Playing with Lalla G:18. Ashes

Let them cast a thousand curses at this naked woman.

Their pointed words will never touch my heart.

I am devoted to the innate and annealing truth of Shiva.

Nothing but polishing comes from throwing ashes on a mirror.

Playing with Lalla G:83. Release

I've seen a wise man die of hunger.

And leaves fall in winter even with the slightest wind.

I’ve seen a fool beat his cook.

And Lalla waits for love of an absurd world to let go.

Playing with Lalla G:108. "Drop it”

This sack of sweetness gets heavier

as the shoulder strap loosens and drops.

The road before me appears crooked and lost.

O how can I carry this burden any further?

The liberating words of the guru keep falling

hard on my shoulders with blistering loss.

Ah but this flock of senses has no shepherd!

O how can I carry this burden any further?

Playing with Lalla G: 67. Riverboat

Lightly, lightly, I am sighing for you Soul.

You have lost your mind upon a Ship of Fools!

The shadow of an anchor cannot hold you there

and yet, dear me, you've lost the current of my self.

Playing with Lalla G:41. Breathing

From which four winds did I arrive

and what passageway was taken? 

With what wind do I go

and by which passage leave? 

Here I waited for my vital life instructions—

for empty breath has little value.

Playing with Lalla G:106. Sleep

Asleep, confused, I dreamt I was a riverboat and being
towed across the ocean by a single strand of some belief.

I sang O Shiva will you hear me; will you help me in my crossing?

And then I dreamt the sea was seeping through this clay container

like some precious sand that's falling through an hourglass.

I sang O Shiva will I have the time to get back home to you?

Or do I sink before I see we are one sea and be awake?

my playful transcreation of Grierson's translation & commentary no.106
of Lalla (Lal Ded) while also utilizing those of Hoskote, Barks, and Kak

Playing with Lalla G:98. Coin

They say we arrive in this world 

by a way that is not the way. 

You can’t take it with you of course, 

so only by selling my soul to the ferryman 

do I cross the river to the land of karmic rebirth.

O, but with Shiva's name I'm suddenly unborn

to see there is no ferryman—

and no way that isn’t the way.

my playful transcreation of Grierson's translation & commentary no.98 
of Lalla (Lal Ded) while also utilizing those of Hoskote, Barks, and Kak

Inner Monologue on Spiritual Economics

Western paradox—you can't give it away—if it doesn't cost, no one wants it—if you give it to them anyway, they’ll pay anyway, and resent it!

There is no mendicant tradition in the west—there is only homelessness and social welfare—everything personal is a monetary transaction.

Giving something away in the west implies an economic status of homelessness and welfare—not a spiritual status of mendicant and householder.

Those who automatically trash the unfortunate economic side of spirituality in the west misunderstand the hard facts of a materialist west.

I'm a nobody giving away a book & already i can see the associations involved in the transaction. Nobody wants to be accused of homelessness.

Re-evaluate the associative values of said book, he said, working out on twitter an experience he had last night, $7 richer but nothing more.

So Chopra has it right! Disregarding absolute quality of teachings, he is the mendicant allowing householders to fund his spiritual research.

And the scientific guru-basher has it wrong—not only is its higher technical language occluding in itself but its economics are materialist.

Mendicant-householder economics is a spiritual one, benefiting both parties—the mendicant in research and the householder’s instant karma.

Market Square Bakehouse Vortex Sutra

in memory of Isabel Van Merlin's Merrimac Mic

Around an emptiness of absolute identity is swirling river thunderstorms of voices emanating from the lightning strikes of mystical intent

engendering an eye above a traffic circle where the poets talk in tongues and utter stories like the secret caves of France or China

where a woman staring at the wall is seeing through the vehicles of space and time discerning all is consciousness

and in this consciousness reflecting only in this consciousness is self-awareness of the self intending self-awareness of the great unknown

and now the known-unknown and nothing else is known O Vishnu Shiva Shakti Krishna Ishvara Brahma Vishnu thank you thank you thank you

I am I within the eye of voices speaking from their heart of hearts within the bakehouse of this LOVE & WISDOM, Love & Wisdom, love & wisdom

Journal of the Known-Unknown

Mind alone is small-minded.

Mind with heart is mindful.

Heart alone is being.

Neither mind nor heart is real.

God is a name

for the known unknown.

Knowing the name

isn’t knowing the unknown.

Intent is to the universe

as evolution is to mind;

and self-awareness is to self—

being is transcendent

as the known-unknown

enlightens any

shadow of a doubt.