.
you rush back and forth, filling yourself with every
thinkable kind of comic strip soap opera magazine.
oh mind, cease wheeling and dealing.
you're like a kid on the loose at a shopping mall
with a couple of dollars burning his pocket.
- eternal perfect beloved
those who love the world
must pilgrimage from the periphery to the center
where your love feeds the starving soul.
those whom you've brought to the center
see the creation as the scaffolding of consciousness.
mind and world are identical.
all is one and one all.
you are all that exists and doesn't exist.
you are the height of any climb
and the bottom of any fall.
those who love you
make pilgrimage from this abundance of divine love
at the center of the universe
out to the suffering periphery
where the world strives against a famine of love.
you are the marriage of opposites,
an unlimited ocean of marriages.
with you the entire creation is sacred.
it reveals you to yourself through us
as impurity highlights purity.
you live in all as life itself,
and you are both its source and goal.
- eternal perfect beloved
mind is the world.
heart is attitude toward the world.
body is action in the world.
the stars are the mental body.
the weather is the subtle body.
the ground underfoot is the physical body.
to be truth, comprehend opposites,
and find a drop of all-pervading ocean in the head.
to be love, appreciate,
and discover a pearl in the heart.
to be free, forgive,
and create a diamond in the belly.
- eternal perfect beloved
oh untouchable one, nothing reaches you,
nothing touches you in the beyond state
where no separation exists.
no doubt you are present in your samadhi
for the initiation of mankind at the end
of this sad old cycle and beginning of the new.
one comes here to empty out and be filled.
oh divine pacific, empty me
so that you have room to fill me again
with love's colossal heart.
who i think i am must give way
to the realization of who i really am.
even if i am the dumbest of all disciples,
beloved, don't let go of me.
bind me in your absolute freedom.
i promise to make it up to you when i can.
- eternal perfect beloved
the sun shines with the seven times diminished
force of truth.
among trees in the forest of opposites,
roots love the darkness of earth
where secret nerves suck nectar from the ground,
and leaves love the brilliant sky
where green tongues lick the solar ambrosia.
shadow streams as a dark wake behind knowing
where dying is part of the life of the body.
no dying ever touches soul.
- eternal perfect beloved
drop becomes river.
river becomes ocean.
ocean becomes drop.
drop becomes bottomless well.
- eternal perfect beloved
oh drop ocean of all-pervading oneness,
you are the truth and love of who i am.
you offer the will of oneness.
you tell me not to cling to any separation,
to hold fast to the daaman of oneness in and beyond all,
and no matter what happens,
make a statement about that oneness.
by killing mosquitoes, i kill myself.
when listening to dogs barking and frogs croaking,
i hear myself.
my mood is your mood, you feel what i feel.
you allow me to sing your praises this much.
then others must take over, add their voices and respond.
your ocean never reaches a limit of satiety
or tires of attention.
without your ocean of compassion,
mankind would fall into total darkness.
- eternal perfect beloved
within the unchanging climate of oneness
the weather appears to blow wet and dry.
truth never suffers change.
worldly appearance never escapes it.
ask the three old graiai
with their one eye among them
and one tooth to share,
where they sit there beside the river of trivia.
no matter what the weather was yesterday
one dresses for today.
- eternal perfect beloved
heart finds the beach,
head swims,
body drowns.
bliss is the mind's name
for what the heart calls love.
- eternal perfect beloved
when even the most insignificant of us misses the mark,
we all lose.
we all pay for each other's mistakes.
love is like a parent who tolerates
the child's unconsciousness
while waiting for the right season and moment
to turn on the light of understanding.
you promise that when the hunger is there,
food will appear.
we gestate in your womb of oneness.
- eternal perfect beloved
silence tells more than words.
it's a rare language, foreign to most.
who knows the grammar of silence?
the house of silence stands with open door,
an ever unmoved monument of love
without crack, joint, fissure or split.
- eternal perfect beloved
so intimate,
how can one possibly express it?
relationship with god
is really relationship with self.
so intimate!
how can one possibly express it?
- eternal perfect beloved
i fell in the ocean.
surprised, i gave up to death by drowning.
the ocean remains untouched.
now i am only baba is.
one another
- eternal perfect beloved
you're a different kind of beloved.
i want to share you with my friends,
but not right now.
you're touching my heart with inexpressible silence.
oh beloved, forgive me if i don't open the door
when someone knocks.
my forehead presses against the forehead
of your silent beauty.
i'm glowing in your beauty.
just this knocking itself rocks us
with waves of separation into duty and guilt.
i long to delay the inevitable shift of attention
from you to your spectacular creation.
i'm absorbed in your radiance.
yes, you permeate everything and everyone.
but just this moment i prefer the serene features
of your private face
rather than your rowdy public masks.
i'm nearly paralyzed by the joy of union.
- eternal perfect beloved
the thought of you drives the mind
out of the world's busy streets
into the fragrance of a quiet garden
where every flower advertises your beauty.
leaves and petals glow
with their own inner sunshine
that fills the sky with light.
the stillness says much more
than reason can explain.
if love doesn't thrive here
in this rare place,
how can we expect to cultivate it anywhere?
- eternal perfect beloved
the beauty of bilateral symmetry
in the two sides of your face
can be seen everywhere in the face of creation.
longing for that beauty tugs our hearts
into love for the things of the world
with all their limitations and frustrations.
the beauty of your unilateral original face
before the creation was born
can be seen only by divine eyes.
longing for this beauty opens the heart
beyond all limitation
and justifies the world's deep frustration.
oh beloved, the beauty of your divine face
reduces the beauty of your face in creation
to a mere echo of the original.
- eternal perfect beloved
the silent laughter of god's eternal humor
pushes his cosmic joke to the extreme edge
of what's bearable.
when you lose power, position, possessions,
even body and mind, who are you?
when the outer shell falls away, what remains?
oh supreme silence,
the day dreams and the night sleeps,
but reality rests forever in "i am god."
- eternal perfect beloved
god has one son
and that son has many costumes.
if you're not careful
you may be looking right at him
and saying he is not the son of god
because he's not wearing
the costume of nazareth at this moment.
god has one prophet
and that prophet dresses in many costumes.
if you're careless
you may be standing right beside him
and thinking he isn't the prophet of god
because he's not garbed
in the costume of mecca right now.
god has one avatar
and that avatar wears a variety of costumes.
if you're not alert
you may be face to face with him
and swearing he's not the avatar
because he's not outfitted
in the dress of brindeban at this time.
- eternal perfect beloved
what the creation ultimately creates
is not worlds full of varieties of living beings
but rather consciousness itself independent of any world.
god in his original self is unconscious.
the worlds in creation are his dreaming mate.
wide-awake consciousness is their only son.
as he said in his christ advent,
the only son of god is one with the father.
through his wife god has a son
and through his son god becomes himself conscious.
- eternal perfect beloved
you are the one who returns again and again
to tend the fire of love in human hearts.
your wholeness allows nothing to stand unbalanced.
the ocean of your oneness extinguishes hell fire
and drowns satan in a bottomless pool.
you take masses of undeserved abuse
and transform it into its opposite
through the sheer power of your bilateral symmetry.
you carry it to the dump of oneness
where it melts like ice in the heat of truth.
oh silent peace, oh truth afoot, oh armed love,
guide us in those ways that best serve you.
strengthen us, beloved, to bear the consequences
of our mistakes and failures.
heal the divide in us that creates a conflict
between failure and success.
- eternal perfect beloved
the bees of the world come
to the flower in your garden, beloved,
on account of the sweetness of your nectar
and the potency of your pollen.
just as bears in the forest
find their way to wild honeycombs
hidden high up in hollow trees,
the people of the world search
for the sweetness of your love.
- eternal perfect beloved
if i hold on to your daaman
my suffering brings me closer to you.
if i let go, it pushes us apart.
- eternal perfect beloved
"nothingness" is a concept of mind.
"oneness" is the reality of absolute vacuum beyond mind,
which manifests mind
as the "threeness" of power, truth and love
through the "twoness" of dualistic opposites.
one of the dualistic opposites is "everything/nothing."
the mind which declares reality to be "nothing"
has fallen into an error in thinking.
one could as well say that reality is "everything."
reality is in fact both extremes simultaneously.
"everything" and "nothing" are cognizable only
in reference to each other.
they arise together in the mind.
that which unites them in mind
so that one cannot exist without the other
nor be understood without the other,
that is reality divine, almighty love.
that unity exists in every thought and feeling of mind.
it exists before thought and feeling
as well as after thought and feeling.
it is independent of thought and feeling
and without qualification, limitation or modification.
it can only be seen by mind within the unity
of opposites in thought and feeling.
it can only be described in terms of thought and feeling.
the names of god refer to it but don't describe it.
the realization of it is "nirvana."
the mind when abiding in it is "nirvikalpa."
thought and feeling are "samsara."
the belief that thought and feeling are reality is "maya."
no matter how far apart the mind pushes opposites,
from the bottom of the sea to the top of everest,
the unity of their interdependent connection
can never snap in two.
sinner and saint, ugly and beautiful, war and peace
-- no distance exists between them,
but the appearance of distance between them
creates the space where their unity is in sharp focus
and clearly visible to the mind.
the created worlds spring into being
exactly in order to make unity visible
and focus consciousness in it.
the search for a vision of unity is the substance of life
in every kingdom in nature,
but only in the state of advanced human beings
is the quest recognized
as a search for truth, love or god.
when unity is realized, god is found.
the mind lets go its grip on opposites in duality
and comes to rest in the undisturbed reality of unity,
which is experienced as infinite love, truth and power.
these three dissolve all disputes
in the unity of the "i am god" state of perfect rest,
even in the midst of strenuous motion.
the discovery of god takes place
in the absence of personality's demand for power
to limit truth and rule love.
the final realization of god requires the intervention
of god himself in the form of one
who lives the "i am god" state of the perfect master,
qutub, satguru or the avatar himself.
- eternal perfect beloved
loving you is sometimes
like a mountain i struggle to climb,
sometimes like a fire that tortures with grace,
sometimes like the breath of wind disappearing in space.
loving you is sometimes
like a river carrying me home,
sometimes like a mountain i have to lift up to the sky,
sometimes like the sea i have to enter and die.
- eternal perfect beloved
i am the moon of your sun.
i have no light of my own.
your radiance illuminates me,
making me visible in other's sight.
your brilliance fills the heavens.
you create day and night.
- eternal perfect beloved
for my birthday
i want more love for you,
more love for my companions in life's adventure
and more love for humanity at large.
for my birthday
i want to serve you better,
serve my companions more effectively
and serve mankind in a practical way
that leads to real awakening.
for my birthday
i want you to take over my writing
and create a new dimension in communication
that expresses the full range
of your profoundly loving personality,
your truth, humor and playfulness
your love, respect and encouragement
your power, good will and peace.
for my birthday
i want to merge ever more totally in you,
in the impossibility of separation,
and at the same time i want to be sharper in discriminating
states of duality in the worlds of illusion.
i want to see, hear, smell, taste, touch
and think more accurately
for the sake of more useful knowledge,
more appropriate decisions,
and more effective actions in your work in the world.
i want to be more creative and innovative
in discovering and inventing
ways to further your projects and complete your work.
for my birthday
i want to lose no more energy over concern
for the world's response and reaction
to who you are and who i am,
not only for mankind at large but also among
those who love you or would love you,
including your mandali, staff and residents at
meherabad, meherazad, meher nazar
and elsewhere in the world,
as well as those who are embodied and disembodied
in the various planes of consciousness.
for my birthday
i want to please you, and be you, and reflect you in the world.
i want gratitude to completely take over
and rain love in the heart of every creature
in the entire creation.
for my birthday
i want every moment to further your work,
every thought, word, gesture and deed to carry you
forward into the consciousness of mankind.
you don't need any of these things i ask for.
you can do your work without me.
whether you use me or not has no effect on your grace
which i recognize as totally undivided one hundred percent.
for my birthday
i want to fully enjoy whatever decisions you make,
whatever life comes to me, no matter what events ensue.
all is your thinking, feeling, saying and doing.
for my birthday
i want to hang on to your daaman ever tighter
and surrender to you and obey.
- eternal perfect beloved
the avatar is our own soul
taken human form before our eyes
in order to woo our hearts
and awaken love for the divine.
he demonstrates soul's freedom
from habit, custom and tradition
which would bind it in the past.
we see our true nature in him.
he is our real self.
he manifests our own divine beauty
in a form capable of piercing imagination
with visions of reality.
the heat of this truth melts ignorance
and consumes it like wax in a firestorm.
- eternal perfect beloved
how strange to wish happy birthday
to the birthless and deathless one outside of time.
something was born and died
and something was born that will never die.
you created a body with the help of shireen and sheriar.
you articulated the message of salvation through gestures
that used your whole body as if it were a tongue.
that message lives on in the new life of each of your lovers.
you lived a divine life of love and truth on earth,
training disciples, freeing masts
from thraldom in the planes,
giving darshan and showing your divine beauty to thousands,
guiding the inner awakening of mankind
and deciding the shape of history to come.
you played with the playful, worked with the enslaved,
enjoyed with hedonists, grieved with the sad,
celebrated with victors, retrenched with the fallen.
your life in us is what makes us alive.
if you were ever to actually die,
we would all perish instantly.
yet your birthday does signify
that something was born and therefore something did die.
no one can deny the beauty of your face
with its ever-shifting blends of suffering and bliss,
something human, something divine.
no one can forget the astonishing beauty of your hands
in motion like a pair of ecstatic butterflies,
or the greek perfection of your feet
where we could lay our sanskaric burdens
if we were swift enough to catch up with you
as you nearly flew on these winglike feet.
this beauty has left us.
for this we mourn and remember the date in 1894
when you were born.
happy birthday, beloved immortal ancient one,
on this day may you be born again in each of us.
- eternal perfect beloved
ballroom dancers and figure skating champions
make the unity of opposites visibly alive
as they move with and against each other
like mirror images.
his conservative costume and gesture
showcases her outrageous exhibitionism.
he's strong, she's beautiful.
he lifts, she spins.
though they appear two in body, they move as one.
a single energy stretches between them like elastic,
and a single concept unfolds
through the play of opposites.
oh beloved, you dance in the oneness
of every pair of opposites.
with proper attention, anybody can see you there.
you are the ultimate champion
who dances all the world's dualities in a single
extravagant ball of coordinated couples,
like krishna spinning around the floor with thousands
of beautiful women at the same time.
within the apparent diversity he delights each one
in the way most pleasing to her.
meanwhile he choreographs the whole
as a unified expression of gratitude
for god's creative joy.
thank god this is your way, beloved.
- eternal perfect beloved
at the moment of emptiness
the outgoing breath turns
to create the incoming breath
which turns at the moment of fullness
to create the outgoing breath.
tao says each thing turns into its opposite.
seeking asks why?
realization replies that opposites are really one.
much breathing but one breath.
- eternal perfect beloved
the action-attraction of mind's dramatic dance
steals all available attention.
few notice the scenic stage of dualities.
no one sees the divine theater of undivided oneness
wrapped around the entire show.
at some point the six funny clowns
goofing off in the three rings
become six prisoners within three huge walls.
belief clings to the back of a behemoth
whose huge feet scarcely move --
christian, buddhist, moslem, hindu.
thought paces incessantly back and forth behind the bars
of its cage in a zoo of projections.
it meets a familiar wall and turns in frustration
only to meet another.
right and wrong, craving and hate, weak and strong,
every dimension squeezes mind into a corner.
ego holds on like a rider on a horse,
sometimes appearing to guide,
sometimes clinging for dear life as the horse runs wild.
- eternal perfect beloved
in my confusion, i didn't know who i am.
i pretended all sorts of false identities --
man, woman, rich, poor, powerful, weak, kind, cruel,
possibilities ad infinitum.
now by your grace i know for certain who i am
and still i have to cultivate pretence
in order to keep in touch with fellow humans in the world.
the humor of this situation doesn't escape either of us, beloved, i only
wish the world could laugh as we do.
when i perform my false identities on the world stage
you wink at me without a whit of haughtiness or pride.
your silent laughter is full of tenderness.
i can't help but wink back at you
and laugh my way through the roles i play
in this absurd theater of false identities.
- eternal perfect beloved
they all said, "i will come again!"
zoroaster said it.
rama, krishna and buddha said it.
christ and muhammad said it.
what are we to think?
are we to think that nobody returned?
they all returned.
each one has come again
to set the earth right.
when i tell you too soon,
before you're ready to hear it,
you ridicule me.
what preposterous crap!
when i tell you too late,
after you've given up longing to know,
you're angry with me.
why did you wait?
when i find exactly the right moment to tell you,
your heart bursts and overflows with love.
through joyful tears you glimpse the hidden beauty
of the ever-returning avatar.
you clearly see perfection in a good and bad world
that awakens love and reveals truth,
and finally you are empowered with true freedom.
- eternal perfect beloved
since god runs the universe
what's the point of blaming this one or that one?
blame god!
and you will receive his tenderest blessing.
blame god!
and he will transform your poison into nectar.
blame god!
and he will free you from the need for blame.
blame god as the first step toward love
and he will take ten or a hundred or more steps toward you.
- eternal perfect beloved
beyond reality and illusion
in the nonconceptual silence of pure oneness,
divine self awaits the arrival of his identical twin.
the twin's longing for return brings him home
through a voyage of discoveries
that reveal he never really left it.
at last they embrace in divine stillness,
long lost lovers
who flow together like water into water.
if speech had a place, it would say:
i went and i stayed. i experienced and i waited.
i returned and i welcomed the returner.
thus i seemed to lose my way in the world
and experience the joy of finding it back
but really i remain as i always am, i am myself.
- eternal perfect beloved
mind without contradiction goes beyond mind
to the consciousness of its eternal source
in love's almighty truth of indivisible oneness.
consciousness moves around
in the arealess field of oneness,
doing everything according to its own inner dynamic.
it arises within self by apparently dividing into opposites,
abides in self by being in essence still self,
expresses self's infinite potential for variety,
and returns to self by letting go of false dualities.
intellect lives on the process of comparison.
divinity is beyond comparison.
intellect cannot know god.
once the mind picks up the first duality
then it must suffer every cause-and-effect thought
to the very end of the bittersweet thread.
- eternal perfect beloved
you were the first to roll, the first to crawl,
the first to swim, the first to fly, the first to run
you were the first to break, the first to freeze,
the first to fall, the first to drown, the first to die
you were the first to ejaculate, the first to give birth,
the first to talk, the first to grow old, the first to cry
you were the first to sing, the first to drum,
the first titan, the first god, the first angel
you were the first rock, the first crystal,
the first diamond, the first iron, the first gold
you were the first moss, the first grass,
the first tulip, the first pine, the first oak
you were the first worm, the first ant,
the first bee, the first frog, the first snake
you were the first sardine, the first halibut,
the first shark, the first trout, the first marlin
you were the first duck, the first crow,
the first eagle, the first parrot, the first canary
you were the first kangaroo, the first mouse,
the first beaver, the first bear, the first horse
you were the first farmer, the first hunter,
the first husband, the first king, the first beggar
you were the first magician, the first shaman,
the first saint, the first mast, the first guru
you were the first liberated being,
the first realized man, the first perfect master
you were the first to take responsibility for the creation,
the first to take form for the benefit of all beings,
the first avatar.
you were the first, the very first, you remain the first,
you always will be the first.
- eternal perfect beloved
one longs to die to all the controversy and conflict
of the world's petty personalities,
all the little hitlers and stalins with their tiresome programs
full of deaf ears and blind eyes.
one grows weary of the spectacle.
junior moses spars with little pharaoh in the red sea shallows
attempting to part the waters
with promises of good times in the offing.
an army of alexanders harry the land,
ghengis khan dominates the street corner.
oh lord, no wonder you dressed in flesh
and blew us a new wind
to trim our sails upon and exercise our wings.
- eternal perfect beloved
a child hears the earth is round and believes
despite the questions in it's undeveloped mind.
one sees the globe and photos from space
but knowledge is only second hand hearsay.
one day on a sea voyage or on the shore
one observes a ship heave up over the earth's curve.
once one realizes the roundness of earth
one never forgets, no matter what the local contour.
whether trudging up a mountain side or springing down,
one suffers no doubt or confusion.
earth's roundness remains the foundation fact.
the roundness of earth is the oneness of god.
- eternal perfect beloved
real knowledge creates freedom.
false knowledge entraps.
real learning sees familiar things in a new way.
false learning sees new things in an old way.
- eternal perfect beloved
my heart empowers me to speak as a white european
to the native american and the dark skinned african.
"forgive me, brothers and sisters,
for the pride of my thought,
the carelessness of my feeling,
and the cruelty of my hand.
in my greed i took what is yours and made it mine.
in my lust i violated your body, mind and soul.
in my anger i exterminated you like vermin.
i was insane with the madness of profit,
not knowing what truly profits me and what is real loss.
i suffered a fit that inflicted serious damage on you
and on myself and nearly wrecked our environment too.
my seizure is passing away and health returns.
i thank god that i failed to extinguish you,
fathers and mothers, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces.
oh precious family, oh single god in variety's dress.
we die together, we live together.
oh cousin, let's nurse our common wound.
- eternal perfect beloved
the fundamentalist mind starves
with only the dry outer shell of the message.
it misses the rich and juicy inner meat
at the heart of the teaching,
which feeds the greater life of the savior's love
as it ripens in the hearts of his lovers.
it caretakes the sacred real estate
as if it were a stranger
and catalogs sacred books as if it were analphabetic.
but you care for it also as an expression of your self
in the all-inclusive wholeness of your love.
- eternal perfect beloved
in the parliament of mankind's shared experience
the world's leading scientists, philosophers and artists
compare notes on the meaning and purpose of life.
politicians, military men, industrialists, lawyers,
farmers, merchants, laborers and criminals
make their voices heard in the factional wrangling.
common people tell poignant stories of everyday drama.
seven avatars anchor the immense discussion in the word of god.
in response to the participants' elaborate dissections and analyses,
the avatars synthesize diversity into unity.
reality cannot be seen by the eye because in reality
no eye is separate from the object of sight
and vision doesn't exist.
the apparent separation of eye and object,
that apparent distance, constitutes illusion.
in that space the universe unfurls its clockwork of endless cycles.
worlds spring into existence as star and planet in the heavens
and identity fastens upon one thing after another.
it experiences the full range of opposites in manyness
until it discovers the unreality of division.
now conscious of the nature of the unreal and the real,
identity frees itself from everything
by realizing the fully unified state of undivided oneness
in a moment of liberating union.
the full flood of love's all-powerful truth
overwhelms consciousness
with the mystery of its divine identity with god.
without beginning or end, everything falls within "i am."
- eternal perfect beloved
illusion because of projection,
projection because of division,
division because of the original whim.
mend division and drop projection.
drop projection and dissolve illusion.
beyond illusion meet the original one.
- eternal perfect beloved
the world uses every trick it can come up with
to grab our attention and milk us for applause
in the form of cash and cooperation --
get a load of this sensation, hear that music,
think this thought, buy that thrill.
hung up on the hook of duality,
bigger eats smaller, stronger enslaves weaker.
this is the way of the world but not the way of love.
technology has brought us to a situation
which resembles the fourth plane
where we have power and also the opportunity to use it,
but we must pay the consequences of our actions.
some portion of mankind gives god the finger
and screams negative slogans like,
"how dare you create such a fucked up world!"
meanwhile others glow with admiration
for his intelligence and attention to minutest detail.
still others melt in the bliss of his love.
- eternal perfect beloved
if there were not practitioners
of every sort of gross behavior
we could not say that will is free.
if there were not saints
we wouldn't recognize criminals,
bestiality would be the norm
and hell would be at home in every house.
- eternal perfect beloved
when the quarreling rowdies of mind
get around to enlisting in the army of peace,
they submit to basic training.
there they learn how to cooperate
in an effective unit.
victory must be close at hand.
- eternal perfect beloved
i feel the discomfort of those who attack me.
what one person appreciates as my virtues
another person kicks in my face as filth.
what clears the way for one
makes an obstacle for the other.
one sees something authentic another something fake.
in order to burn the sanskaras of those
who attack me and those who flatter me,
mind must find its balance in the equal
truth and falsity of what they all say.
my assailants disappear completely in equanimity.
sycophants go tumbling after.
at the point of equipoise ordinary mind falls away
in the unlimited reality of enlightenment.
only the bliss of divine love remains.
- eternal perfect beloved
one never goes beyond the mind by stopping it
or deadening it.
mind is a labyrinth of polarities
which can be exited by owning the opposites.
neither sinner nor saint, neither free-will or fate,
neither wall nor gate.
dream thoughts blow through inner silence.
listen to the echo of opposites.
the gate of oneness stands always open
for the pilgrim's free passage.
- eternal perfect beloved
oneness hides within the mask of two.
marriage is real, divorce an illusion.
one might as well chew a rock
or ride a whale to the summit of mt. conundrum
- eternal perfect beloved
the creation unfolds the imagination of god
within the mind of the avatar,
the man of infinite power, knowledge and bliss,
who carries the responsibility on his shoulders.
he's the thinker and the thought.
through the infinite power
of the "big bang" question "who am i?"
his nuclear fission creates the expanding universe.
he demonstrates god's existence
throughout the created panorama
and proves his reality by creating
the impression of reality within the creation.
and he, the beloved one, eliminates the universe
through the infinite force of his nuclear fusion.
praise the lord who returns again and again.
praise the one who endures the limitations of human form.
praise the one who takes responsibility.
- eternal perfect beloved
soul discovers the identity of all manifestation with self,
it realizes the reality of self and it unmasks
the illusion of manifestation's convincing appearance
of separate components in uncountable profusion.
soul counts by two's,
matching each manifestation with its mate
until the last marriage gives the final tally: one.
only soul itself, with all the conditions
and characteristics of oneness
remains to enjoy the eternal honeymoon.
- eternal perfect beloved
eye cannot see one nor can ear hear one,
hand cannot touch one nor can tongue taste one,
nose cannot smell one nor can mind think one.
nevertheless the sum of all the above is one.
- eternal perfect beloved
real oneness supports a weave of opposites
that veil truth behind the curtain of creation.
love for truth chaffs holes in it,
eventually wearing it away completely.
neither those who take the curtain to be you
nor those who identify it as themselves
have the slightest intuition that when it's worn away
the mystery of undivided reality stands revealed.
lost in the pattern on the curtain of creation
i cry out your name, "baba, baba!"
thank god you are never far away.
you wear this veil like a suit of clothes.
the weight of maya lifts from my heart
and opens a way for the breath of love
to flood the dark depth of my abdomen.
oh beloved, nothing remains
but your ever blissful union of divine love.
- eternal perfect beloved
through the intense medium of divine love
the little one-man world of each individual
eventually expands to become
the all-inclusive one-god world of reality.
the little one-man world dreams and trains
and struggles to dominate other little one-man worlds
until the force of love wins the final victory
with the higher power of a full heart.
- eternal perfect beloved
the golden rain of grace rises as a mist
from the all-pervading ocean of oneness
and falls as love in the hearts of creatures.
a rainbow of joy shines in the eye of each.
oh lord, i remember your covenant promised to noah
as i discover gold at the end of the rainbow.
eternal perfect beloved
1. the golden rain
2. shoulder an oar
3. winnowing the ocean
4. salt from the beloved's table, welcome home
6. the pearl tree, sea rose
7. how the rock awoke