May 23, Poetry Monday, etc.

 I have really been enjoying the process of letting my thoughts flow onto paper, or onto the computer screen, in writing to you my dear readers. I write not just for you, but also for myself. I have a journal where I put down my thoughts and activities. I write poems as a way to embrace the beauty around me, to share thoughts and feelings. Sharing this way is a good practice for me in non-attachment. In Yoga, it’s the eighth limb, aparigraha, non-clinging or letting go. In Buddhism we talk about non-attachment to the outcome of our actions. “With nothing to attain… the mind is without hindrance. Without hindrance, there is no fear.” 

The Sanskrit word for this is vairagya, In the Bagavad Gita it states, “The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from the anxiety about results, all his selfish desires have been consumed in the fire of knowledge. The wise, ever satisfied, have abandoned all external supports. Their security is unaffected by the results of their action; even while acting, they really do nothing at all.”

Not to say that I am a wise one, or that I have reached a state of perfect enlightenment, just that I write for the pure enjoyment of it. It is nice to get feedback. To know that what I write takes you on this journey with me through my travels and my thoughts.

And that’s a really long way to get to this poem:

A lighthouse beckons with its guiding light

I travel far to be in the presence of her might

Without a moments doubt I embark on this journey

To sit high on a cliff near near her brilliance

To watch the ocean waves, ever changing.

April 5, 2022

I found that cliff.