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!

Ripples of Light

 

Ripples of Light, Lanikai Beach, HI, May 2020, iPhone 11 Pro © Steven Crisp

Take a moment to watch the video above, it’s less than 2 minutes long

This video gives you a glimpse
of how the Earth and its Oceans and Islands are made
Indeed, how the Cosmos itself was formed
And what makes up the some-body each of us think we are

And what do you see?
Ripples of Light - on the surface
Vibrations of Waves - on the ocean
Undulations of Quanta - on the sandy bottom

It also gives you a glimpse, and a metaphor, if you will
for the interplay of the Cosmos and of Life itself
The manifest dynamic pattern is an unfathomable Wholeness
And no part can be isolated for ease of analysis or exploitation

This is the Wisdom we need at this time — Right Now
To recognize and explicitly value our dependance on this One Earth
And to see our neighbor, and even our so-called enemy, as ourself
Made of the same stuff, we are kith and kin; we're all in this together

There is more, of course, once you begin to see these Ripples of Light
You start noticing them everywhere ... Seeing the shadow dances
Feeling your subtle body sensations as they come and go, 
Watch them simply arise and then pass; this is the Life process itself

All of this is impermanent, is transitory, except, perhaps, 
the awareness that is aware of these “sense”-sations
Science has yet to find the ultimate building blocks of Nature
But many before us have lit candles in this darkness

The common instruction of this exploration is to look within
Hold that candle of awareness, and look deeply into all
that you might think “you” are, and see, that you are not that
No unchanging “self” can be found; nothing fixed anywhere

It may seem unsettling at first, but actually it is such a relief
To be able to drop one’s opinions and beliefs, and replace them 
with curiosity and awe and not-knowing — it’s so liberating
to simply live Life, as it Unfolds, in this Moment, Here and Now

Of Magic and Miracles

 

We Come in Peace, Kailua, HI, September 2020, iPhone 11 Pro © Steven Crisp

Of Magic and Miracles

Surely it is Magical,

if by magical you mean 

unknown to science and 

the rational (wo)man

You have seen with eyes

that intuit the Whole, where others

see only the little bits and pieces

Magic and Miracles abide in Wholeness

We are bathed in a cultural paradigm of 

reductionism:  If, Then, Goto, Else, Loop

A causes B causes C, ad nauseam

But this is not the language of Life

In Reality's mother tongue, the Whole 

really is greater than the sum of its parts

And Wholeness must be seen

from a (w)ho(l)ly different vantage point

Jesus told us that the Kingdom of 

Heaven is within each of us!  You, me,

saint and sinner … put down your stones,

and abide in Peace, Love, and Joy

Even during these painful times and

personal hardships we can know this Truth

If only we look deeply within, and see

the Miracle of our in-ter-dependence

So Love deeply, and lift up our brothers and sisters

For that is how we’ll find our better Angels

Know that every birth is Sacred and Miraculous

Feel deeply, for there is no music like Soul music

You have heard that no (wo)man is an island, 

So then, let us not ask for whom the bell tolls

The(e) real Magic is that we are all in this Together

And our Salvation begins with(in) (W)hol(i/e)ness