I sometimes wonder what might motivate people to read and try to follow poems like this one. Where the hell is it going?! Ghalib said, "If I do not write what is difficult, it is difficult to write." Not that that helps make sense of all of this, but I'm glad other people have felt the same way. If you want something really difficult, try Dogen's SHOBOGENZO. (I like the four-volume Nishijima and Cross version.)
Sometimes it takes a lot of items mentally to get us to a point where it all simplifies. Like trying to understand certain aspects of why we do what we do. Sometimes it really helps to look at a big group of ants to understand ants--you can't figure them out one at a time because they know that they're part of a colony. So a lot of times, I try to get people to not over-simplify. That means we have to go into the confusion, but if you can face confusion, you can find simplicity there.
It's good to practice simplicity in simple situations, but once we've practiced, we take what we know into the arena, the crowd, the noise. When we're still practicing, we pray, "Lead us not into temptation." But once we've done the work, finished practicing, we might as well apply it (or the practice is wasted, diminished). So the gospels tell of how Jesus went into the mess and tried to make things better. He told people, "Medicine is not for the healthy, I bring medicine for the sick." He brought who he was back to the people who needed him--criminals, cheating wives, judgemental husbands, corrupt moneylenders and merchants, sophists. He also turned water into wine and didn't mind celebrating!
The nature of thought is paradox;
content doesn't matter.
By the time god becomes thought,
it's not really God;
the play is not the thing.
A tree is more than blossoms and fruits;
if you don't believe, wait for winter.
Spring tells a new story, but
we know it's coming.
Everyone loves a good story.
Thoughts are just like leaves in fall.
At the end of life, they still smell of change.
Even dead wood can remind us of God.
Life feels conflicted when we think against flow.
Otherwise, time shows the way.
Living life forward is like growing love.
We take earth and worms, storms and light,
add our own living, and out comes apples.
It's all very natural.
Worry over words has no place before words,
and makes no sense after.
If your thoughts bother you, follow them.
All the way to the end.
Don't live with worry as your halfway mirror.
The other way, if you want to look backwards,
is to live backwards too.
Love comes of love, apples of origins.
If you can't savor the outcomes,
learn the process.
Teach yourself to look in both directions.
Every moment carries an invitation.
Welcome reads in a different direction
than chasing desire does.
Every moment is an invitation to find your way back
from whence you came.
Mystics read the world from inside.
Reflections can't tell what you don't know,
but you can learn something new.
What lives before thought?
The only "paradox" is to look one way
and live another.
That separates soul from vision, confusing
the mind, and withering soul.
Accept the gift in each moment.
Look into the moment as it is.
Look backwards and forwards and turn it around.
If you have dead leaves, see where they came from;
if you have apples, enjoy.
Look from within.
The mind may not be leading anyway.
It's not a parade with only a leader.
It's takes crowds and clowns and lots of noise!
A festival! can't be simple.
But we want joys and unions.
When the parade has passed,
walk slowly home.
There is no rush;
you know the way.
Walk away from the noise,
away from the crowds.
Find a small space, and quiet.
Leave out everything extra.
We come close to beginnings
beginning in silence.
There are times for celebrations
and a celebration without time.
There is something to be said
for stillness,
but that saying stays
still.
Copyright 2007 Todd Mertz