Existential Wonderings
“Most of the time, the universe speaks to us very quietly..in pockets of silence, in coincidences, in nature, in forgotten memories, in the shape of clouds, in moments of solitude, in small tugs at our hearts…” -Yumi Sakugawa
Grand Realizations
Earthly manifestations
consume the air
I breathe,
into exhales of a
most tranquil peace.
The wind and sun
travel across
this land;
but just as
your spirit
tries to find
something to hold…
Your Consciousness
bends,
unravels,
and folds.
Transcending this,
the realm of Space.
Your essence
will come to see,
that ‘I’ is ‘You’
and ‘You’ are ‘Me’.
Eternity’s truth
lies in the unknown.
So remember to
treat all of the Earth
as your home.
This, the summation
of life, cannot be
reduced to mere
contemplation.
It is through inaction
that you will be bound
to the karmic web
you manifest in.
Your humanity will
be weighed upon
scales of justice,
kindness,
and faith.
Your liberation awaits.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“The past no longer is. The future has not yet come. So look deeply at life as it is.” -Gyalwang Drukpa
Destiny Awaits
Sea of bliss,
Shattered conceptions.
Where is peace?
Tasted through glimpses,
Permanence fleeting.
An endless path to travel,
Transcendent connection.
The Earth is the answer.
Who could be listening?
Societal bloodhounds,
Brainwashed masses.
The present is empty,
Through naive eyes
Of illusion.
No conscious through
False divisions.
Infinite compassion,
Ethereal beauty;
A blessed cosmic unity-
All that is Here and Now.
Gate Gate Paragate
Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha
प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय . प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय . प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality…. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” -Martin Luther King JR.
My heart is heavy with thoughts of what is to come. Perhaps a sudden realization of truth, by the perpetrators of an unjust tyrannical system? Perhaps a people still ignored by the cruel villainous separation of an illusionary authority, claiming violence as its only solution? What if there actually was peace? What if we were truly able to be free? Who’s to say what our leaders will choose to do in the face of such harsh realities.
This system has built itself upon the foundation of oppression and bloodshed, so how can those so deeply invested in fallacies ever see the light? I know that we are all brothers and sisters of the universe, and we are all so infinitely one, and that injustice against one of us should affect us all. I do not know how to bring clarity to those suffering with all the pain and loss that results from such corrupt institutions. I have lost my own mother and father to a society that refuses to heal the poor if they are sick, and allows them to knowingly die due to the hands of the system’s own negligence. But I do not know the profoundly immense, injustice that those attacked with anger and bigotry face everyday. The horrible cycle of ignorance and hate has been a part of this country since it’s formation. The very idea of American “democracy” was formed by racist, murderous religious zealots. How can we expect this country to live in a compassionate state that benefits all, when the roots of its own government are soaked in blood?
I hope and pray for the inevitable emergence of a greater understanding towards the government and its people. I believe that someday this world will live in harmony, and those that strive for power will only truly strive for peace. One day there will be no separation between nations or people. One day we will see true joy on the faces of a fulfilled global people, no longer separated by illusions. We all were born from the same Earth. Our ancestors all walked upon this land before us. We all were made of the same elements as the vast cosmos. Birthed by the unknown, set into motion through a series of destined occurrences, which have led us to here- alive and awake.
We share this life together, we share this world together… there is no reason to not be as one. It is only through some grand deception formed by the ruling elites, that societies ever even turned towards war, murder, and corruption. Because with authority comes division, and leaders only rule by enforcing their ideals of prejudice and propaganda, through militarized tactics of fear and separation. What has ever truly disconnected one human from another? We are one in the same. No one chooses where they were born or what they will look like. No one chooses what culture they will be raised in or what religion their family will practice. Perhaps an enlightened yogi would be aware of such things upon their reincarnation, but even then they would know that whatever body they did choose… that it is would only be a vessel and that in the end we are all part of the same cosmic soul.
There’s a famous zen koan that’s asks, “what did your face look like before your parents were born?” There’s many versions I have found and many interpretations of this koan. All coming back to ‘what did you look like before you were born?’ Who were you before you were anything? What is the essence of your true self? It is the mind-shattering embrace of intuition, breaking logic’s tethers binding which bind us to form. It also embraces the duality of known and unknown, of falsehoods and truth, of illusion and awareness. It is the shattering pieces of the ego’s glass mirage.
There is so much that we will never understand in this world, but to forget our true connection to one another would be the worst thing we could do. We are not separate, no matter what state of existence we are in. Whether we were born from one land to another, one family to another, one culture to another; these factors are all temporary. We are all and forever will be a part of the cosmic universal family that is this life/incarnation. We must honor our true selves and one another by speaking out against these ideas of separation and practices of injustice. I wish that one day there will be no more pain, and that no more innocent souls shall have to die in vain. Nothing is insignificant, every soul should matter… because in the end, every other being that exists on this Earth is also a part of you.
“What did your face look like before your parents were born?” Who are you really?
Quotes from zen masters on this concept of your ‘Original Face’:
Cease practice based
On intellectual understanding,
Pursuing words and
Following after speech.
Learn the backward
Step that turns
Your light inward
To illuminate within.
Body and mind of themselves
Will drop away
And your original face will be manifest.
— Dogen
You cannot describe it or draw it,
You cannot praise it enough or perceive it.
No place can be found in which
To put the Original Face;
It will not disappear even
When the universe is destroyed.
— Mumon
May all beings realize the infinite potential of peace and harmony.
May all beings find truth and joy in their daily existence.
May all beings be able to walk the Earth freely and without fear.
May all beings be as One.
“Will you ever begin to understand the meaning of the very soil beneath your feet? From a grain of sand to a great mountain, all is sacred. Yesterday and tomorrow exist eternally upon this continent. We natives are guardians of this sacred place.” – Peter Cloud Cloud, Mohawk
A Spirit Vision
Dusk was arriving, the sun had almost completely left the horizon. The golden, pink, and violent hues of the day were traveling onward, and the deep blue of night was setting in. The moon hung overhead enchanting the air; embodying all that is unknown, reflected from the depths of my being. I had arrived at a sanctuary of trees and boulders, traveled long ago by our true ancestors, during the Trail of Tears. My spirit was always drawn to this sacred space.
I had wandered here for many moons over quite some time, being guided by something within me. I felt at home here so much so that I would often find myself drifting to sleep sheltered in the embrace of the loving trees. I’d visit this sanctuary and write poetry or draw; sometimes I’d even play music with the birds. I began talking to the trees and plants; thanking them, speaking to them as they truly are… as fellow beings of our eternal oneness. I began to feel more deeply than I had ever before in my life, opening myself up to the Great Mystery. I could now feel the Earth’s magic. The energy of this sanctuary grew stronger as the shift of night began to exhale its mystique. The sun was completely gone now and the inbetween of night and day was present. There was complete stillness.
As I was leaving the sanctuary I paused, there in front of an incredibly wise tree over hundreds of years old, stood a Native American man. He was dressed traditionally and had deep dark hair, but all I could notice was his eyes. I was frozen, it felt as if the world had stopped spinning leaving us both stuck in this moment for eternity. He looked through me and into me, speaking only with his eyes. He knew me and I knew him, I was not scared. His eyes struck a chord deep within my soul answering questions I had never before even pondered. If I could move I would have bowed or said I loved him, trying to communicate respect somehow but I felt he already knew. He knew it all. But then just like that, he was gone. The door had been opened and my journey had begun…
We must be open to the gifts of the universe.
We must honor and respect our ancestors.
We must be grateful and loving to the Earth.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” -Chief Seattle
Come child, dance
with the wind and
spread your love.
Let your roots dive
down deep into the soil.
Feel the heartbeat
of Mother Earth.
Feel grounded knowing
we all walk upon the
same Sacred Earth,
and all breathe into
the same Cosmic Breath.
We are all,
united in One Soul.
Allow the sacred light
and blessed water
to help you grow,
awakening to your
spirit’s most ancient self.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir
Wandering Spirit: A Reflection
Enchament abounded in the billowing fields of energized fiery contemplation, found through exasperational efforts of continued occurrences, of hope through the transcendent experience of love and friendship. The dance of eternity confounded to a mere interaction of worlds between all beings of form. Though we live seperate lives, we are all in the end the same. Reaching for the same eternal discoveries of self found in wisdom and knowing.
Conduits of temporal feeling and delight. To share the beauteous, wonderful events of life and experiential form. Breathing in the expansive breath of true absolute freedom through the untouched wilderness of the cosmos. Earthly lands of mystic mountains, lush endless forests, and ancient desert sands… watery paradises of stoic icy realms to the healing vibrancy of the tropical rivers, lakes, oceans and streams… unknowable ethereal planes of the cosmically mysterious ever-expanding endless stars, planets, galaxies and voids of the universe.
All forms, all experimental planes, each moment, all are comprised to reveal to us layers and levels of our own experiences; guiding us to a higher understanding of not only of our true nature, but also what lies at the depths of our consciousness and the realities that it permeates. Each moment is bound with lessons of self to deliver to you from the universe a greater understand of the true nature of love and joy. And when we realize our true unity with everything in all of not only our home, but of that of the world, of the galaxy, of the universe… we will discover the true fate of humanity. Only then will we learn that if we do not come together, and wish peace/goodness for all people, all beings… that we will never find it for ourselves. True love, true peace, truer freedom awaits those who bestow the unwavering smile of compassion to all beings at all times.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“You are immortal; you exist for billions of years in different manifestations, because you are Life, and Life cannot die. You are in the trees, the butterflies, the fish, the air, the moon, the sun. Wherever you go, you are there, waiting for yourself.” -Don Miguel Ruiz
Breathe in the tranquil
energy of Love,
flowering itself;
found in the sanctuary
of the hillside.
All life flows to the
heartbeat of Mother Earth.
So we’ve come to sing
a joyous tune of remembrance
and to the beauty
of existence in one’s
current breath…
the deer trusts in its heart,
as you should too.
All found too soon
is a call to the spirit,
accepting peace so easy.
The sun brings all
its children home,
granting permission with
only a smile.
The everlasting waves of
the universe are with you,
as is all of time.
So trust in your footsteps
and trust in your knowing;
for your soul will
never forsake you.
The soul is universal,
the soul is pure.
Your spirit, your being;
united in all,
rooted in Love.
Ignited from the heart’s
fire within, spread to all brothers
and sisters of the universe…
oh how we are Infinitely One.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“Radiate boundless love towards the entire world. – Buddha”
Satori : A Reflection of Oneness
As the pages fold so does my tongue; the illusion is lived through bittersweet neglect to anything remotely conscious. Instead it’s all filtered by an unwavering acceptance of this time and space, uniting all factors of life into a harmonious being of one. Limitations arise infiltrating the absent-minded nature, perpetually consumed by the cycles of suffering and desires. No truth too great to seek, to the egocentric, but drop the veil and the entire vibrations of the cosmos will be at rhythm with your every breath.
This omnipresent frequency of universal harmony grows stronger activating and igniting each of your energy channels it encounters through your being. From the root where you are grounded the energy will flow upward and cycle through each of these chakras, recognizing and balancing the role of each until finally consciousness is reached in the crown chakra and you exist in OM. True oneness. The Greatest mystery of all.
Unmanifested, absolute consciousness that exists among all living things. You reflect not only your own being, but all other beings as well, interwoven in being and beauty. Seeking Truth and Love, finding your spirit and allowing the Way to be awakened in you. Nondualism, existing in One, you are unwavering as your eternal self, the body nor the mind is in control. Instead your spirit’s light endlessly shines as the ever-flowing stream of awareness.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes.” -Nietzsche
Inner Light
I feel reflection washing over me,
like the storm of the century.
The torrential downpour of
emotions and memories whirls
into a furry, consuming
all that cross its path.
The darkness is felt,
but unwelcomed.
I can see the sun’s luminescence
trying to peak through
the chaotic skies.
I embrace the beauty of the light,
envisioning its sweet potential.
I look deep within myself
for the roaring flame of love
that keeps me going.
I shield it with my all
of my energy trying to
keep the embers burning,
through the ceaseless
winds and waters of time.
I know that I must go on.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“You are what you want to become. Why search anymore? You are a wonderful manifestation. The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible. There is nothing that is not you. The kingdom of God, the Pure Land, nirvana, happiness, and liberation are all you.”
–Thich Naht Hanh
The Realm Within
Stay a while, enter IN.
Seek the roots of your being
to upward consciousness;
found in full concentration
of letting go… there
dissolve all misconceptions,
forget the self, and live
through the natural
rhythms of your
universal being.
ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ
“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe. -Lao Tzu”
Awake
Shelter of being;
inward exploration,
bringing waves
of visions.
Arising signs
quiet the mind,
this proposal
to exist
dissolves knowledge
into laughter.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“You, yourself, are the eternal energy which appears as this universe. You didn’t come into this world; you came out of it. Like a wave from the ocean.” -Alan Watts
Journeying Inward: A Reflection
How can my heart know the true deeds that are being done here? Have I become blind to a persons own being or am I just entangled in delusion? What is love or what is suffering for that matter? Are we all not living in a manifestation confined to our own perceived version of reality? Is this world truly only of time and space, or is there a dimension that is far deeper than this of our illusionary self?
I have seen it in glimpses through visionary states of higher consciousness… and from those experiences I can definitively say there is an eternal essence of which we are merely a part. This plane is for our souls to learn and grow. It’s a reality that most of us live quite idly, seeming to become numb to our own awareness. Even so, most use only their egos to fuel their spirit in this life. So why must we love? When the love we have usually comes with notions of past moments of preconceived “expectations.”
Each of us is uniquely bound in our own true destinies, but here we are collectively as unhappy as ever. Modern society has progressed without any true sense of compassion or awareness, valuing the individual over everything else. If we could all just realize that our self, no matter what form, is a constant essence that flows into everything and everyone around it… then we could see how infinitely united we all really are.
This form is earth-bound only by your state of consciousness; because if you truly wanted to, you could unlock all the secrets of the ages just by looking within. Inner reflection is the key to our divisive social structures, that have created a world of false nations and loss of self. We are not solely the product of our culture, rather we are all kin to the great eternal mystery that is the cosmic web.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ . ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“You are a divine being. You matter, you count. You come from realms of unimaginable power and light, and you will return to those realms.- Terrence McKenna”
Karuna
(Sanskrit: Compassion)
The true gurus are living on the streets,
peddling their blues… in the shadow
of your societal distorted view.
Crying out, just to be heard-
are these the forsaken men,
women, and children of the Earth.
‘Bubble burst, ground shaken’
begets the dormant soul,
craving only superficial sensation.
All the while, the mystics wail on & on,
to bring to you an abstractly
transcendental knowing of the
true purpose as to why
you
are
here;
a manifestation beyond form- limitless.
Prophetic wisdom, that slips on by;
whispering its ancient clues to you
just another soul in flight.
So absorb this, the breath of life…
intoxicating through your moral delight.
While the sage’s guidance finally enters
in the heart & mind you closed off
long ago. Dissolve into One, or peace
shall remain a dream, to you
the soul that refused to see.
करुणा. करुणा. करुणा.
. ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ .
“Let the natural flow of the universe, course through your being, and harmonize your soul.- Ram Dass”
Be Here Now
elusive vibrations and flowing images
senses open, unbounding energies
endless being find nothing. no
defeat, but knowledge. the
unity of Awareness
reflected in each being harmonizes
as waves that never truly
rise of fall,
forever still.
illuminated without illusion.
accepting nothing, turning nothing away.
ༀ Om Shanti ༀ Om Shanti ༀ Om Shanti ༀ
The Infinite Essence 