As Above So NOT Below
("Anagogical Moments Merit Badge" #39, 2011, original oil)
As Above So NOT Below
The tripartite world of material appearance
Sandwiched between the infinite depths
Of the unconscious
And infinite expanse
Of transcendent supraconsciousness
Encompasses all that is and isn’t
Known and unknown
Desired and undesirable….
Confused, turned upside down
By our own inverted perceptions
Most of us contentedly live
Lives of ignorant bliss
Even though it’s more often one of suffering
Nestled securely in the middle
Within the sandwich of two ineffables
High and low.
And then there are the few
Driven for whatever perverse reasons
To escape the safe and mundane
Striving for transcendence
Most often settling instead for descendence
Into the unconscious.
This is the easy path after all
The downward path of gravity
Earth Mother
Universal womb
And holy bhaga.
And so we go
Tempted by The Fates to strive
In whatever way they guide us
For the unattainable
Or that which once attained
Dissolves all other….
And so we rise
You and I against all odds
Against the force of Nature
Somehow turned upside down again
Totally mixed up and thus righted
In our confusion
Breaking for a surface
Which holds the light
A surface dividing
The above from the below
The earth from sky
The Mother from Father
Our past from future.
Rising, propelled with the last trace of breath, prana, chi
To break the surface
And cycle of existence
To finally at last break free.
To take another
And dive again.
(11/23/23)
Copyright © James Moore | Year Posted 2023
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