Since the origin of manifest consciousness, humans
Have been raised and patterned in accordance
With the varied responses to geography.
They have played, fought, and mated;
Sought power, fame, and fortune;
Worshipped innumerable idols;
Lived nobly, desperately, and vainly;
Suffered sickness, injury, aging, and death.
To what end, the speculations are beyond number,
But ever the source has been the same inscrutable awareness,
Unfathomable, unknowable, impenetrable, timeless, indivisible, omniscient.
* * * *
The way you perceive existence, is the way
The winds of time have molded you to perceive it.
It is all subjective projection based on untold circumstances,
Which have conditioned the manifest spirit-mind-body identity in time.
Whatever your attitude, whatever your belief on the matter,
No projection is really more true than any other.
* * * *
The fleeting window of this modern time and space,
Has offered every excess, every decadence,
On a scale never before experienced,
By as many in one era of history.
What have you seen and learned,
But that sensory-level experience,
Leaves you desolate, angry, weary,
As full of rancor and discontent as ever.
That flame of angst within, if not too numbing,
Can be a catalyst to the discernment of the unconditional.
* * * *
Despite attempts by sages of every era and geography,
The human psyche remains dominated and shaped,
By primal instincts and urges, bred into the mind long ago.
The many masks of fear have diversified into innumerable forms,
And are as blinding, as paralyzing, as destructive, as they have ever been.
Transforming consciousness into its fullest potential, is not for the meek of spirit.
* * * *
To discern serenity, you may well know the calamity and horror of battle.
To discern integrity, you may, indeed, be a great liar, cheat, or thief.
To discern compassion, you may have caused much suffering.
To discern discipline, you may have partaken thoroughly every excess.
To discern the unicity of all creation, you may have withstood great divisiveness.
Sometimes those most fragmented without, are nearest to realizing the eternal nature within.