The invasion was unexpected and uninvited; it happened
one numinous now
when the minder of memories had her back turned.
In crept wild wideawakeness, sleuthing
through this dormitory of sleeping stories,
slipping from cocoon to cocoon
dubbing each bedded-down memory
with its diamond dagger and pronouncing each one
an esteemed and luminous Member of the Matrix.
It lifted up the wounded and the weary,
the lost and lonesome, the betrayed
and the broken, saying
To know this pain, beloved
is to know That which is beyond time
for That alone has the capacity to be aware
and in your naked awareness of your pain
you are naturally ever-enlightened.
You imagine your enlightenment to be
other than this wretchedness –
you take it as proof that you
haven’t yet “made the shift”
yet how could pain (or pleasure) be known
if enlightenment were not fully present?
By what function of cognition
would you aware this knowing?
By both logic and experience it’s found
that the unlit light of awareness
is prior to every sensory perception.
Will you stay tucked up in your cocoon
dreaming of the mirage of your awakening
shimmering in some distant space and time
or will you blink now
and own up to your feral freedom?
I blinked.
– ml, 2012
Tantric Painting, India, c1800 or earlier, detail
This post was originally published on my blog this unlit light in October 2012.
echoes from emptiness 