Infinite Awakenings

EXCERPT FROM THE INTRODUCTION: We typically don’t read poetry for mere recreation. Poetry is read because of a desire to experience and feel the full spectrum of emotion and passion of what it means to be human. Poetry helps bring meaning to our lives, be free thinkers, and navigate new perspectives of how we look at the world and our relationship to it. This book of story poems is called INFINITE AWAKENINGS because each of the poems are designed to point toward an awareness of the awakening journey of discovery that each person on the planet is being invited to experience. It also points to the understanding that every “individual awakening” which a person embodies in their life is part of “a vast endless spectrum of awakenings” that’s perpetually taking place throughout the Universe. During my life I have felt a deep connection to this Infinite Creative Impulse within me - especially when I am in Nature alone amidst the stillness. Within its wondrous silent sanctuaries are the places I experience more freedom to jot down my poems and write my deepest thoughts. It is this silence of the natural world that helps me access richer parts of my being. My intention is that these story poems will help you envision a more glorious world for you, your family and community, and for the planet. May they point you to a more expanded perspective of what your life is truly about - and what really matters. INTRODUCTION TO THE POEM - A Very Fortunate Sailor This poem was inspired by one of the Contemplation Circles from my book JOURNEY OF THE GREAT CIRCLE called “An Ocean Journey - a Metaphor for the Journey of Awakening”. This Contemplation Circle explores the idea that life is a journey of discovery, a journey of self-mastery, a spiritual journey. It is a transformative journey of ever-expansive learning and inner development in which we, as individuals, naturally ascend or develop through ever-higher stages of awareness. In this metaphoric story-poem, the journey begins in a stage of awareness in which we habitually believe in the illusion that we are a victim of life’s difficulties and afflictions. As a helpless victim in a hostile world, it initially seems we have little or no control over them. Yet eventually over time our awareness expands, based on what we discover from our diverse life experiences. We learn ever-greater perspectives of who we really are and, thus, begin to take more conscious responsibility for our life. As we do this, the vessel of our heart and mind becomes more evolved and more developed. Each progressive vessel of experience that we become aware of allows us to move through the adventure of our life with more peace, harmony, and inner freedom. Ultimately, we discover there is nowhere to go and there is nothing to do – only to be the magnificence of who we have always been. A Very Fortunate Sailor Once again - it was the perpetual sunrise of his life He had faced a similar taste of dawn a thousand times before For the Exalted Essence of his being had fashioned for him Myriad uncharted oceans where he might carry out his inquiries His epic expeditions to explore the limitless realms of enchantment The places where the budding flower of his heart Could blossom into more generous fields of glory To reveal the jewel of what is genuine and unquestionable Of that which never changes Yet - during this precise morning of his endless voyage His newborn eyes were still blinded By the abject drudgery and seeming havoc of a hostile world His heavy heart still thickly veiled In the unrelenting illusions reigning down His busy mind still cluttered With the meaningless pursuits of untamed desires (THE POEM CONTINUES...) INTRODUCTION TO THE POEM – A Leap Of Surrender Imagine that you have just leaped off a high cliff and there is a deep pool of water below. The moment your feet left the ground you would, most likely, have felt a vigorous sensation of letting go - surrendering to the obvious fact that you’re now falling through the air. This flash of surrender is the inner acknowledgement that, for an instant, you’ve let go of your personal control - and thus, have now yielded control to the natural flow of life - and where this flow is effortlessly taking you. At a heightened spiritual awareness, this would be an experience of fully surrendering to “what is” - what is undeniably true in the present moment. This poem explores the idea that a “Big Picture vantage” of surrender is like a “Big Picture vantage” of forgiveness. Radical forgiveness requires letting go of our expectations and attachments of how we want life to be - and completely accepting how life actually is. This kind of acceptance leads to the mastery of awakened awareness. The story poem begins as if the reader is, metaphorically, leaping off “an extremely high precipice of time”. As you are reading, imagine that, in the beginning of your descent, you initially are falling through an ancient period of time - eons ago. And as the journey’s dive continues through the evolution of the ages, time advances - and moves closer and closer to the present moment. A Leap Of Surrender With a commanding thrust I leap off a towering precipice of time As I begin my tumultuous descent Through layers of sequential ages My slackened body submits to a chronicled plunge Viewing former lives through the thick air of history For a horrifying moment I am ravaged from the dread of being eaten alive Devoured by the instincts of a hungry lion Roaming the African savanna with intrepid sovereignty Today in this lifetime Could I fathom this agonizing distress from another vantage From the clever words of Lao Tzu Who inspires me with his cunning poetry Inviting me to audaciously accept the ceaseless current Of luminous perfection forever unfolding In life’s continuum of eternity? (THE POEM CONTINUES...)