Poetry
I offer these poems to anyone who is searching to find peace in their lives. The poems by and large explore the still and powerful mind that can be found by anyone in the present moment. They point the way to this stillness and beyond to the absolute truth that can be found inside the stillness itself. These poems can be used as inspiration, or as an aide to your own personal practice. I have named the first collection: POEMS FROM THE PRESENT. There are 35 poems in this collection and they can be accessed by clicking below. These poems are hyperlinked from the presenting menu.
"Click Here" POEMS FROM THE PRESENT Volume One"
The Second volume of my poems (a work still in progress) are hyperlinked from the menu that follows. While some of these poems follow the same didactic formulae as the first volume, there are others that are more reflective and whimsical. My style seems to be changing somewhat as I become more used of speaking out what is in my mind. I trust that these poems can work to help you understand the mystery that we are all living with, and bring the same confidence and awe that I find in this wonderful body and mind. May they bring you peace.
NEW POETRY (Volume 2)
Balancing Knowing (NEW!)
Becoming Real. (NEW!)
Creative Language (A means to an end)
Death and the Brightening Mind
Going Blind to See. (NEW!)
Hope there will be someone there for me
Understanding the Universe Within.
Awakening to Stillness
by Dennis Sheppard. Spring --- 2017.
Early mornings with birdsong,
The spring has settled in,
Energy flows expectant,
Again ready to begin.
Life’s complexity’s starts building,
As the sleep falls away from my eyes.
Busyness starts to manifest my lot,
My focus spins --- I can lose the plot.
Still consciousness is there,
As I become aware of each new day.
But its truth and beauty can get lost,
As I enter into life’s fray.
The still energy aggregates the components,
That I have been conditioned to become.
Losing the truth of the still moment,
Ignorant of how it all begun.
The present moment is the balance point,
Between the past and future concealed.
I know that truth lies at its heart,
But then desire can keep us both apart.
To see that I am confined,
Unable to be free!
Locked up in a mental straight jacket,
In jail while holding the key
Awakening to stillness is my life’s work,
It brings reality to my being.
To see the hypnotic spell that I am under,
And know the unification beyond my wonder.
Perfection is this world, past and future built into the now,
Form built with grace, from the empty ground of space.
While relativity tensions with time,
Beauty and truth forming, a natural exquisite rhyme.
But my desire for form exceeds the truth within,
So I jail myself much to my chagrin.
Rounds of rebirth that bring no satisfaction,
Grasping for more to create ongoing distraction.
Because resounding still energy is powerful,
As it feeds back into the now.
Bringing the Universe with it,
Until our world becomes a sacred cow.
Awakening to stillness allows me to see,
The beauty and truth in all that can be.
So I can see the world without delusion,
And allow my mind to be free from confusion.
Still consciousness becomes my datum,
For me to know the movement of my mind,
To see it resonating with the world,
To know its truth and not be blind.
As the stillness becomes more important,
Than the world it creates into form.
I start to become one with all that is,
Then freedom opens its doors.
The more mindful I become of the stillness,
The more focussed I become to let go.
Then the stillness finishes with feedback external,
And the unification brings a glimpse of the eternal.
Its peace is real and so compelling,
Truth is the focus with insight foretelling.
Aspiring to death with a unified gaze,
An end of rebirth feeding back life’s maze.
So the seasons begin and end,
With perfection so sublime.
Wisdom develops to live and know,
Life balanced in the flow.
So when heedful I do not die,
But heedless death will bring new birth.
To stop is my ultimate aspiration,
To finish forever with dual causation.
Birth and death become relative,
To my conscious flow in space and time.
Mindfulness can see it all finish,
To leave Absolute Truth, pure and prime.
With full
acknowledgement
to the Buddha’s teaching
By Dennis Sheppard
I waken from sleep and a puzzling dream,
Lost momentarily, where have I been.
Awareness of stillness fills, then consciousness moves,
Being awake and reflecting, my body rested and soothed.
The subconscious dimension I came from seemed so real,
And yet now in my presence, it is not a big deal.
I downplay its story with an ignorant resistance,
Because my consciousness denies its very existence.
Yet I see how my subconscious mind does shape and mould,
With conditioning embedded, in often deep time untold.
Creating views and opinions to shape and guide.
An unseen datum, creating my world view applied.
To see my world built up from dependent karma,
An enchanted life flow, in a stage like drama.
Yet my subconscious world is discounted as fake,
And my unconscious world seems not to count in my fate.
Physical resonances building, mind creating fertile pathways to find,
Fungible consciousness shape shifting, with unconscious habits fusing blind.
Habitual patterns enchanting, causing me to grasp and become,
Consciousness builds my karmic story, using nature’s duality to succumb.
Filaments build the Cosmos connections,
Fecund galactic clusters entwined.
Plants and animals mimic sympathetically,
although duality’s extremes can be unkind.
Sensitive arrays then build up nerve-like; all created and unified in space and time.
Animal mineral and vegetable; symbiotic conditions connected into me,
Consciousness building network connections, that define for me how to be,
A realm of samsara, round and around, inside a jail where I hold the key.
My knowing lost and uncertain, trapped in duality’s realm, unable to be free.
Resounding through time and space,
Links born to die in consciousness profound,
All habitually connected and fused,
Nature’s perfection and beauty balanced to astound.
This universe inside me, all connected into natures one,
A perfect world holding future and past, now in the present moment done.
Insight that allows me to relax and let go, into this moment of time,
Where all the resonances unify, and still consciousness stands forth sublime.
My ignorance can assume past and the future is true,
However, insight does check this assumption anew.
The present moments truth is that reality is now.
Past and future seen as a delusion, worshiped like a sacred cow.
The stage is now set to be the right way to ‘know’,
Still consciousness the datum for life’s apparent flow.
The present moments stillness points to transcendent release,
To a pathway that heralds resounding pure peace.
Movement of my being past the present moment’s veracity,
Sees the moment’s opacity breached with mindful tenacity.
Knowing sees consciousness eventually finish in cessation,
When the conditions of life unify beyond worldly dissociation.
The beauty and joy in being that unified truth,
Heralds the Right View and Intention, to practice and sleuth.
To let go nature’s duality that shapes conditions grasped in mendacity,
And allows the peace of enlightenment, to bring our knowing to reality.
Whether I am leaning into life or leaning out
Finding the balance point is what it is all about.
Accepting all conditions from dimensions future or past
Bringing my enchantment with life into reality’s grasp
Then mindfulness can penetrate consciousness, to see it come to an end.
And know the release potential, that the end of my life will bring.
A place of enlightenment beyond birth and death; where cessation and peace is found.
Grasping is finished, contentment complete, a balanced knowing profound.
By Dennis Sheppard
My body tingles as it relaxes, it provides a natural link
Mind, universe, and body working, all to keep me in sync
Vibrations nesting, and the world simplifies.
Universal reaction as it instantaneously unifies.
I have known this unification when going beyond to find,
This whole world and body, collapse deep into my mind.
With only still pure consciousness resounding so fast.
As it unifies past and the future, into the present moment vast.
To see still consciousness pure in this present moment of mind
I need contentment and balance to develop a practice that is loving and kind
To accept and relax with conditions that my mind through the universe brings,
Discordant vibrations are made coherent, to bring joy as the mind sings.
I savour this peaceful pathway, but my attention is drawn to the form,
My consciousness offers so much in creation, and the world reinforces the norm.
My head on a swivel as I grasp, with distracted excitement and pleasure,
Allowing consciousness to habituate and scatter, living without any measure.
With ignorance and desire, I grasp in hope, all that is presented,
Without seeing the extremes inherent, that can sometimes end up resented.
Because bad comes with good and smooth comes with rough,
It is always a mixed blessing, so I learn to bluff when it’s tough.
But the complexity on offer in the consciousness realm,
Leads often to trouble that can overwhelm.
I start to see the suffering on both sides of the duality,
And start to yearn for the Peace I found in the balance of reality.
The realisation comes that truth, is only in the present moment to find,
I see the suffering inherent that the past and future defines.
The extremes of conditioning are mediated only with karma,
I realise that consciousness creates conditions that can bring only drama.
I notice then how my consciousness streams, moving from past into future to define,
The story of my life as I grasp at the selected conditions, while the stream creates my mind.
Then as I look closer, I see the present moment where consciousness is still,
And I realise that right there, the entire universe is presented to distil.
This view of the whole is compelling, compared to the enchantment of form,
It speaks of beauty, truth and love, pointing to peace without need to conform.
An unconditional peace beckons beyond the still consciousness of mind,
An invitation to zoom close and build resolution, to penetrate and find.
Mindfulness takes over, rapt attention focusses this present moment in time.
Suddenly consciousness switches off, leaving an empty knowing behind.
So natural is this present moment, beyond the conditioning in time and space,
One sees that birth and death is finished, if I practice to stay with this grace.
This reality is present in any moment, streaming from the beginning to end of time,
Its peace is right there when I relax and be, this knowing that cannot be defined.
It is knowing that is balanced between future and past, beyond the conditions that made me.
A knowing of pure love deep in my heart; embracing the whole, to set me free.
This path of the Buddha is a beautiful truth, right there for us all to discover,
Each of us has a personal universe, to cultivate for truth to reveal and uncover.
Taking us beyond the enchantment and trap, of conditions that overwhelm,
To stop with mindfulness in the deathless, to be the knowing, beyond the conscious realm,
It is ‘Purity, Truth and Compassion’ that ends up making us real,
And one starts to become this way, by building a practice that does not conceal,
Morality Meditation and Wisdom, are conditions that inform letting go,
Beyond birth and death in the moment, to become real, and to finally know.
By Dennis Sheppard
NOUN --- A human be-ing is an exquisite truth.
Intangible perfection, very pure in sooth, (truth or reality)
Birth and death in the moment, paradoxical Universe,
Latent energy conditioning, karma to disperse.
VERB---A human do-ing is using time and space,
Manifesting a dream, from a karmic theme.
With beliefs and opinions and a life at stake,
Reflection is limited when only half awake.
ADJECTIVE --- A human know-ing sees right to the heart,
Of life's conditioned existence and is not apart.
From the universal matrix that holds us all together,
And sees beginning less beginnings the same as forever.
ADVERB (modifyier) --- A human awaken-ing develops their life beyond pose,
Maturing an ego that spiritually grows,
Congruent with truth, reflecting its beauty profound,
A living display that is never a cliché.
WISDOM --- A human wise and knowing sees life's habitual form
With the universe reflecting what has been born.
Knowing a purity beyond the habits of both,
Purer even than stillness giving none thier troth.
BUDDHA --- Enlightenment fully wakens each human mind,
Along with the accompanying Universe in kind.
A perfect balance empty and pure,
But full with no-thing to gain or obscure.
NIBBANA --- Habitual grasping finished ending future and past,
Space-time collapses, nothing more to be asked.
Everything finishes the end is the start,
Peace unconditioned, uncreated art.
BIRTH
By Dennis Sheppard
The tumult gone, I feel alone,
How long have I felt so vulnerable and unknown?
No moments pass but it feels an age,
Since passion and purpose allowed me to engage.
This lightness and focus seems so profound,
No burdens to carry or keep me bound.
A tantalising bliss --- subtle, but there,
But my energy cannot be totally aware.
What has happened? I do not know,
Through the eye of a needle I seemed to flow
Memories blurred but somehow strangely relevant
To whatever is attracting my energy continuant.
This endless moment seems so refined,
But this energy is restless, engaging time to define,
No contentment to balance and stay with the now,
Energy finding its level, with a pattern to endow.
I find myself grasping, at pleasure in the shape,
A relationship that's loving, with parents on the make,
Three personal streams combining, karma seeding the play,
My new shape becomes so real, in a complete but relative way.
Nuture, love and trust, is already there to see,
Everything merging together, past patterning becomes the key.
Anticipation of what can be, develops a future desire,
Energies mixing together, pregnant with what I require.
Then into the light I appear, the release from this stress so freeing
Helpless and open to receive, but bound with the weight of my being,
Then I am aware of my mother's love, so focussed as if beguiled,
I become aware of her acceptance of me; I know that I am her child.
By Dennis Sheppard
(See this poem performed on You Tube)
When I compare my experience with what is good and bad
I am noticing a difference to make me sad or glad.
I objectify things and act, depending on what I perceive,
To suit me best, based on what I believe.
Love and hate can both --- keep my heart rate high,
While birth and death --- can bring a teary eye.
While an extravert may make an introvert look shy,
Age may slow, while the young will reach for the sky.
Fame will condition infamy, if I try to glorify my name,
While loss may bring heartache and make me strive for gain.
Roughness will generate smooth as an experience to try
Riches can make me happy, while poverty may make me cry
Life's duality's feedback difference, for me to discriminate,
My ongoing conditioning deciding, what it is I appreciate.
Popular views will tell me what's best to accumulate,
Perhaps an oblivious life lived, without truth in mind to calibrate.
How to decide, what is truths bottom line,
Only the heart of this moment shows the stillness so prime.
This stillness lets me see knowing, beyond my intentions
Where space always resonates, with past and future tensions
.
This infinite space rings, to give pure consciousness a mould,
To energise my life and provide a story to be told.
Calibration is essential to understand my being,
To see the right pathway and then enable my freeing.
Calibrating a scale provides a reference datum,
For an accurate reading, that must be verbatim.
Read directly from, the bench mark set,
So I know that a truthful standard, is being met.
Using stillness and space, for this touchstone perspective,
Let's the tensions unravel, without being subjective.
Space with its stillness and pure consciousness known,
The first and last condition that, the universe has grown.
When this clarity comes, freedoms pathway becomes clear,
The reference provides discipline, which at first may seem austere.
But as the fullness and richness, of the moment appears,
The direction is obvious moving past all my fears.
Calibration has given me, the chance to know,
The dis-ease that lifetimes of conditioning can grow
Relative truths, which are bound to disappoint.
Ongoing life's lived, without a reference point.
Finally the perspective seen, using wisdoms treasure,
Allows a calibration back, to the stillness as a measure.
Then right insight into the unconditioned, beyond space and time,
Will bring an enlightened view, to give me freedom sublime.
By Dennis Sheppard
A child born is a wonderful thing,
A combination of genes, a personality to bring.
Exquisite energies that shape parents and child
Inside a committed pairing or something more wild.
Two energy streams cavort, to allure and then compel,
Parents become united, to seed and propel,
The birth of a being, needing to be born,
Its own energy ready, to shape and transform.
Flawless connections, so truthful and free,
Each moment presenting, its way to be.
Taking and giving, what's needed to portray,
The truth of each moment, behind an ego display.
Worldly conditions define, where each child belongs,
Growing and creating, their own personal song.
Recognised as a unique and individual being,
Growing up to believe in, what it is seeing.
The combinations and play, of these energetic formations,
Evolves and changes, to set different relations.
Blending and separating, the arrays as needed,
Trending in directions, that karma has seeded.
This mundane life is for us all --- the norm,
Its energy continues, patterns being reborn.
New born we grasp our old habits and ties
Continuing until insight, can make us wise.
Insight will guide us, as we practice to let go,
Sanity improves, to let maturity grow.
Past the movement and patterns of mind,
Deep into the moment, to stillness sublime.
To go past the conditions and see our own energy stream,
Against the pure consciousness that derives, the shape of our being.
Some bring freedoms karma, from past lives before,
Insight releases others, seeing freedom offers more.
One thing is sure, and that is death follows birth,
And freedoms still insight, sees right past life on earth.
So a child that is born, into conditions that exist,
Can find freedom in the stillness, hitherto dismissed.
By Dennis Sheppard
A mother's love is where it begins,
With a loving father joining in.
Protecting and caring for their new born child,
Empathy given as if beguiled.
Conditioned into me from first realisation of life,
Patterned to derive, the best chance to survive.
When reflection starts, I see myself in others,
And empathy realises we are all brothers.
As I grow in the world it hardens me up,
Making me strong, resilient and tough,
But beneath it all mothers love is still there,
Providing opportunities for me to care.
The balance provided is a human blessing,
To see deep into life, understanding without stressing.
The peace it provides is a wonderful relief,
That takes you past tangling, with any belief.
(An Aspiration)
By Dennis Sheppard
The time has come to breathe my last,
Old age has allowed a sweet view of my past,
Sickness is rampant my body dying,
But my mind is brightening without even trying.
What joy to remember my service and sharing
Good parents and family so warm and so caring.
Sharing intimacy and loving with wonderful wives,
Brought contentment and balance to all of our lives.
Good counsel and teachings from friends on the way,
Means life has been happy and kept trouble away.
And where life's journey has taken me into the mire,
Reflection provided enrichment, and a view to inspire.
And where life’s journey has taken me into the shit,
The reflection has made fertiliser, from most of it.
Digging it into the habitual paths of my mind,
Has given the fruit of wisdom, so I am no longer blind.
As vital organs close down, ending my life in this form,
I celebrate the stillness, that my mind finds the norm.
Mindfulness growing as this body fades away,
Allows gaps in the stillness, to be more on display.
These gaps show the beauty and bliss seen last time,
That I lay on my deathbed and tried to refine,
But my mind stream was too course, to lock onto this truth,
So rebirth recycled, refining energy to sow --- seeds that allowed wisdom to grow.
Old age has given me the chance to reflect,
To uncover the moment and see how to direct,
My energy towards stillness and peace beyond in my mind,
And to notice it grows, when I let go and be kind.
To know that grasping to be, this way or that,
Is a recipe for trouble and continual combat.
To relax into the stillness and beauty of now,
Sets me up to be happy with gifts to endow.
So as I breathe my last breath and say goodbye to this life,
I do so with joy and happiness rife.
Sharing the merits of my life, and leaving conditioning behind,
The unconditioned known, beyond stillness --- a finish sublime.
Death and the Brightening Mind
By Dennis Sheppard
When life is sweet, death is an unpalatable thought,
Separation from the loved can leave me anxious and fraught.
My life unfulfilled can mean death comes too soon,
Begging powers that be, to let me live on and commune.
The idea of my death can seem like it’s so final,
Life’s energy obliterated, the thought is so primal.
But evolution has given me the ability to reflect,
So I can look at my mind and see connections direct.
The conditions of my mind let me project who I am,
And be shaped by my world view to make me a man,
With an identity that defines who I believe I am being,
Ignorant that mind is mostly instinctual blind seeing.
With desire and aversion forcing my energy to unbalance,
Doubts grow inside to keep my view fixed outside.
Living my life locked in this worldly way,
Keeps death as a bogey, wisdom a long way away.
However insight does come to me from time to time,
Where ignorance and fear are seen as partners in crime.
And then a glimpse of the stillness that is there between thought.
And the relaxed feeling that comes, without being taught.
I practice and realise that this feeling expands
I notice that wisdom loves stillness, because it makes no demands.
And then this stillness sharpens my focus on life,
To make living easy without all the strife.
Becoming more sensitive can then naturally happen,
A virtuous circle in place to direct new found passion,
In a direction towards peace living life to the full,
Compassion and joy with stillness the pull.
Death takes its place as a balance to living,
Carried by stillness along with life and forgiving,
This mind stream carried by stillness is there all the time,
It is the space of the universe, holding my habits primed.
It is a great revelation to see this space clear with knowing,
My conditions in this mind stream, a habit flowing.
Birth and death iterating in this present time moment,
Only the subtlety of stillness can be such an exponent
So when death calls my name, I know stillness will be there,
Ready to relax any pain I might bear.
As this body ends and leaves the mind stream in place,
Primed habits conditioned, to present another face.
What good karma and joy, to die in a natural way,
And be mindful to observe these last days on display.
Watching my physical body submerge as it gradually shuts down,
The mind stream is brightening, leaving a knowing profound.
Death can be scary as this life disappears
Drowning in stillness, with nature claiming arrears,
Fears of being unplugged leaving personal loss pains,
Blind to connections that still energy maintains.
The universe appears to make us all alive,
Storing our habits in its consciousness drive,
Energy moving, creating the tensions we feel
Our image coming alive, in the conditions surreal.
Relaxing with death gives me a chance to see,
The wisdom that resonates, with this stillness key.
Knowing this spaciousness gives me the chance to transcend
Finishing with tensions that even emptiness brings.
Moving towards this so called enlightenment state,
My reflections resolving to bring a mature loving fate.
The brightening mind empty, joy in the stillness known,
Compassion unending in the pure consciousness grown.
So death holds no sting in such a pure mind state,
Standing ready to realise, reflections highest trait.
And be the Tathagata, to offer peace unconditional,
To the universe and its creations, in this moment paradoxical.
By Dennis Sheppard
Our human condition needs a family to care,
To take us from babies and into a community to share.
Learning wrinkles about survival from the larger group,
To give me an identity and stay in the loop.
This conditioning mixes with past lives brought,
Providing points of conflict in the new life sought.
Opportunities to heal and include more points of view.
Working with discomfort, to start anew.
What joy when a family is balanced with fun?
Compared with pain sustained if the work is not done.
Forgiveness is needed because blood ties are strong.
And tension and trouble just feels so wrong.
My harmonised heart clears pathways, into the unknown,
The balance inherent then leaves me prone,
To be peaceful and clear, to view the world at its heart,
And realise our networks on the universal chart.
To see exquisite connections the universe provides,
Through family links that guide and divide.
The combined beauty and truth, of our energy streams,
Gives me potential to realise, my enlightenment dreams.
By Dennis Sheppard.
How wonderful to know the stillness of my mind,
A beauty that softens to make my heart kind.
Living life with a still filter before ego kicks in,
Making a bigger picture beyond worldly sin.
A singing mind that accepts my life as it comes,
Receiving life’s gifts while equanimity hums
Practicing to notice when I am pulled into the form,
Then working to balance and make stillness the norm.
As I understand this still refuge found,
I see it reflects the ignorance of my birth.
Blind lifetimes lost in Samsara’s round,
Without knowing, what stillness is worth?
Being pulled into life’s conditions,
Born always in my own backyard,
Lost in my stream of consciousness,
Hoist up on my own petard.
But the vicissitudes of my life work,
Can play out in a mysterious way,
Often with opportunities to balance,
And bring stillness home to stay.
This still consciousness brings potential,
With experience that is essential.
To know when I am lost without perspective,
Inside a world, now seen as defective.
As this stillness starts bringing me sanity,
Soothing my madness and its vanity.
I see desire grasped as the driving force,
Creating a world I can no longer endorse.
Mindfulness persists to make stillness real,
Engrained habits feedback, loading tension with appeal.
I see it move to create mental, then physical realms,
A shared world created, but with me at the helm.
Still Consciousness shows too --- how it penetrates,
To break up the world that I know,
Leaving peace in its place to ponder
A delight that continues to grow.
The present moment then shows me its power,
Beginning and end, right there in the now.
Paradoxical questions ready to be resolved,
My head and my heart balancing, as things evolve.
Mindfulness then builds a momentum,
To penetrate deeper into the stillness I know,
My forensic gaze getting stronger,
Until the truth I see becomes the only show.
Shocked by the truth of the display
Past knowing works habitually to hold its sway.
Cessation seen! --- Before momentum starts to subside,
Then still consciousness holds on to stay alive.
It’s a fearful view to begin,
As the world barrels back to its conditioning
My fear has blocked a sustained view to the finish,
Momentum lost with truth diminished.
But Mindfulness now knows what is “Supra Mundane” life,
Compared to grasping the “mundane”, with all its strife.
An infertile knowledge that no longer depends,
It’s the present moment where consciousness ends.
This fear has stopped me living an enlightened life.
It keeps pulling me back into the world
My karma continues to flow in my mind.
A read and write taken from the Universal mine.
The paradox of the other is still potent,
Separation from it causes the fear.
Its consciousness that is keeping me tethered,
But wisdom displays and I know it is near.
When consciousness is ready let go,
My mind stream will cease into the status quo.
This knowing goes beyond birth and death,
Leaving enlightenment in place with peace to bless.
To get to this place requires balance
The head and the heart must be one.
Wisdom the key to allow the present moment to unfold,
Beauty & truth driving the story to be told.
by Dennis Sheppard.
Every being is a conditioned stream,
Of universal energy, forming a patterned scheme,
Each individual grasping what their conditioned to be,
Living a life locked in with what they can see.
Every being feeling blindly the "elephants shape",
An ear as a fan the trunk is a snake,
The leg is a stump --- the tail is a whisk,
But working together the elephant's not missed.
My view of the world depends on so much,
With what I am told and with what I can touch.
Impressions of patterns working to suit me,
Then changing them around to what we agree.
How deep do these nested impressions evolve?
Beginnings and ends, what do they hold?
Looking forward or back where do I fit?
I am there with it all doing my bit.
by Dennis Sheppard.
My eyes feel burdened, a dreamy world is seen,
Sensory experience heavy, no longer sharp, and keen.
Mind containing it all, focusing light and bright.
Still consciousness resounding, knowing all is right.
Mind streaming the present moment,
Fused world iterating around and around.
Singing out countless beginnings and endings,
The door to the transcendent I know is found.
The balanced experience of the moment,
Sees bodily senses unify with the mind.
This sixth sense is standing forth,
Irrespective of, or if I am going blind.
One knows that reality is present,
Only in the present moment to find.
With scales of aggregated conditions,
From the beginning to the ending of time.
These scales of the quantum to universal
All feeding back in this moment now,
Building the conditions I grasp and believe in,
Holding on to them tight like a sacred cow.
It is a deep subtle joy to let go of it all,
To know contentment and balance without enthral,
The suffering is seen in the world of duality,
Compared to the peace potential in the moments reality.
Perfection is seen either way, to let go or grasp to create,
But grasping I know brings discontent; a delusion that becomes innate,
Extremes in duality that consciousness compounds,
The self on fire going around and around.
Eons of evolution compounded, inside natures time and space,
All of it there in my mind stream, conditioned fate without any grace.
A confabulation of discontent, life after life without any prize,
Elusive peace until contentment’s needs, show how it is to be wise.
Still consciousness sings its truth, as the gateway to let go,
Mundanity is still present, but mindfulness is ready to show.
Penetration into the stillness, sees consciousness come to an end,
Conditioning is finished as knowing stands forth, showing to be my very best friend.
Knowing has balanced in the present moment of time,
A supra mundane experience, a subtle joy sublime,
Duality seen finished inside Samsara’s rebirth rounds,
When consciousness ends at death, it is a vision profound.
So, going blind has a balance in beauty that is true,
Like Babushka dolls the present moment unifies to imbue,
The five senses subsume naturally inside the sixth sense of mind.
Dualities finish leaving only pure consciousness to find.
Pure consciousness I see, is the last condition to objectify,
Creating from emptiness, it is the last thing to identify.
But duality is still lurking in this realm of pure consciousness,
It switches off with my gaze, separating its guise,
from all the conditions it belies.
This overview from the experience of Supra Mundane,
Defines with clarity the path to be free.
The pathway beyond Samsara’s realm of lost and insane,
Where I am jailed while holding the key.
To see beyond what is to grasp and be,
An ego there for lifetimes, beliefs held as if by decree.
To see that peace is right there in the present moments fold,
I can be this knowing with no-thing to hold.
Duality will finish with the death of my body and mind,
Beyond birth and death, only knowing to find.
Contentment will take me to this place undefined,
Where all is balanced, complete and refined.
Hope there will be someone there for me
By Dennis Sheppard
Acknowledging Anthony Johnson: click on icon for his song.
Life feels good and oh so sweet,
Contentment so full --- the feeling replete.
Living like a God most desires in grasp,
Past and future merging to end at last.
Happiness and joy fill most of my days,
Doubts are forgotten, I know my way,
Filling my body and grounded to earth,
Wisdom is beckoning, to finish with birth.
Practicing to live with the present moment,
Means truths pathway becomes my exponent.
But even though the direction has become so clear,
I cannot embrace it because I still have fear.
Seeing truth in the moment is a wonderful thing,
Its realisation soars to make my heart sing,
But confusion and trepidation still make their mark,
Is it desire or fear, keeping me in the dark?
For what is apparent, is so easy to see,
While the transcendent is unseen in its visibility,
My mind can demur, to hold on to the sensual
Getting lost in its anguish so existential.
Because desires hide in their movement blind,
Behind volition that remains, concealed in the mind.
The body acts out following, the direction made,
And karma deepens depending on how it’s weighed.
The desire to become is so deeply conditioned,
My body in place as if it’s commissioned,
It is made for sensuality to take hold,
And sharing the experience is a thought to behold.
So sexual relationship comes on so natural,
To find a partner and share bilateral.
Then nature brings children and obligation
To believe in this life and its new formation.
Conditioned to balance my yang with her ying,
Nurturing my partner to bring forth off-spring.
Dependence intent to make my creation real,
Sharing life as a family with so much zeal.
Knowing life with the other becomes very normal,
A conditional partnership that becomes so formal.
Relationships dependent on the other and the world,
Isolation becomes unpleasant like a netherworld.
So when wisdom points to let go and be free,
It creates a lonely space in my mind to see.
I see my fear as well as my dependency,
“Hope there will be someone there for me?”
Wisdom sees these conditions as a passing parade,
It knows their transience makes it all a charade.
But grasping and fear is so deeply engrained,
Relaxation with truth, demands to be sustained.
To let go of the world and the support of the other,
Requires pure peace, with no tension to uncover.
A pure mind that has come completely to stillness,
Confidence knows stopping, ends this mental illness.
Pure stillness of mind cannot last without input.
So it moves to cessation and the end of creation.
Transcendence appears, only the apparent to know,
The world has finished allowing enlightenment to grow.
To sustain this knowledge, mindfulness kicks in,
Established in stillness, with wisdom to bring.
Relaxing deeper to let fear and ignorance go,
Practicing to die with a mind that will know.
Knowing cessation has shown unification of mind,
Bringing wisdom so deep I am no longer blind.
The universe can stop and work through me,
So at death I do have potential to be free.
To let go my Karma that is compiled into the world,
Releasing the tensions; that feedback worldly dimensions!
Confidence in stillness then lets my mind stream cease.
So death will bring balance with unification and peace.
So “Hoping there will there be someone there for me”
Disappear with loneliness, leaving the wisdom to see.
All questions balanced, and seen with right view.
A transcendent experience, cutting right through.
I know life can be lived without holding on,
So at my death --- “deathless” can be my swansong.
Perfection can be present in each waking moment,
And carried on into death, without need for atonement.
By Dennis Sheppard
(This poem is performed on You Tube (See the You Tube Poetry Cascade)
The touch of my breath on the tip of my nose,
And gratitude flows as pure consciousness grows.
This living earth providing a niche for me,
In a Universe so grand I wonder --- how can it be?
My being shaping into the space,
Each moment feels like prose.
Shifting and shaping becoming anew,
Like changing the emperor’s new clothes.
Reflections mirroring and coming at me,
And forming new relationships bizarre’
Infinite choices are driving me,
Strings pulled from mirrors afar.
Grasping onto my consciousness, as the only thing that I know.
With fertile space seeded as my habits sow,
Birth and death comes in a continuous stream,
Begging the obvious, is this a lucid dream?
Reflections always seem relative,
To the conditions that I inhabit and grow.
But a stream of consciousness is there to back up,
To produce a new life in the moment of flow.
Contemplating the node of this energetic connection,
I see my latent desire, ready for resurrection.
Then a moment of insight --- I sit on my cushion aware,
The universe is sitting with me, while I get lost in the glare.
The momentary oneness of this insight so pure,
Helps me understand, how life’s work, can obscure.
Getting lost in life’s conditions, as they reflect inside my mind,
Causes me to go on, living lifetimes so blind.
The intimacy of that moment with the Universe existing in me,
The connections to everything show how complete I can be.
If I can let go of the conditions and let them relax back into the space,
A timeless world will develop, the stillness taking me to grace.
To develop this stillness becomes my life’s passion,
A beautiful priority that leads to compassion,
As I see all the wonderful connections supporting me,
Wisdom tells me I am on the path to be free.
The stillness contains potential, for infinity to exist,
Pure consciousness the matrix, with energy moving to persist.
Aggregating into creation, of all that is known,
While forming the space to contain, the stories that are grown.
One sees that absence is not a quality, of emptiness or stillness.
The space that they form seethes, with potential and fullness.
Fungible packets of pure consciousness, assembling together,
Array’s that reflect a story, that I can choose as life’s measure.
Each packet of pure consciousness, can exist without time,
Its energy known when I stop, no movement reflecting my mime.
This packet itself a condition and if allowed will eventually cease.
Leaving the unconditioned to know, in beauty and purity and peace.
The paradox of this insightful moment,
Where knowledge is enlightened and complete.
Shows the intimacy that is always profoundly inherent,
Juxtaposed with the blind ignorance, we see as creation so sweet.
The trouble and dis-ease that is the hallmark,
Of living unaware with birth and death.
Forces me to wake up to this truthful knowledge, to let go,
To be unconditioned and to have great gratitude for my breath.
By Dennis Sheppard
When kindness touches me it opens my heart,
It unifies and shows me I am not apart.
Its empathy floods through my whole being,
And gives me a new view on what I am seeing.
Kindness --- brings me closer to love,
Accepting myself --- seeing like angels above.
Modelling a beautiful way for me to be,
Then realising its practice can set me free.
My wellbeing is helped when kindness is done,
It causes giggles of laughter and is such fun.
Compassion shines through in the kindness act,
With love and joy in a balanced pact.
Kindness is beauty so close to truth,
Vibrant and energetic --- a fountain of youth.
It brings me home to this present moment in time,
With eyes to see union in a world sublime.
Belief, Proselytising, Fighting for Truth!
& Knowing the Present
by Dennis Sheppard
(This poem is performed on You Tube (See the You Tube Poetry Cascade)
Is yesterday’s memory conjured, a perception that is true?
Or was the scenario experienced with a perspective that was askew.
I think I am right but the man beside me, saw things a totally different way,
Our differences enough to create war, should he not believe in what I say.
I look towards the future to conceive a coherent path,
Perhaps I can cleanse his thoughts to raise my belief to more than half,
Dreaming into future time I see the way it all should be,
My object now is to convince him and force him to agree
I use my finest intellect and persuade him what is true,
Bringing all my emotional resource, to make him believe the way I do.
Working on his subconscious, to change the tapes that he plays
If I can get him to believe the way I do, my standing will surely win me praise.
The more people I can get on board, the better it makes me feel,
Because it can be very scary living, in a world that presents surreal
But if everyone believes the same as me, it comforts and it soothes.
I will use any method at hand, to teach others how to choose.
Building a powerful constitution around, my perception of the way things should be,
Until the movement of my mind ruts, so the same scene is all I see.
Building an institution and creed for us all to live by,
Conditioning is complete and it’s easier than asking why.
The past towards future, seems to be a natural flow.
Holding on to yesterday’s offerings, for a future status quo.
Without realising the past is finished, its energy dead and done,
While speculating into the future, where no-thing has yet begun.
Living my life this way, ends up as a tiresome way to be.
Spinning my wheels of life, with no traction to set me free,
Trapped in an endless cycle of Samsara round and round,
Fearful to let go of the conditions, that work to keep me bound.
No reality can be found in the past and future told,
It’s all dead stuff being carried into the future to store and hold.
Weighing me down with this body the dead patterns causing dis-ease,
Without seeing the way I am holding on, it’s bringing me to my knees.
This ignorance will be perpetual if I don’t slow my thinking down,
And relax into the moment where all the conditions can settle down.
The spaciousness and stillness present, envelops all that is made.
Bliss and beauty in this experience brings a knowing that makes the grade.
As the relaxation happens, insight comes to the fore,
I can see so clearly where I am holding on, with truth now opening its door.
More experience of the moment sees a pathway of truth to bring,
Concentration together with Mindfulness lets the right energy in.
Raptures memory makes me interested, to return and practice being still,
More subtle experience then arises with blissful contentment to distil
Going closer to the present moment, the balanced energy taking me deep
Then .insight makes me realise that I have really been asleep
Waking up to the present moment with its stillness and clarity sure,
Allows the mind to become so refined, through the eye of a needle it will pour.
Penetrating past all the conditions, that pure consciousness aggregates,
To know pure mind and its resonance that supports the universe and all that it makes.
The clarity is now so pure; I start to know beyond time and space,
The consciousness starts to finish and the mind disappears into grace.
This knowledge is so profound; no condition can arise in its place,
Death in this moment will finish, no potential for rebirth to trace.
So the practice to truth becomes clear, when we know the present moment of time,
A space that is beyond all judgement and the conditions we nest to rhyme,
No body no feelings no perception, no movement of mind to entrance
No consciousness to embed the conditions, the finish of nature’s dance.
Knowing the present is the pathway to absolute truth, and we have to know it alone,
No Person or God can gift it, because it evolves out of our maturity grown.
Cycles of births and deaths and even worlds that come and go,
Infinite choice to grasp onto but this knowledge needs wisdom to grow.
The human potential is a wonderful birth because we can self-reflect right into the now,
A practice to nourish and cherish, without making it a sacred cow.
Its a pathway to peace where all conditions end, balanced energy with contentment and joy
The highest potential of compassion and love, infinite purity no one can destroy.
By Dennis Sheppard
Stillness reigns, it defines my mind,
My life arising and finishing in time.
Noticing conditions, I perceive making me,
Despairing to wonder will I ever be free.
Mustering awareness to live without blame,
Practicing kindness expecting the same.
I know the world is my minds creation,
But I get lost when “the other” brings irritation.
I see my fear grasping, to hold on to my life,
Though I understand it is empty, my confusion is rife.
Stillness is signalling telling me to pay attention,
Its feedback is strong and promises redemption.
I see it all being born in the stillness of mind
And finishing right there, it should leave no bind.
But freedom eludes as doubts arise,
I hold on to dear life much to my surprise.
Informed by stillness, my life complete and resolved
Its emptiness a truth, full of beauty to behold
Years of practice to know the right way
But hindered by doubt as grief comes to stay.
My intellect tells me to let go and be free,
But my heart still pines for all I can be.
Stillness resounds to feedback my life,
Wisdom leads me to practice and let go of the strife.
My emotion acute, I see it grasping with fear,
But stillness is singing to show life nested so clear,
I see stillness building the complexity I see,
But my balance is lacking, in jail with the key.
I know my head and my heart, need to combine,
To balance the fear and let truth be there prime.
To allow still consciousness to finish and end,
With contentment and balance as my best friend.
To let go into death with my conditioning balanced.
Life’s feedback finished, without duality and valence,
To move into deaths moment precise and complete,
True peace at last with knowing replete.
by Dennis Sheppard
Powers of ten resounding scales connect the Universe and me,
Nested measures of energy, conditioning feedback by degree.
Habitual patterns working to inform the particle and the wave,
To create and animate the natural world, depending how I crave.
Physical energy building, into the world we see around.
Frequency and vibration defining, forming creations to astound,
Mental formations leading, earthing creation into ground,
Balancing mind with form, from mind streams that abound.
Still consciousness that moves to form,
Unique perceptions from all states of being.
Emotion and intellect in the Human realm,
Individual stories with separate seeing.
Beguiling world offering itself, it’s ours for the taking!
Hypnotic conditions train us, to believe in what we are making.
Family, friends and nations, all help to mould our desires,
Only doubt moves us to question! --- To know how our heart aspires?
Impermanent conditions build this worldly creation,
Shifting consciousness grasped to continue the relation.
Adjusting affectations drive the world to continually weigh,
Nature responds in kind to the games that we play.
Collapsing part of nature’s wave form with its infinite potential,
To make my “particular” world with my mind stream existential.
My individual desires cultivated, including the shadow side averse,
Building karmic potential, that I sometimes find perverse.
The nested micro world is there in a quantum way,
Wave and particle working, to build up a Universal display.
Building cosmic cycles grand, that last for eons caught in time,
Large and small together moving, in a dance just so sublime.
My story collapses the wave’s potential, as it relates to me.
Locking me up “particularly”, into my karmic identity.
Entangled with my past, to create a future destiny,
Holding tight onto my life, without seeing nature’s entropy.
Ignorance works with fear to blind my conscious stream,
Death hides in its visibility, a bad dream that remains unseen.
But the wave’s continuing potential stores every memory of my being,
A patterned conscious stream compiled, behind what it is I am seeing,
Rebirth then happens so naturally,
With karma ripening when it’s ready to fruit.
Ignorance still veiling my consciousness,
As nature creates my new life to suit.
Feeding back into my moments blindly,
As I grasp and hold onto my new life.
Entangled with all of my other,
Past lived goodness and opposing strife.
Paradoxical existence!
Because the wave and particle are one!
Embodied life and ego,
Yet the wave allows infinity to run.
Past and future so compelling,
The resonance all trapped in a rhyme.
All in the present moment,
While I measure my experience with time.
Then doubts I have start to linger, as I watch over my life,
I see its patterns go on to repeat, much more than I would like.
Realisation starts to dawn, that I am locked into a trap,
I know too that I can release myself, if only I can see the map.
Self-reflection begins to see the resonance,
As it feeds back into the now.
My habitual conditioning becoming visible,
Still consciousness is showing me how.
Beginning less beginnings along with for-ever,
These extremes disappear from the scene.
The middle way calls for me to endeavour,
To follow this unified path, so pure and serene.
Cessation of consciousness is what right view reveals,
Even stillness is finished to confirm what’s real.
Fear and doubt can question, “Is this path coming or going?”
With truth then responding, “Stay in the knowing”.
Then wisdom starts knowing how paradoxes survive,
How they exist with time in this embodied mime.
Energy balancing extremes with impermanence to live,
With ignorance and suffering for the universe to give.
This realisation continues to point to peace,
And my wisdom expands while it begins to cease.
Wave and the particle unified with “thusness” in mind,
The “Supra Mundane” appears with everything aligned.
With death of the body and the mind stream contained,
“Me and the Universe” unified and restrained.
Mind moves to stop --- its stream is extinguished,
Tathagata is known and pure peace is distinguished.
by Dennis Sheppard
I am extremely lucky to have not died yet
There are realisations and deeds still to be met.
To finish this life free and be ready to meet with truth,
Is an aspirational desire I have had from youth.
Many people have already died, before they reach my age.
Their journey uncertain, with nothing to gauge.
Rebirth into conditions without doing enough,
To get a clear view of freedom, not blinded with stuff.
To know what I am working with, and have dharma as my guide.
Is a blessing to celebrate and make each moment provide,
A pathway closer to truth, with right view to impact,
Locked into my karma, so death cannot distract.
Some people die, before they are born,
Others born on my birthday have died just this morn.
Others are dying right now, or in the next couple of hours,
Soon to be in their graves, loosing life’s powers.
The next few hours, could certainly see me die,
What state of mind will my conditioning apply.
Will I have refuge in mind that is pure?
Able to dedicate my death, to enlightenment sure.
When I reflect this way, it brings wisdom to mind,
With compassion and love and a view that is kind.
Knowing truth, its teaching, honouring those following the way,
Moving into the moment, without being led astray.
So when nature decides, for death to arrive,
Will I will be ready for its peace without needing to strive?
Through fears and doubts with recriminations that would be,
A new rebirth and life and perhaps less chance to be free.
So keeping good living in mind with the stillness it brings,
I can share all the merits, enjoying my mind as it sings.
No need to worry, about my time coming to an end.
My mind is already waiting, in the moment to transcend.
This reflection on death keeps my life in perspective,
Sharing joy and compassion, part of the universal collective.
Loving kindness and equanimity, ensures a balance of head and heart
Death collapsing unconditionally, no end and no start.
My Life ---- by Dennis Sheppard
(This poem is performed on You Tube (See the You Tube Poetry Cascade)
My life feels so important to me,
Living, learning, striving to be free.
Unaware of my birth and wary of my death,
Time limited, by my life-giving breath.
Confused and compelled to believe, in society norms,
Only to find myself lost, trying to live inside its forms.
I feel trapped inside, a jail of ideas
With burgeoning payments, to clear the arrears.
I realise I have been, around this pathway before,
Each time this travel, seems to offer more.
Now unable to believe, the offerings made,
I see the way I am living, as a misjudged charade.
Even the Earth and the Wind and the Water and the Fire,
Speaking directly to me, fuelling my desire.
Built from consciousness, but holding out to distract,
I see this mass with time is part of the act.
The despair seeps in, as I wonder what to do.
Unable to find, a direction that is true.
Suspicious of everything, even of my death,
Then I discover right under my nose, is my beautiful breath.
Joyous discovery of breath, focussing my mind,
One pointed with tranquillity, to help me find.
A still consciousness to know, with clarity to embrace,
The wisdom on show, that is pointing to grace.
My mind stream becomes visible from this perspective of stillness,
A life grasped in delusion, movement and mental illness.
A deluded perception that makes, me believe me and mine,
Ignorant calibration from, a baseline misjudged as prime.
A new view of the world starts to take its place,
Interconnection and beauty, one universal face.
Conditions arising dependent on each other,
Seeing everything as one, you are my brother!
Birth and Death become mere markers, in my conscious stream,
My life moulded from perception, to form an ongoing meme.
The awareness of my grasping, becomes important to see,
To allow a letting go, that will finally set me free.
Pure consciousness becomes more visible, in my view of life,
Letting go becomes my practice, leaving peace where there was strife.
The right view of things brings clarity; it develops more and more,
Conditions gradually finish, leaving stillness to the fore.
My view develops through the stillness, filtering conditions that are grown,
Becoming so pure until the stillness, is the first condition known.
Then like all conditions arising, I see stillness gradually cease,
Leaving knowing without stillness, a state of unqualified peace.
This knowledge highlights the grasping, that I need to let go,
To allow all conditions to finish, and retire back to the flow.
When stillness finally finishes leaving an empty process in place,
Death will see rebirth end, and know this state of Grace.
By Dennis Sheppard
For offspring to live, it's all about nurture,
Rarely a creature will thrive, needing it to survive.
There are many and varied ways to consider,
Various nurturing strategies that persist and deliver.
The human condition is a case in point,
Top of the food chain but it takes years to anoint,
A functioning person, with maturity to live and sustain,
And bring a child past puberty so they can use their brain.
A child's brain grows too big, to stay inside their mother,
So premature birth has developed intense care and succour.
Then mother milk to nourish with the right food to enhance,
Fast physical growth needed to stand any chance.
But physical growth, provides only half the account,
As the human condition needs a critical amount.
Of emotional wellbeing to provide a level of stability,
And develop a balanced brain to make the best of ability.
Nourishment and love are good seeds to sow,
Allowing a sensitive and well-rounded persons to grow,
The wider family enhances, extending boundaries and chances,
To grow communities in kind that leaves no one behind.
Because our differences are important, for humanity to stay in the game,
To keep the cutting edge present and inside the frame.
People choose partners to evolve, avoiding extinction,
Using universal connections to intuit distinction.
Fun and humour are important for life,
Finding contentment and balance, when things are not so nice.
To derive well-being and pleasure that is still enough for reflection,
Gives humanity a real chance, to become perfection.
By Dennis Sheppard
My life was stuck, I could not move on.
Caught up in a loop, unable to respond.
Festination, with energy banked back,
Waiting for release, to get back on track.
My life on hold, with dark heart inside,
Trapped energy loops, unbalanced to misguide.
No equilibrium, for ego to provide,
An open hearted life, with truth as a guide.
Then a loving force comes along, adding empathy into the loop,
The negative pattern changes, allowing energy to regroup.
My heart then opens up, with a new view to convene,
Beauty serves relaxing the mix, allowing the present moment to be seen.
How good is the world, when viewed with an open heart?
Everyone seen together, with no-one set apart.
Empathy leading to balance a truthful way to see,
Joy and happiness following, a beautiful way to be.
by Dennis Sheppard
(This poem is performed on You Tube. See the you Tube Cascade)
The world is “really” a literal place,
An ideal mirror for me to embrace,
Almost understandable, in the still of mind,
But then movement befuddles to keep me blind.
Locked in a dance to extract my desires,
Reciprocal world gives me what is required,
Worldly passions delivered through my flesh,
Keep me grasping and continually enmeshed.
Such is the spell of this sensuous form,
Me and the earth, a relationship born.
Perception that dances, giving and taking.
A language in harmony, that leaves me lost in the making.
A delusion of separateness clouds my senses
My intellect steps in to fuel egoistic pretences.
Emotions reinforce to create a belief that seems balanced,
Doubtful perception without a truthful valence.
My ignorance drives me, undermining my connection,
Powerful intellect, that distorts my reflection,
Becoming lost from the world and its parts,
Unbalanced desire calling out for its heart.
My mind-stream charged with differentiated views,
And my personal storey just seems to cruise.
But my subconscious is lost from a mind-full gaze,
Ready to be hypnotised by the next trendy phrase.
But the ambition for truth is a powerful drive,
That works with contentment to bring alive.
A direction that leads to sufferings end,
Where energies can balance and life can transcend.
I work to bring my head and heart together
Emotion and intellect working to measure.
Clarifying my needs and testing desires,
Am I really getting what I require?
When stillness appears it is clear and precise,
Bringing relief to my world view without giving advice,
Showing me a simple and wise way to be.
And a knowledge that this pathway will set me free.
But my conditioning has always been filled with desire,
Flesh born from the earth, with its passionate fire,
Accepting this reality must be my place to start,
Animal existence filled with God like art,
When death comes along and the body returns to the flow.
With all of its learning for the mind-stream to know
The balances at hand will likely, condition new life,
With all its uncertainty’s and attendant strife.
The world is “really” a literal place,
An ideal mirror for me to embrace,
Almost understandable, in the still of mind,
But then movement befuddles to keep me blind.
But then my ability to reflect and see more than myself,
Shows my mind-stream is connected into the Universe itself.
With reciprocal perception moving to give everything form,
The spell of the sensuous making us all perform.
This human existence provides a wonderful reflection,
With just enough clarity to provide a truthful direction
Penetrating into nature’s secrets to see how I fit in.
With stillness the carrier of the wisdom to bring.
My mind-stream is seen flowing through the stillness blind,
This conscious space the first and last movement of mind
This too can finish, should the potential allow.
And bring the universe to truth in this moment called now.
The world is “really” a literal place,
An ideal mirror for me to embrace,
Almost understandable, in the still of mind,
But when all movement balances the state is sublime.
By Dennis Sheppard
Mind precedes all mental states.
Mind is their chief;
They are all mind-wrought.
Dhammapada Verse 1
The shimmering lake on the horizon, beckons me to come and drink,
To quench my thirst becomes my desire, I am certain of what I think.
But before arrival the lake has gone and shifted to the horizon once more,
Fooled by the light still calling me; to continue on to the next distant shore.
Atmospherics can play my senses, but experience will help me see true,
While the magician plays with sleight of hand, to cause me to think askew
The smoke and mirrors of the carnival, beggars my belief as I stare,
At the half man half lady in front of me, asking me to believe if I dare.
Then there are times too when things go awry,
When a movement out the corner of my eye.
Makes my facts add up, in a way not right.
To be fooled so easily by a playful sprite.
Watching my consciousness move, in a way remembered before,
Can pre-suppose a meaning, and answer before I know the score.
Jumped at conclusions can embarrass, causing me to read things wrong,
My grasp sometimes misses the mark, with an answer that does not belong.
Perceptions can be fickle, befuddling to confuse and misdirect.
Seeing one way and then the other, manipulating belief and its effect
Try wearing upside-down glasses, in a world seen normal by all,
After a time the perception just switches, to allow life as conditioned before.
This switch is something to behold, it plays beguiling games with my senses.
I can experience a situation one way, only to have it switch and then betray.
At the station my train tells me it’s moving; it’s obvious I feel it in my guts.
Then I see I am still --- while the next train has moved, methinks I may have gone nuts.
Then sometimes in the automatic car wash, I know my car is standing still,
But when the mechanism moves to comes over, I can see my senses refill.
Every bone in my body tells me the car is moving, in a way I can predict,
But my perception is fooled, my perspective wrong, making me contradict.
This process starts to become clearer, in the truth of present moments focus,
Seeing stillness refine time and space, allowing truth absolute to start showing its face
Where energy shifts from moving conditions, in a phase transition to pure stillness of mind,
The switch has arrested momentum; from the movement out there that keeps me blind.
The energetic switch of a phase transition; from the external into my personal space,
It brings a new paradigm of perception; with clarity moving to a state of grace.
Concentrating into this formless ground; its beauty confirming the stillness is real,
Mindfulness takes over to sustain, a still conscious matrix that seals the deal.
Scaled phase transitions are common as the energies of the universe change,
Whether large or small, powerful or weak, all balanced as they exchange.
Like the electron changing its valance, tunnelling unseen in space.
Its nuclear host changing pace and face; mass moving and adjusting to find its place.
Or the energetic forces of nature; apparently freezing out as they grow,
To mediate the structure of our universe; and by extension the world that I know.
Electro-magnetic radiation, along with the weak and strong force,
Combining with gravity right at its core; to balance out at “a source”.
The universe is a natural wonder; and we are part of its balanced formation,
Physics works on its matter; while the spiritual describes and imbibes our creation.
The space-time in paradox with zero point energy, as it all apparently expands,
Space-time with its matter evolving relatively; while obeying each other’s commands.
Evolving mass with a linear progression, or a suspended packet of digital divides,
These wondrous phase transitions; switch the face of each epoch the Universe provides.
They respect the apparent world with its movement, and change fundamental,
But in truth they are seeing beyond still consciousness; fungible and transcendental.
The middle way of the present moment, is where past and future come to rest,
Where all of the dualities are balanced; where mindfulness sees stillness blessed.
Pure consciousness is the primary condition; feeding back in the present moment pure,
Stillness with its zero point energy defining the whole Universe so sure.
In stillness the universe can be seen in all of its glory,
Its beauty is seen presaging its truth and its story.
Pure consciousness sings out my freedom, with all its heart and emotion,
As intellect recognises stillness, released from external motion.
Still consciousness goes deeper than the wisdom of sage,
Perception becomes fluky, as the transition goes past its phase.
And the mind is so steady that the switch makes no ripple,
A thus come and thus gone, past and present participle.
When the switch happens, perception then knows,
This personal mind contains the universe, and knows the emperor has no clothes.
Without external world fuel to feedback --- no karma can be made,
So at death this minds universe will finish; done with the passing parade.
Without tension and trouble, the mind is pure with serenity,
Still consciousness has finished, feeding back an identity
No impurity to allow a rebirth, to coalesce lower and rebuild,
Consciousness stopped and at death will end; this “source” in purity distilled.
Thus come and thus gone --- what is this mystery about?
Only letting go of dependent conditioning; can resolve any doubt.
To go past beginning-less beginnings, with ends that are eternal,
Or nihilistic alternatives, that keep creation external.
The mystery only resolves, in the present moments mindfulness of mind,
Where past and future balances, in still consciousness so kind,
Collapsing the external world paradoxically; it becomes mind of “the source” that knows.
All power with clarity and sanity resolving; the dis-ease and suffering that once arose.
Quote from the Buddha:
“Bhikkhus, both formerly and now what I teach is suffering and the cessation of suffering.
Extracted from "Misrepresentation of the Tathagarta" MN22.
by Dennis Sheppard
I once met an angel on this pathway of life,
I was foul and putrid --- full of strife.
This angel embraced me, loving arms --- unreserved,
Filling me with love and acceptance, that seemed undeserved.
Her touch refined consciousness to see deep --- past the pain,
But when I tried to hold on she had gone once again.
My tension came back and stench had returned,
But a new path became visible, so gradually I learned.
With practice I discovered I could go this new way,
And refine my awareness to keep my fears at bay.
Being born into each moment, with a mind state so free.
Brought me closer to truth, using the angel's key.
I think often of that angel I met on the way,
The purity she showed me was a wonderful display,
A model to embrace me and indeed all of mankind,
To remove the scales from my eyes and be no longer blind.
By Dennis Sheppard
The sacred is revered, raised up to be on high,
Treated with respect, a paradigm for to rely.
Helping me be the best I can, making me wise and strong,
A model to reflect upon and allow me to belong.
To guide what is right thinking,
And to show how to get along.
Living together with my fellow man,
To be happy and sing life's song.
For it can be a serious business,
To live with what we exchange.
And keep the sacred exalted,
With what we do and arrange.
But fun can enter the picture,
To test and get a feel,
Helping with instinct and wisdom,
To see if it is real.
When investment in the sacred is right,
It will lead to peace of mind.
And always leave me feeling nice,
With relationships that are kind.
So using the sacred as a touchstone,
Can be a wise and wonderful thing.
It can unite the intellect and passion,
With a balanced life to bring.
But it must be remembered,
That all ideas are compromised.
So when we raise the sacred up on high,
It should never be idolised.
By Dennis Sheppard
Singing mind bright and clear,
When your there I have no fear,
Your presence keeps me focussed and true,
There is no time for me to feel blue.
Deep clarity is there when you're with me,
Feelings untangle to set me free.
There is no other place I would rather be,
Than living my life with you guiding me.
Tensions release when you're around,
Your stillness brings me back to ground.
Your soothing beauty makes me calm and still,
Your wisdom and truth cures my every ill
But most of all I appreciate you when,
You bring me wisdom to deal with men.
The world can no longer bring me pain,
Because you are there to keep me sane.
By Dennis Sheppard
Only in stillness can one go beyond death.
Pure mind existing in between each breath.
Sages point to and practice to be in this place,
To express its reality and live in its grace.
This place of abiding in pure consciousness seen,
Birth and death known from this space in between.
Where the lightness and beauty of a place so refined,
Allows our wisdom to see and be no longer blind.
The truth of this stillness is not found in the past,
Or into the future with its potential so vast.
This place has no address to visit and see.
Except everywhere and nowhere at any time you can be.
No baggage can come into “knowing” this pure,
Only a mind without movement will no longer obscure.
This pure mind will resonate to the beginning and the end,
Of the universe that this mind has conditioned to transend.
Without worldly conditions to distract and compel,
The minds pure resonance appears to foretell,
Of its conditioned existence providing a space for all beings,
To evolve into their lives without it being seen.
One sees life’s secret and its dissociation from truth,
Lifetimes of ignorance finally home in sooth.
The stillness so pure and yet conditioned to ensnare,
The Universe, its stories, and its beings unaware.
The burden of this stillness becomes clear and defined,
One can feel like a captive with real peace of mind.
Freedom just there seen through my tears,
Stockholm syndrome with remanent fears.
In jail with the key, though you know you are free,
As relationships merge, will there be someone for me?
Grieving the loss, as the self disappears,
Practicing peace to finally balance arrears.
But the minds pure resonance will have its way,
And gradually unify the dissociations at play.
Awareness aligning any tensions still working
Mindfulness balancing any trouble still lurking.
With awareness now primed to see past all form,
The stillness is now ready to be transformed.
This primal condition that forms the matrix of mind,
Is ready to collapse and leave absolute truth behind.
The peace that is left is an incomparable state,
Its truth and its beauty cannot ever relate.
The balance complete no tensions to strain
Space and time finished no movement to gain.
The mind stream finished no beginnings and ends,
Complete is the knowledge this balanced energy brings.
All work finished, beyond space and time,
Unified universe, contentment, so sane and sublime.
Post Script: Sooth = Truth or Reality
The Right Side of the Stillness.
By Dennis Sheppard
The song of stillness is a beautiful thing,
One of the highest pleasures wisdom can bring.
Resounding throughout the mind, touching every corner complete,
Every condition saturated, assuaged and left replete.
Contentment sees stillness, when the mind is steady
And when energy is balanced, it leaves our insight ready.
To understand the space and form that has grown.
Stillness resolving the matter with the pure consciousness known.
Wisdom loves stillness, because it becomes a touchstone,
To reflect into the truth, with a beauty not usually known.
Unifying all the dissociation’s at play,
Bringing everything together in an enlightened display.
But when the stillness is filtered through the conditions around
These creations will compete --- their habits overwhelm.
Leaving our insight into stillness, clouded over with doubt,
Charming creations lure and keep drawing us out.
Habitual living universe --- proficient and applied, it’s a beguiling place to be,
Lifetimes of building patterns, into the creations that make you and me.
Deeply engrained with an allure and power that’s difficult to define,
But little by little awareness comes, allowing our Insights to align.
From the wrong side of stillness, conditions can still take control,
Clarity can isolate form, but consciousness can still think it’s a soul.
Needing to penetrate this ego and bring sanity to the fore,
Pure consciousness working to refine the stillness at its core.
When concentration becomes seamless to resolve all the conditions that show,
Mindfulness becomes unbroken, allowing awesome awareness to grow.
Removing any doubt, about the way things are,
Seeing deeply into the moment, with no hindrance to bar.
Then the right view becomes apparent, seeing both the beginning and the end,
Of the lives we have constructed and what we need to transcend.
This right side of the stillness, bringing clarity into our mind,
Stillness becomes the filter, to ensure truths pathway is defined.
The pure consciousness of stillness can then stay all the time,
A resource to build sanity and make clarity prime.
Bit by bit it resolves, all the dissociations left undone,
Unifying our life and the universe as one.
As all the universal patterns give up their habitual action,
The iterations can then unite and let go with new passion.
The right side of stillness brings a view, that leaves sanity on display,
Building sensitivity into our lives, with compassion the natural way.
As the unification progresses the mind sees the world as one,
Mindfulness becomes important for the last work to be done.
Penetrating into the stillness that creates space and empty noise
To see the last compounded condition, relax into purity poise.
This collapse heralds the truth of the moment, nothing can be said or realised.
At death the mind stream will finish, with no pattern to re-cognise,
Self-reflection has finished its work leaving nothing to acquire.
All karma played out and finished no fuel to continue desire.
What a wonderful service to the universe, to gift a pathway to peace of mind,
A beacon for the benefit of all, showing truth is there all the time.
But whenever enlightenment happens, the whole universe follows the knowing,
A paradox that finishes time and space and leaves enlightenment glowing.
By Dennis Sheppard.
(This poem is performed on You Tube (See the You Tube Poetry Cascade)
How often; can the slaughterman ---
When caught in the gaze of his beast,
Avert his sight from the eye in fright,
To ignore the fear trapped in this last moment of life.
The stink of the truck in front,
With spastic legs hanging out,
Shit and piss on the windscreen
What are these animals all about?
The transport ship being filled,
With consciousness prodded up from the wharf,
The walking dead; removed from their land of birth,
To be butchered by others, sold for what they are worth.
Their last journey in life, not quite dead,
Their future sealed, and filled with dread.
Packed alive ready for consumption
Fearful products, sold with desirous assumption.
So why are animals born into production?
Nature plays, not judging there destruction!
Leaving dominant intention to call the race,
Desire the driver that creates each face.
Intentional movement trapped at death,
Recycles in consciousness to bring new breath.
Instinctual process that leaves awareness unknown,
Without self-reflection to shape what is grown.
However the human potential is greater,
Self-awareness can be used to reflect.
To create our lives with compassion,
To bring peace to the world and develop respect.
No need to eat the consciousness of animals,
Along with the fear we trap into their form.
Any life with a mother a breath or a face,
Can be conserved and left to run its own race.
By Dennis Sheppard
The building blocks of life, flow with energy that animates,
Locking nature’s forces in place, within a structure that correlates.
Building all sorts of creation that has an inbuilt relation,
Dependent origination built from this energy formation.
As life evolves in ignorance of these conditions that change and shape,
Specialised life styles forming that feedback and sometimes mutate.
Instinctual awareness grows, to find that it exquisitely fits in,
With all the natural changes that universal movement brings.
The physical form is carried, through the forces described by Science,
All built up from the knowing, that consciously conditions an alliance.
Physical forces there, to describe the universes way,
Built from mental realisations, to show our creations at play.
Gravity nests the physical forces by stepping them into line,
Space forming each quality, to reveal itself in its time.
Forces then build up the matter, in a universe so vast,
A paradox of perception, its surreality unsurpassed.
Embedded in all this structure, consciousness whirs away,
Building itself a canvas to paint the particles at play.
This knowing can sense the tensions that manifest in space and time,
An imbalance born at the beginning, conditioning this empty space so prime.
To develop mental realisations, a pattern begins to flow.
Building a mental formation so thoughts can begin to grow.
Past conditioning then builds perception, so a view can begin to form,
Then feelings along with their shadows, cause experience to be born.
So once consciousness has developed a matrix, for the universe to build,
Evolution can continue its work, leaving self-reflection fulfilled.
Duality is there to describe, the experience of grasping and pushing away,
A beacon to highlight the imbalance and show the dis ease now on display.
Desires and aversions with their shadows, will bring on a feeling of disdain,
Like Goldilocks and her porridge, just right to see what’s sane.
With this human perspective in place, the tensions made will reflect,
A view beyond the conditioned world, to the present moment direct.
The quest for a spiritual life can begin, when this view becomes apparent,
A journey to find the peace of now, a truth that becomes transparent.
A longing to be free from, the ignorance that keeps us bound,
Letting go of the mental burdens and allows the physical world to slow down.
Then a pathway to peace can appear and life takes on the right perspective,
We learn how to recondition the mind, and understand the human collective.
Becoming mindful of the connections, that brings my ego into place,
I can work to release the tensions and start to live in a state of grace.
Feelings, perception and formations of mind, become subsumed into empty space,
These mental aggregates give way to the stillness, leaving pure consciousness in their place.
So we are back at the very beginning of the universe so grand,
The last aggregate of consciousness in place, to end where it all began.
Mindfulness can now permeate the consciousness that gives my mind its form.
Its powerful presence misses nothing; the stillness sees nothing to be born
This energy becomes so powerful, the whole universe feeding in,
Then a phase transition collapses the mind, to the unconditioned peace within.
So this subtlest of energy we call consciousness, is at the beginning and the end
It can build a complex universe and create space and time to blend.
A future and a past, all bound into the present moment in time,
A paradox of reality, that builds ignorance into our mime.
To be free of this burden of ignorance is a natural path to progress,
To move away from creation and find peace without the stress.
Leaving the past and future with its desire, aversion and pain,
To swap ignorance for knowing and a maturity that is sane.
by Dennis Sheppard.
Where have I been over these eons of time?
Trapped forever in this body and mind.
Insight reveals my presence forever
A Universe supporting and providing a measure.
Opaque universe, beginning nowhere,
Perspective restrained unable to share.
No escape for meaning until the conditions are right,
Releasing a blizzard of stories as the light takes flight.
Escaping into the void creating space and time,
Conditions rife for consciousness prime.
Energy loops expanding, creating complex lies,
To reflect back allowing, the ability to cognize
Time that is balanced with space to bring,
A worldview depending on the position you're in.
A Spacetime that still cancels, to leave no thing behind,
But relative meaning, and riches to find.
Loops of energy going round and around,
Patterns forming, creative thoughts abound.
Complex shapes appearing from iterative rounding,
Making the vision seen, so deeply spell-bounding.
Trapped idea's that form conditioned grasping,
With the idea that the view is everlasting.
The truth is hidden as the ideas form,
The emperor's new clothing has become the norm.
A great sleep descends as the fixation expands
A trance trapping the dream, in a promised land.
The patterning is changed as energy is seen and lived,
The worldview then moulds with feed back reflective.
For lifetimes these strange loops, reflect round and around,
Creating worlds for us all, to compel and astound.
Lost in dreams, believing the patterns creative iteration
Beguiled and seduced by the worlds stimulation.
There comes a time when we "smell a rat",
The ride on a loop works to bring us back
And memory and insight start to open our eyes
To see more clearly that we are living a lie
The question of reality then becomes something to grow.
But awareness is limited to what we believe we can know.
Lost in our lives with no ability to see deep,
Begs the question, Are we really asleep?
This realisation raises our consciousness to reflect inside
To notice where grasping and desire collide.
Then developing insight gives clarity purer and refined,
To let truth shine through and be something defined.
Difficult it is for this truth to see,
After lifetimes of confusion and ignorance to be,
We have built up a pattern and ego of me,
With no insight to show what it is to be free.
After years of belief evolving, with the world on demand,
Brings the vision that our house, is on weak shifting sand.
But the top of Maslow's triangle brings an unexpected view,
That shows our idea of freedom requires thinking that is new.
Letting go is the insight that comes to mind,
Leaving our body behind for the mind stream to find.
Understanding mental flow that animates our body and being,
Refining consciousness and patterns with clearer seeing.
Formations and thoughts come into view,
With the spaces between them seen to review.
The stillness of consciousness compelling and real,
We know we are finally on the right deal.
Perceptions are seen flowing right out of the conditions,
Intellect on fire making sense of the renditions
Generating feelings and emotions to complete our human form,
Flowing into our bodies as if it's the norm.
This awareness allows perspective for us to choose where to go,
The reflection gives wisdom it's chance to grow.
Turning our attention to the space between the form,
Gives us the chance, for peace to transform.
As we let go of ideas and opinions and views,
A new vista opens for us to awaken anew.
Allowing the stillness of mind to quieten and unravel,
Relief from conditions provide a new way to travel.
Tensions relaxing allow happiness to grow.
With clarity bringing a subtlety to know.
Blissful peace so refined and so pure,
With a beauty and truth that makes it so sure.
Finally we realise we are really awake,
Closed loops of tension we cannot remake
Insight and awareness means the loops cannot take hold
No dreams stuck in limbo to confuse and behold
Our karma now finished leaves nothing to frighten,
Our view is so clear it can only enlighten.
Moving into death with clarity so sure,
A mind free and untangled a vision so pure.
Understanding the Universe Within. ---- By Dennis Sheppard
The present moment, rich in truth,
Where past and future collide,
The Universe inside, so compelling and real,
Can we know this great divide?
To look in and see, where do we start?
Deep in the heart of now,
Beginnings and ends to all that there is?
What do these conditions allow?
Will it be an epiphany, or knowledge won with graft?
Science filled with intellect, or priestly from the heart.
Realisations that are gathered, from both the real and imaginary plane,
To take us past mere belief in things, to a knowing that is sane.
Penetrating deep into self with a forensic mindful gaze,
Past the daily manifestations of an energy body made,
Deep into the mind stream, connecting this life with the past,
Before anything comes together, to measure as a start.
Perturbations beyond space & time, in a quantum soup
Virtual forces rampant but unable to close a loop.
No beginning can be seen in this nascent conscious mess,
An apparent consciousness with no ending, tries blindly to builds what's best.
Energetic formations dancing sterile, with open loop decay,
Waiting for blind evolution to close and feedback an array.
Easy connections favoured, conditioning a way,
To build more complex situations, that are more likely to stay.
Gravity the initial force pushing things together,
With magnetism and charge, allocating objects to measure.
Polarity and spin continue to bind conditions as one,
Creating radiation to communicate, what has been done.
Pressure trapped in a dot, building a vacuum squeeze,
Causing a duality around the moment, a potential needing to be appeased,
Virtual particles come and go, temporary from each side of the now,
Space and time virtually real, without viable seed to plough.
The vacuum pressure of this no-thing, expands and grows form,
The other side of the vacuum, opposes the gravity born.
A runaway energy develops, creating space to form,
With time created to balance and gauge the reform.
Spectacular universal feedback, continues on apace,
Leaving more and more complex loops, real and in place,
Space to contain the matter that is made,
And time to reveal whether it has made the grade.
With time now real, to reflect events,
And radiation to carry the glory
A universe innate waiting to be seen.
A latent watcher pregnant, with a story.
Consciousness is then noticed,
Learned from the habit ingrained
Allowing patterns in the feedback loop,
To be frozen and then sustained.
This consciousness and emptiness are in fact, one and the same,
They provide the forces of nature, a matrix to play the game.
All made from the no-thing, that the initial conditions provide,
With natures conservation laws, conserved and then allied.
Consciousness allows a mind to form,
Coming about because of the conditions,
The background gives up its patterned shape,
Changing mental formations to ambitions.
The shape of what is formed,
Offers a perception to the conceiver.
Consciousness developing a complex art,
Until it creates a receiver
Mental formations dance and make shapes in a way,
Perception then responds, to the patterns that then stay.
Pigeon holed formations, being forced to cycle around,
An observer then created, in the narrative abound.
A balanced universe conditioning time, borrowed from itself,
Has been grasped and formed from no-thing, a potential for a self,
Nature's conservation laws, have been used to shape form and space,
Providing identities in time, while everything stays in place.
The feedback loops build a potential,
To be grasped at each time they go round.
Used to create personality traits,
Potential Kings and Queens to be crowned.
The observer develops feelings,
Born out of the ideas,
Emotions rich and made real,
By perceptions that strive to heal.
Infinite observers emerge from the space,
Each offered a free refund.
Co-operating helps make everything grow
And makes the patterns more fecund.
Each viewpoint individual,
A birth and then a death,
Keeping nature acute and in balance,
Learning continually to grasp at our breath.
Feelings loop around and feedback,
Into the material world,
A sleight with power and strong persistence,
Keeping the universe alive and in existence,
As the cycle goes on, the habit grows strong,
Time allowing action at a distance,
A trance like state descends into the mind
Until nothing is offered as resistance.
Each story has a thread, with an energy in its stead,
Going back to what we take as the beginning.
A warp and weft that creates the world we make,
From the consciousness we, conditioned to take.
The cycle complete, round and round,
Life after life trying to expound,
The virtues of life surely a miracle found,
We flow on in nature, until alarm bells sound.
Lost in our life grasping for soul,
Each with our own angle,
Perception creates a view our progress,
Up through Maslow's triangle.
But no matter what we do, the balance is wrong,
And discontent still remains,
Freedoms allusive dream, recedes further away,
Beguiled by natures gains.
Suffering reflects from this lack of peace,
Can we find a way to make the whole thing cease.
Insight reveals, the grasping nature of man
Can we let go of self and relax with how it all began?
The present moment holds the key to be free,
To go deep inside, where the answers reside.
To see past all the conditions of mind,
To the unconditioned beyond space and time.
Developing stillness profound then allowing it to resound,
Allows the conditions of mind to untangle,
Releasing their hold to let clarity unfold,
Bringing freedom with beauty and bliss untold.
With knowing energy filling the mind,
Leaving all doing conditions far behind,
The scene is set with all accounts paid and met,
To be free with just one last death.
No conditions in place to make a new world,
Energy balanced to give true peace of mind.
The Universe collapses, the mind disappears,
And peace unconditional then naturally appears.
The universe is only known within!
Its emptiness is a beautiful chagrin.
To see past its relative truth and go beyond its noise,
To unconditional balance, linked with eternal poise.
Creative Language --- (A means to an end)
A word registered in one's being, can bring an experience of a thing,
The same word is a kaleidoscope, for a crowd to sing,
A mood, a tension, a trouble spoken, can cause a war and leave us broken.
Or joy and love with harmonic expression, can bring about a perfect impression.
Such is the power of language, shaping energy in its wake.
Creating the world we live in, guiding what we make.
From the beginning of time when instinct's,
Were the only way to relate.
A life lived in the jungle,
Beings left only to their fate.
Then perception developed many feeling sounds,
To trick or conceal, or help round up a meal,
To attract and soothe, or express fear and hate.
Or to find a mate and perhaps try to relate.
A squawk or grunt or a squeal,
Or a yell with a certain nuance,
May portray a situation of danger grave,
Or challenge a being to stand and be brave.
Such is the power of language, shaping energy in its wake.
Creating the world we live in, guiding what we make.
Simple language began as required,
To mimic instinct's desire to survive.
Another dimension beyond chemistry and force
Complexity added but resonate with its source.
As evolution continues to build conditions complex,
With a balance of intellect and heart.
There comes a time when reflection is born,
To give an insight for humanity, to be set apart.
Reflection brings with it empathy,
That gives rise to a moral voice,
Instinct is still a powerful force,
But now it's not, the only choice.
Such is the power of language, shaping energy in its wake.
Creating the world we live in, guiding what we make.
Wisdom now comes into play,
With a much wider view on display,
Language becomes more subtle and ideas defined,
And living a life can become more refined.
With a wider view of the world,
And more understanding of different needs,
Language displays our connection
And the intricacy that it feeds.
Fractal layers of humanity, present with different needs,
Subtle changes are addressed, then feeding back become expressed.
Opening the chance to appreciate,
The beauty inside, that remains innate.
Such is the power of language, shaping energy in its wake.
Creating the world we live in, guiding what we make.
This refinement opens up truth,
As a valid subject to grow,
Our words equate future and past.
And bring the present for us to know.
Our language discovers paradox,
Of the past the future and now.
Its relative truth is compelling enough,
But absolute truth still requires a bluff
Knowing the present can bring a joy,
As understanding deepens our heart
The stillness found is quite profound,
And words are no longer enough.
Such is the power of language, shaping energy in its wake.
Creating the world we live in, guiding what we make.
This stillness cannot be described,
To go deeper we must let go.
To die into our mind stream of consciousness,
And be reborn in order to grow.
Rebirth will eventually cease,
When stillness allows consciousness to die.
Then death will allow an unconditioned peace,
With no language to question Why?
