Friday, October 2, 2015

Beads on one string



Beads on one string

Abstaining from honey and roots,
leather and silk ... but, that’s not it; 

five times prayer, the pilgrimage,
no, no.  Not the bread and wine

nor a grain of rice per day;
not a mustard seed; not mortification;

not abstinence; not indivisibility
nor devas and demigods ... that’s not it;

not brotherly love nor pacifism,
not the Trinity nor the One; not faith, hope, charity;

not servitude nor mastery ... not that, not that;
not the ark, the grail, the ka’aba, the holy texts,

not the Silence nor the Word,
not practices nor disciplines,

ceremonies nor performances, no ... that’s not it.
It’s not ... it’s not. 

God can reach around any corner, at any time,
and pull from the rubble a lover, a seeker, a saint.

At some juncture, to adhere is to fall away; to follow
is to fall behind – the path requiring, at times,  

abandonment of the path, faith – the leaving of the fold
and fidelity – the incoherent ravings of an infidel.

O child of God, put your faith in perplexity;
find God by renouncing everything you know.

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