Calm Within the Storm

(“Rainbow Body” detail, 2018, original encaustic)

The key instruction for stabilizing rigpa,
Or fundamental awareness of the ground of being,
Is to first let your mind rest and settle.

Don’t try to do anything.

Which means don’t follow or suppress thoughts,
Cultivate a method, or aim for some result,
Just simply sit, like a mute corpse.

Eventually the mind will quit resisting.

And when it does, comfort and ease naturally arises,
Awareness dawns, with the familiarity of home,
And the mind just does its thing like a happy child.

Magical thinking ends and magical being begins.

At first such recognition is remarkable
But then with familiarity it becomes ordinary,
And with ordinary, stability is gained.

Effortlessly this arises from effortful diligence.

Then what is there to do, only sit and stare?
No, with your attention firmly anchored in the ground of being
Bring the mind to it and test your stability.

First with thinking then with action.

Can we maintain our awareness as we add layers of discursiveness?
Again and again, like a clown learning to juggle
We work on dexterity, training muscle memory.

To discover there really is no two within the one.

Mind with its discursive thinking
Is none other than calm abiding awareness
Playing around, for attention and fun.

In an irresistible dance of awareness.

Everything we know and see 
Before we give it a name and label
Is just this basic non-dual awareness. 

Only with the solidity of naming do we make it an illusion.

With recognition comes familiarity
And with familiarity greater stability
Until all that is left is the playful dancing ground.

Waking from a dream into a home we've never left.

After all, trees and weeds 
However dark and dense we find them,
Only grow by the light of Sun.

They are in fact Sun made flesh and fiber.

And we, Sun's eyes as bright as stars
Whose dust we honor,
Have no home but here.

(5/6/26)

celebrationspiritualnarrative

♡Like0

Poem

Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.