My brother meditates for eight hours
a day. He is removed
from sound but he hears
deeper than words of mouths
deeper than a mountain
waterfall’s roar.
I can’t imagine sitting
for so long, my legs fall asleep
faster than my mind.
I need to have conversations
between people in a bar
and to hear bleeding chords
of a guitarist who has yet
to find his voice.
My brother sleeps for eight hours
a night. I ask him how
and tell him he’s missing out
on this roller coaster life
and he grins. He asks me, if
I am so attached to the noise
of traffic that I've forgotten why
I began driving. But
I write my best songs
when I don’t know
where I’m going.
"I write my best songs
ReplyDeletewhen I don’t know
where I’m going."
comment is: how do you know? can't wait to read your writing when you do arrive at the place where you feel you know who you are and where you are going (if you don't at this point).
it seems that some of the greatest works of poetry "Leaves of Grass" spring from an enlightened perspective. from one who sees more of life than most.
He meditates and experiences that part which is neither coming or going... you dont know where you are going because you dont know who you are...
ReplyDeleteaaron, i like this poem. the transition at the end is powerful partly becuz the reader doesn't experience the brother going anywhere. you might not need the "relatively" in the title.
ReplyDeletere: steven said...
ReplyDeletedoesn't "who you are" change and flow with experience? i used to have this quote on my wall: "you have to know where you are coming from to know where you are going." it seems more in keeping with where aaron's poems are coming from. ¿verdad, aaron?
i agree with you jody. i think experiences in general change who you are. what if you didn't have any experiences in life? what if you actually did meditate your whole life? then who would you be?
ReplyDeleteLanguage is the challange here.
ReplyDeleteWhat is being said in meditator lingo is "who you really are" never changes. We refer to the non-changing, absolute Being. Self. Pure consciousness.
Who you are in a relative sense is ever changing. Small self = Mind, personality, intelligence, feelings, ego, etc.
Many talk of Self. Many actually experience it. In poetic language, read Walt Whitman, for one.
Saints and rishis (spiritual teachers) spend their lives seeking the Self and teaching how/where to find "it".
I could go on and on.
But you get it.
There are two self's. Self and self.
PS. Know the Self and all else will be revealed.
ReplyDeleteThe kingdom of heaven is within.
Meditate and act.
Outer depends on inner.
"What is Being?
ReplyDeleteUnderneath the subtlest layer of all that exists in the relative field is the abstract, absolute field of pure Being, which is unmanifested and transcendental. It is neither matter nor energy. It is pure Being, the state of pure existence. This state of pure existence underlies all that exists. Everything is the expression of this pure existence, or absolute Being which is the essential comstituent of all relative life. The one eternal, unmanifested, absolute Being manifest itself in many forms of lives and existences in creation."
The Science of Being and Art of Living, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Am I now officially a fundamentalist? I have never quoted the "bible" of MMY"s knowledge. Oy vey.
"blumaa said...i agree with you jody. i think experiences in general change who you are. what if you didn't have any experiences in life? what if you actually did meditate your whole life? then who would you be?"
ReplyDeleteKey missing point: meditation is an experience, not (as you seem to be saying) a shutting out of all experiences.