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LOTUS OF THE HEART
Living in Love beyond Beliefs
A first asked, "What's this Mystery you talk about?" A second said, "Yes, I'd like to know." "Isn't today a lovely day?", spoke the Sage. The first said, "Yes, but remember my question?" The Sage said nothing. The second asked, "Why are you not saying anything?" A third nearby said, "I think that's the answer." The Sage picked up a handful of sand and let it run through his fingers.
* * *
The moment you say, "I've got it," it is gone. Even before you recognize it, it is gone. What is most real is ultimately elusive, infinitely so. You can no longer hold this than you can catch the wind in your hand. And, like the wind, when you clasp around this, you push it away. If we call this a mystery or the Mystery, or God, or anything or anyone, what have we said? Something, and nothing at all.
The Sage was asked, "What have you gained from your many years living the Way?" "Nothing." "How's that possible?" "The moment you have it, it's gone." "What's it that's gone?" "That I had." "But what's that?" "Like snowflakes in the wind." "I don't understand." "That too is gone."
* * *
I stand on the banks of the river. The river is boisterous. The wind blows, rapids roar, and great chunks of ice move quickly onward. After a time of praying the great mantra of compassion in Tibetan, Om Mani Peme Hung, I continue quiet prayers with eyes closed. I enter, soon, a silent affirmation of the Fruit of the Spirit, the first being love. In this silence, I feel love everywhere. With eyes still closed, I proceed through the Fruit, as found in the Book of Galatians of the Christian Scripture. Slowly, mindfully, I sense the brokenness of our world and its need for healing ~ joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, temperance. While meditating through the Fruit, love remains. Love without walls, real and ungraspable, like this wind and these waters., like myself.
* * *
plunge yourself in the Water
until your breathing rises from the Depths
there's a Sea without a name
drenching shores with a moving Face
see, You Are One With That! don’t just admire
admiration alone puts you to sleep
you don't make wild love with a lover
simply adoring his or her beauty~
you surrender yourself!
intoxication comes not by applauding the wine
so with Spirit... drink up!
why live in rivers, streams, and lakes, on land,
when Home is an Ocean that waits?
adore so ardently the Watery Abyss to
become the Font in which resurrects your every death
there're baptisms many but
what This is heralds all others though true...
~someone dropped a holy book in here ~ dead ~ and
out grew a flower with hope for the world~
we're bees flying joyfully
imbibing our nectar from the shine of the Sun of Light
~some angels just flew overhead~I heard my name called~
am I being inconsistent, not making sense? I hope so,
we all need a frequent dose of senselessness~
live for the Ocean, marvel at the plentiful Life,
become one with the One that receives the many-faced Christ
don’t read this poem with two eyes
there's only one gate to the infinitely-faceted Wisdom
Truth is out to find you
seeking must cease to receive
and as for consistency, forget it,
the Wind's footprints never leave a straight line
*Brian K. Wilcox. "The Wind's Footprints~A Senseless Poem." Dec. 15.2019.
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Walking back over the river, I feel this Ineffable. I came here to be receptive to Spirit, to rest, contemplate, and enjoy simply being. I often close the eyes here and receive the wind blowing cold upon the face and penetrating layers of clothing. I, likewise, often feel a subtle frustration. This Presence keeps moving beyond my reach. Yet, too, if I reach for myself, I am moving outside my reach. We are, as the Sage knows, like snowflakes in the Wind. We are the Mystery, for it is not other than us, yet it is more than us. We are like sponges soaked in the Presence, the Presence enfolds us. Until we know more, it moves, and we move.
What we see now is like a faint image in a mirror. Then we will see face-to-face. What I know now is partial. Then I will fully know as I am now fully known.
*Christian Scripture, I Corinthians 13.12
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©️ Brian Wilcox, 2020
*Brian can be contacted at briankwilcox@gmx.com; his book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, is available through major online booksellers, including Amazon and Books-A-Million, or via the publisher, AuthorHouse.
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