Outbreath

One small apperceptive being
Comes into a life from nothing
From parents generating warmth
two hands take away the cold
so for one moment they do not feel alone

Family gives the illusion of comfort and security
lamenting to conceal the vacuity
taking on more and more work to sustain
so many forms, so much
and at the end, after so many tears and hardship, all is lost-
and the grief is inconsolable
Samsara.

The most compelling force of nature in this world
passion
we can’t possibly hope to shake it
that is where the Sharavakas went wrong
better to take it as the path

working with this each moment
never leaving the mind, almost obsessed
from a sip of sweet tea, with or without milk
up to the fullness of your lips

Drenched in a blaze of
open, open
Open as wide as you can
Fire stoked without exhausting
Alive like a fish
In sun glistened water

all essences join
in the heart
And from there we love
And really care for others
And can work tirelessly
Out of real, palpable devotion to our Vajra Fathers

Drunk with blessings
We have no other occupation
Than to try to help others
No other care in the world
But to help others

No clinging to friend, consort or form
Open, open, open
Until all karmic traces are burned up

Open, outer space
and inner space are united
This is Mahamudra
The secret most subtle sensuous consort
Who truly quenches all thirst
returning back to the Chöjung
in one lifetime

We have never really left.

And in the mountains silence
I can see
As I watch the sun goes down outside
I am alone
But not lonely

A lamp burns within sun outside, sun inside
I have Five parents
Homage and Honor to
the vastness of space, where I see no self
the wind of breath, where feeling sees the dreamlike deities
the warmth of love, where I remember our teachers, and work to help those who have forgotten
water, my blood, an eternal wellspring to drink, Mamaki
and earth, our bones, the glue that binds all relative form.

Let my child be…
The ability to know how to liberate others
Ease their pain
Directly cutting
So we leave this life
in beauty, breathing out bliss.
———————————-

Written on Solitary Retreat 25 January 2011, Crestone, Colorado

Photo from balcony of retreat house.