Hallway to Nowhere

Tag: illusion

  • Precarious Ground (Poem)

    Right now I walk so uncertainly

    With little knowledge of what will cause me to fall.

    I can talk to a stranger with ease

    But then a smile makes me flee to cry in shadows.

    How to navigate this mercurial terrain baffles me.

    The world shifts without warning,

    While so also does my ability to adapt.

    I had the illusory notion I could cope well.

    This has fled, as I struggle once more.

    How do I give thanks for this reminder of impermanence,

    When I feel thrown back into depression’s embrace?

    Surely some of my study and practice will stay

    To provide a steadying influence while I falter through my day.

  • Where I Am (Poem)

    If I truly wish for all beings to be happy and free from suffering,

    I must apply this also to myself.

    At the moment, with my physical being wracked by pain

    And my mind clouded by bleak depression,

    I find this to be a difficult task.

    Equanimity towards my own state is a struggle.

    Occasionally I relax into spaciousness and acceptance.

    But old patterns return again and again

    To obscure my view and murk the light.

    Sometimes I can see that these are illusion and let them go;

    Other times I grasp them tightly as old familiar friends.

    Indeed, they once were ropes that tethered me in safety.

    So rather than judging them (and myself for holding on to such),

    Let me honor their place, grant them gratitude,

    And treat them gently with kindness.

    I walk the path I do in knowledge that it looks the same

    But, like everything, is always changing.

    I still stumble and even fall. The rocks that bruise me

    Appear like the stones from yesterday and before, even unto the distant past.

    Yet when I pause to see, after the pain of impact, they are not.

    I take hold again of my stick, pull myself up, and even take in

    The glorious colors of the trees and sky and listen to the wind.

    I walk on with my usual unsteady gait until the next halt.

    This is where I am.

  • The Illusion of A Chair (Poem)

    Consider this wooden object.

    This is a chair. You say.

    But is it? I ask. What makes it so?

    This! And you sit upon it.

    Ah, I see. But please arise.

    I place my tea cup and notebook upon it.

    Now, still a chair? Or has it transformed into a table?

    I remove them.

    Would you please retrieve that book from a high shelf?

    You then stand upon the sturdy item.

    It has become a stepladder.

    What magic is this?

    Thus is all.

  • Weight Of Samsara (Poem)

    How to develop a lighter mind,

    Able to easily drift on the winds of change?

    All my attitudes hinder this,

    Causing me to adhere to every sticking point.

    Rather than a clear openness,

    I find the constant film of selfishness.

    Sometimes this momentarily fades,

    Through diligent application of appropriate means.

    My attention waxes and wanes,

    With the result that the tarnish returns.

    Once again I sink under the grimy wash.

    If I could but realize that this be illusion,

    I could float freely as the leaf and cloud.

  • Divi/Illu/Sion (Poem)

    There is you and there is me.

    There is division.

    Look deeper.

    There is illusion.

    What you thought was a warning,

    A hand held up high,

    Is in fact a greeting of welcome.

    Perspective changes everything.

    Open your mind.

    Expand your heart.