one haiku, twelve ways
… depending on one’s particular aversion/s.
tell me this my friend
how free are you, when you won’t
[choose your aversion/s]
spin with the Sufis?
kneel with the Muslims?
pray with the Mystics?
sit with the Zenners?
gaze with the Atis?
drink with the Taoists?
chant with the Bhaktis?
probe with the Jnanis?
dunk with the Baptists?
bow with the Buddhists?
dream with the Shamans?
laugh with the Skeptics?
echoes from emptiness 
Dance with the ballroomers? adore with the grasshoppers?
Yes indeed, dear Nina – however, these delights aren’t quite so revealing of our ideological and/or spiritual prejudices are they?
🙂
not they aren’t 🙂
I love the concept, but do you really think that the spiritual precepts are needed to enjoy either the activity or the company of the people?
Thank you for your comment Ben. I find it mystifying that you have gained the impression that I “think that the spiritual precepts are needed to enjoy either the activity or the company of the people” when my few lines were actually an attempt to express the opposite. The freedom of which I speak only appears in the absence of all ideologies with their dogmas. No precepts are needed for this freedom to flower – rather, in most cases they become fetters to freedom.
It is the labelling and pigeon-holing of ‘others’ and their activities that creates a gap between us that isn’t actually real. True freedom arises when that gap is seen to be an illusion. Then Life is free to play with Itself – in whatever way presents itself.
Thanks for introducing me to your blog – I love your ‘to the Unbound’ poem. 🙂