When the Dancer Becomes the Dance

When the dancer becomes the dance,
does the dance know this?

When the dancer becomes the dance,
where does the dancer go?

When the dancer becomes the dance,
what does the dancer do when the dancing stops?

Nothing Begets Something

Nothing begets nothing
begets nothing begets something
begets nothing again.
This is how a table is made.

Time is not a river but a hillside.
We walk along its flank
as each nothing begets nothing
begets nothing begets something
begets nothing again.

Every something springs into being
exactly in place and on cue as we travel
over the ground of time.

What is something?
Something out of nothing.

What is nothing?
The source of everything.

What is everything?
Whatever you believe it to be.

Outside Inside Outside

Taught under the law.
Raised in the air of scripture.
Schooled in all walks of the Word.

What is outside was once
also inside. Now, what is outside
is still outside, but no longer inside.

This is the path for some.
For others, it is the precipice to avoid.
Both paths are dangerous.
Both paths are holy.
Both paths lead to the Divine.

Trusting What Isn't Real

If I trust what isn't real,
do I make it real?

If I make it real,
does it deserve
the trust that created it?

Walking a Wide Circle

When I walk a wide circle,
I am tracing the courses
of planets and galaxies
and spinning electrons.

Step by step, beat by beat,
I echo the rhythms of time,
the pulsing waves of its vast body,
breathing, breathing.

When I walk a wide circle,
I create my own universe.
I invent my own body of time.

Freedom from Fear

Freedom from fear is not freedom.
Freedom from fear is the source of compassion.

Freedom from fear is not security.
Freedom from fear is the seat of wisdom.

Reaching the Bottom

I can see the bottom of a creek.
I can touch the bottom of a stream.
I can swim to the bottom of a river.
I can dive to the bottom of the sea.
How do I reach the bottom of the Tao?

When I Am Asleep

When I am asleep,
the universe continues unfolding
as if I were not part of its fabric.

When I am awake,
the universe continues expanding
as if my wakefulness were blind.

When I am simply here,
the universe continues calling
as if I were the only one around.

Insights

Slow and not slow.
Some insights come easily.
Some take a lifetime to gain.

Do I come to them
because I go looking for them?
Or do I come to them
because they are calling me by name?

Some are found in seeking.
Some are found in silence.

Do they come to me
because it is time for me to have them?
Or do they come to me
because I petition the Divine?

Some come when ready.
Some come when called.

Really a Journey?

Is a spiritual journey
really a journey at all?

How have I traveled
such a great distance
over the decades of my life
and never left the skull
of my own mind?

Still River

Still river.
Rushing river.

One day one.
One day the other.

Still the same river.
Still never the same.

I Show Up

I show up, and answers arise.
I show up, and the cup overflows.
I show up, and the universe is waiting.
I show up, and my work welcomes me.
I show up, and the next task wonders where I've been.