‘me’ is a mystery
to myself and to the world
of teeming memies
it morphs on-demand
to become … whatever is
projected-then-perceived
it’s a shape-shifter
expert nanodrama artist
in cunning disguise
but no such mystery
shrouds the changeless One called ‘I’
right here, always ON
Creation’s unblinking eye
327
the great view is seeing
as the I-eye
of primordial awareness
the great understanding is knowing
as the unknowable knowingness
of simple suchness
the great adventure is living
as the untutored creativity
of wild wideawakeness
~
306
‘I’ is the eye of existence.
‘Me’ is the figment of fantasy that imagines itself owner of that eye. ‘Me’ is the way ‘I’ refers to itself, yet neither an ‘I’ nor a ‘me’ can ever be located.
The I-eye of clear Awakeness is owned by nothing – no circumstance, no person/entity, no thing whatsoever.
It is never born, although the body- mind organism it saturates and substantiates appears to be born.
It never dies, although its ‘host’ will appear to do so.
It can never be found, for it is always inseparable from that which seeks.
‘I’ is nothing to do with me, or any other personal pronoun.
‘I’ is.
That’s all that can be known – or said – about It.
And even that’s two words too many.
~
271
This morning ‘I’ opens eyes in a new version of world-ing.
This morning the great Shining slips through slits in wooden window shutters.
I rise with its rays, make green tea in a different kitchen.
This morning’s view from the zafu opens out over cerulean, cobalt, turquoise
blending to ultramarine at the horizon: the Coral Sea.
Utter lusciousness for an artist’s brain.
This morning’s body is stiff and sore, tired and protesting.
There will be a quieter day today, methinks. But who can tell?
Life’s agenda and my own often don’t match!
This morning, as always, I-eye just watches,
serenely unaffected and seriously contented.
~
256
Tiny toads hop on moistly gleaming terracotta. There was a shower in the night, and for the first time in two sweltering weeks the airstream flowing into the sanctuary is cool. Well, it’s cooler than skin temperature and that feels heavenly.
.
‘I’ soothes itself with fresh breezes,
delights itself with the golden dappled dawn,
amuses itself with bird-gossip and highjinks,
scribbles its way across a blank page…
‘I’ is Awareness incarnate,
‘I’ is the eye through which we see the world
and at the same time It is the world appearing.
What else can be said?
~
212
‘I’ is the subject that cannot be objectified.
Try it.
Each attempt to turn ‘I’ into an object for scrutiny or description
shows ‘I’ turning up again as subject regarding that object.
Talk about a slippery fish!
But ‘wee-me’ keeps on casting its net,
hoping to catch that fish,
hoping to dissect it,
label its parts,
write a learned paper about it,
teach the world how to catch it
transform and transcend it once and for all.
The big fishy I-eye just watches.
No comment. No preference. No change.
~
Image: Trigger Fish Eye, by Bill Atherton
129
‘I’ embodies everything that can be perceived and thereby known and experienced
‘I’ is the transparent diamond aware-ing of perception’s play
which includes the appearance of an objective perceiver with its objective perceptions
‘me’ is one of perception’s objects, just as are ‘you’ and ‘them’
but ‘I’ is not any-thing objectively
– there is no eye that can see ‘I’ –
and can never be known
‘me’ spends its life looking for ‘I’
calling IT God, Spirit, Reality, Beloved –
(108 names, I’m told)
until the savage wisdom of the ages
arises, re-organizing the brain:
ne’er the twain can meet
for ‘I’ is all-there-is
~
echoes from emptiness 