Just the Facts, Ma'am

Loon before the Mist, Tucker Pond, September 2021

So I've started meditating again, out on the deck of our camp, early in the morning.  What an amazing time to be awake and outside.  The rest of humanity (at least around the pond) has yet to stir.  But the wildlife is buzzing and serenading me.  It really helps one get back in touch with nature, with life, with reality.

We had some family friends visiting us for a couple of days, and had some interesting conversations, one of which somehow, in that alchemic way, sparked this poem.  It's called "Just the Facts, Ma'am" from that old TV show Dragnet, where the unflappable (and largely unemotional) detective wants the witness to just give the essence of the matter, not irrelevant commentary, like our minds so often do.

So anyways, here's what emerged after one of those meditation sessions.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

This thing called "life" sure is interesting, if nothing else

And there’s always something else

Life is a gift — it’s all of existence

The who-what-when-where-why of it

And yet, Life is nothing of the kind

It’s non-duality … simply the wholeness of being

Life is this moment, and only this moment

Constantly refreshed, nothing is fixed

The stillness of dawn’s light, and

The effervescence of hummingbird wings

Ever humming, flowing, emerging, creating

This impermanent dance of Lila

Sunlight dances across a misty pond

Dewdrops glisten upon Indra’s net

Ripples of consciousness itself

Are but the footfalls of so many water striders

That loon’s mournful morning cry really is

The sound of your original birth

Everything is, just as it is, enfolding and unfolding

Thirteen billion years of causes and conditions

No this or that, no good or bad … no separation

When in doubt, simply remember, “not two”

All of it, the sublime and the ridiculous

Right here, right now … **snap**

Thou art That  

Thou art That!