There are many hints, clues
That a dream is not what appears
To the senses; judgement held in suspension
Of disbelief, as our minds play
On fears and hopes and weave
The scene from spider-silk and mist
To wrap like a cocoon around us
A cosmic All.
From a spark springs the dream,
Formless light playing against the void
From which it springs, lending shape
To the shapeless, soft sounds imagined
Emerge as words, a frame contains it
That feels pleasure and pain that burns
Like fire, as the spinning wheel turns
In the heart of the Lotus
Unfolding.
We play solitaire with hidden rules
Revealed with the turn of each new card
From a deck badly shuffled. Here the
Hierophant teaches the rites, the Magician
Twists the tail of endless time, there
The Hanged Man dangles above the Wheel
Of the Chariot, sphinx-drawn, read out
By old crones weaving around
a darkling fire.
How then, is it not a dream? Each night's rest
Brings an eternity of darkness
In each moment unbroken by images of light
At best a memory, all past but a jumble
Of flickers that fade and dance when we tune
Them, a fog the defines us
As the formless shape within
That sees not itself, but sees all else.
Each day's awakening brings an eternity
Of light, unbroken by holes of darkness unseeing
For there Time is not, but a game we play to amuse
Our Self. The clues are many, the hints
Left by our own hand to find fall in each
Tick-tock of the clock, remind us to wake up,
Wake up, wake up. Yet we refuse, seduced by
The sweetness of the dream, ensorcelled by
The dancing waters and turning wheel of time.
The sage walks the road of time half asleep
The Bodhisattva half awake, tugging the sleeves
Of those that walk with them, to help awaken
The Self. Fear nothing, but live with compassion
And love: timeless wisdom, that spangles the darkness
With myriad stars, each lonely and distant but huge,
Each sustained by its heart of light and fire,
Each united across the distance and time to the One.
Oh stardust that walks and breathes!
Awake to the dream within the dream, within the
Dream! Thy light is a mirror, twist back and
See thy Self, bound gently to the rule of time and space,
Dreaming a dream that cancels the darkness,
Gives form to the Void
Gives rise to the mystery
of love...