ONE
just beyond the thinking mind
is an unending field of love and quiet beauty
one can lie down there and live in eternity

this field cannot be seen by the mind
it cannot be known by the mind
it can only be found and felt through Silence

the thinking mind cannot know this kind of beauty and wonder
the thinking mind has no feeling
it has no soul
it can only calculate distance and weight and price
the thinking mind does not love
it does not laugh
it does not cry
the thinking mind only argues and defends
it justifies its soulless nature with violence

that is why we must live in Silence
not in the thinking mind
that is why we must learn what that life is like
lived within Silence
lying in the fields of beauty
where we can feel the soul and Silence of existence

and now we can cry and laugh and love
and now we live in this field of eternity
where the thinking mind is just a single flower
barely visible in the midst of tall grasses
under blue skies and hundreds of suns whirling and spinning within and without

TWO
such notions as ultimate reality or absolute truth
shouldn’t seduce us

all of these and other similar terms are trophies
that the mind brings back
from the hunt for freedom
they are not the actual animal
not even close
a case full of trophy-words only tricks us into believing
we have seen the animal of freedom
even captured it

the real animal of freedom will never say such things
Silence never says such things
as the mind does
all mired in trophies and celebrity

THREE
questions about the nature of existence
cannot be answered by the mind
because the mind can never know the truth of existence

the truth of existence can only be known in Silence
by Silence

when questions are met with Silence
the questioning mind falls into that Silence and becomes silent

in Silence, the questioning mind returns to the pristine source of existence
where knowledge
knowing
and the knower
merge into one body
and then that body disappears into its truer body

the one that is beyond questions and answers
life and death
existence and non-existence

that body is Silence
and within that body there are no minds
no questions
and no answers

freedom is always before or after words or between words
and the only real trace of freedom is Silence

look for the footprints of Silence within words and then follow them
away from those traps
into the lair of clear light

FOUR
a friend told me he had trouble
being here now

I asked him to show me where he went when he wasn’t
being here now
at first he didn’t understand
after additional conversation he said
well I guess I just get lost in my thoughts

there wasn’t much to say after that

we are always here now
for there is no other place we can be
either we are here now
seeing things as they are
touching the shiny shimmering skin of real life
or else we are lost in the abstract world of thoughts about life

these thickets of thoughts create a barrier to what is actually occurring
that barrier makes us feel disconnected and lost
which makes us feel that we are not being here now

of course we are

we are just here
trapped within our thoughts about life
thinking we aren’t here now

but where else could we be

FIVE
the mind constantly classifies and categorizes
that is its nature

the mind organizes all our perceptions thoughts and emotions
into a coherent picture
this picture becomes our definition of reality
our definition of reality becomes our certainty
which becomes our conceit
which becomes our vanity
which becomes our pride
pride is an enormous seawall that separates us from life
from the swells and tides of the creator’s delight

our soul does not want definitions
our soul wants Silence

the ocean of existence is too huge
too vast
too mysterious
to explain or define

we understand existence when we lose ourselves in Silence
and become as children running and shouting
on the beaches of paradise

SIX
a friend asked me how he could
kill his mind

I asked why he wanted to go to all that trouble
why wage war on the poor little thing
after all isn’t there room enough in reality for a mind

a mind is a useful thing
providing we don’t use it incorrectly
our mind only bothers us when we become what our mind is thinking
or believing
or perceiving

if we live in Silence
our mind will settle to scale
like a single flower in an endless mountain meadow

if we just keep our attention on the meadow
then our mind becomes our friend
and a beautiful one at that
why do we need to kill a single flower in an endless meadow

when the mind becomes silent
the mind becomes the image of Silence in this world
thoughts and beliefs about the nature of self and reality
no longer arise in such a mind

they are no longer relevant
so we don’t have to kill it
a single flower in a vast meadow

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Editor: Travis May

Photo: Phil Koch/Pixoto