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The Same Shadow of Life
The divine that I seek, is not in the temple, if it is not also outside the temple,

Our journeys through childhood, our lack of initiation into adulthood, our being lead and taught by people who themselves had never been properly inducted into life, programmed by a culture that had long since lost its way, has left us imagining that spirituality and truth, that attainment is something we find outside ourselves, up a mountain, in the stars, in deep caves, in tea leaves, in ancient books, in the jungles of Peru, in Alan Watts lectures, in temples, in piety…
There is no ladder. There is no mountain. There is no 'there' there. There is no quaint heaven, no paradise, no perfect pose, no singing bowl, no perfect mantra, no trick, no redemption, there is no 'thing'.
What you seek is not found in seeking, it is not come to by more doing, nor more trying, nor more reading, nor more affirmations and prayer.
It simply is. It always was, and always will be.
If anything, it is a ceasing, an undoing, a de-programming, a letting go, an unlearning,
It is an allowing, of the most ordinary moment.
The divine that i seek,
is not in the temple,
if it is not also outside the temple,
The keys to all the locks lie, simply, of course, where we do not want to look.
The path lies beneath our feet, the great person we aim at, to be like, to one day become, is an idea we created and harbour in our mind, which we placed in the shrine of our own imagining.
If we can imagine it, it is contained already within us.
And what is more, that shining noble ideal we envision, on the mountain top, is something we created. The distance between that and where we are now, is the measure of our shame.
THE SAME SHADOW OF LIFE
The ringing
of the sacred bowl
is no more holy
than the sound
of the pedal bin closing.
the consecrated altar
and the discarded shoes
at the threshold
are the same seat of god.
the devotee
in strict and practiced asana
in the silence of the temple
sits in the same shadow of life
as the child
striving with the kite
in an errant wind.
© Rocco Jarman
The divine that I seek, is not in the temple, if it is not also outside the temple. It is not in the hymn, but I sing to it and with it in my voice. It is not up the mountain, but I meet it along the road thither.
The doors which bar our way to the freedoms which we seek, are locked always we discover, from within.
The Same Shadow of Life
i appreciate the encouragement; to see things with absolute clarity, and allow It to Be as It Is. it’s a deeply personal practice to shed our attachments to this need to comprehend It....a life-long journey (probably many life-longs). the less we identify with any one thing, the more we will be able to receive the majesty of All. thank you for the words that help me remember to believe in what is within much more than anything “out there”.