Published Document

1001 Poems

by Jim Clatfelter

Just what is the Dao?

It is Yin on my shoulders

And Yang in my arms

The Void and the View

Simple and Spontaneous

Faceless and Choiceless

These poems were written between 1998 and 2024 as contributions to two different Internet conferences set up to discuss the writings and the headless seeing experiments of Douglas Harding. I find Harding's work to integrate seamlessly with the way of seeing and living expressed in Laozi's Daodejing. The poems will speak for themselves, but I think a brief accounting of the two haiku above might show how the poems are tied together.

We can begin with a simple experiment in seeing. Point your finger straight out to the View before you. You will see that it is made up of many colors and shapes and movements. Now point 180 degrees in the opposite direction—directly at the place where others see your face. Do you see a face there or do you see a Void? A Faceless Void—an aware Void, of course.

The Void is the Yin on my shoulders. Other words name this aware Void as well: emptiness, nothingness, the headless space, bare awareness. The haiku calls it Simple and Faceless. We can also call it the Seer. Here's another experiment to try. Look in a mirror. Are you for yourself like the image you see? No, that image is a reflection. You are the original—the Original Face, as Hui Neng called it.

The View is the Yang in my arms—in my embrace. Instead of pointing at the View, spread your arms 160 degrees to embrace the Scene, your own experiential world. Can you see that this world is happening on its own? You are not making it. So as we say the Void is Simple, we can say that the View is Spontaneous. The View includes all that we experience: thoughts and feelings as well as colors and shapes and movements and sounds and tastes. Many of the poems express this. You as a self or an ego are not the doer or decider of your deeds. Your thoughts and feelings arise on their own, and so we say that the View is Choiceless.

Just what is the Dao? It is Yin on my shoulders, and Yang in my arms. These are not separate items. You can see them both at once. The Void is merely the near side of the View. The Dao is the Whole, the One Presence. It's the two-in-one presence of headless, faceless seeing. It's the Great Image of Laozi 35. It's one's own living, aware presence that includes the Seer and the Scene. You are this Wholeness, this Dao, this two-in-one or diune presence. Living from this identity can brings deep satisfaction and a quiet joy.

"One of the most comforting things about headlessness is that everyone knows it in exactly the same way; no mistaking it, no variations, no 'conditions', just plain, honest, simple unvarying Nothing — and therein lies the sweet harmony and all the results." — Virginia Parsell (2001)

To my readers: Please take note,

Not all these poems will float your boat.

If you are looking

For lasting felicity,

Seek understanding

Of automaticity.

I do not long for liberty

When Seeing from the absent face

But find abiding freedom as

A prisoner of the flow of grace.

Hold the Great Image

Both inner and outer.

Live as a Seer

Not as a doubter.

Here is the crux,

Minus prolixity:

Look out for flux;

Look in for fixity.

If I am the Seer,

Just what do I see?

The Void and the View

That constitute me.

Presence of Awareness

Is Absence of a head.

If you can see that This is so

That's all that need be said.

If you can see the two at once,

The Seer and the Scenery,

Then you have seen Totality,

The Whole, the All, the Plenary.

Can you see the vacant place

Where others only see your face?

See within you're open wide?

See without you're occupied?

See the Seer! View the view!

Mark the two as One.

You have captured All there is.

That's it! Fini! You're done!

I see, within, the always-so

In glory and aseity

Sustain, without, the come-and-go

In grace and spontaneity.

With yin upon my shoulders

And yang in my embrace

I've gained the Dao of wholeness

And lost my human face.

When others take me for my face

They do not realize

That they are giving judgment

Designed to cut to size.

But I reject opinion

That leaves me so belittled.

I say the uncarved block of wood

Refuses to be whittled.

Desire to gain

Is usually driven

By failure to notice

The already given.

I don't believe. I have no hope.

To me this is no crisis.

The present moment is enough.

Reality suffices.

See it once and own it.

There's nothing more to do.

Practice doesn't hone it.

It's always in your view.

If seeing you're the Seer,

The Heart and Core and Nub,

You seldom ever look again,

Well, there, my friend's the rub.

Awareness of awareness,

To some it may be bland.

To me it is the total truth,

No if or but or ampersand!

I stay with two-way seeing.

Though some will find it risible,

To me it is the one true way

To parse the indivisible.

Look in and see the yin.

Look out and see the yang.

Look in and out and see the Dao,

And now you see the whole shebang!

Never speak of long lost past

Or dear dead days beyond recall,

For now is made of what has been.

The present's never less than all.

Never point to choice or chance,

But see that now's the living seed

Where nothing's lost and nothing's gained.

The flow of now is all indeed.

Everything that ever was

And all that is to be

Isn't gone or yet to come

But present presently.

Nothing came before the now,

And nothing's yet to be.

The future lies within us.

The past is what we see.

Seeing's only for the brave,

And, though it's very simple,

A coward will not even look,

And certainly no wimp'll.

Without I see the shifting scene,

Within the steady and serene.

Without I see the fungible,

Within the inexpugnable.

Some would have me think that I'm

A speck of space, a tick of time.

Contrariwise I must aver

I'm This in which they both occur.

Here I see the all-at-once.

There I see the bit-by-bit.

Seeing here and there are one,

I have the sum and whole of It.

In you I live and move and am.

In me you do the same.

And thus we build a universe

On one another's fame.

Here's the truth

Below a minute

One's the Naught

And All that's in it

I only live a proper life

When I can plainly see

And go from what I seem to you

To what I am to me.

If you would see the way it is

Allow the senses range

To look in to identity

As well as out to change.

No need to talk about it.

Just See it ever fresh.

Words always cause confusion,

But Seeing is the word made flesh.

I'm never aware of future or past

But only of thoughts about 'em.

The present is all that's made to last,

They say, and I've no cause to doubt 'em.

The void is more than emptiness

And absence unaware.

It's full to overflowing,

For seeing if you dare.

If sights do not obscure the void,

Why allow a thought to?

Just assume what passes by

Does because it ought to.

What is mirrored in the mirror?

And tell me does reflection

Bear resemblance to the source?

It's open to inspection.

I supply the emptiness

You provide the face

Thus we live together

In a mutual embrace

I looked at this and then at that,

And though no mighty feat,

No further look was needed

To make the world complete.

Why spend your days in seeking

And longing to be free

When all that ever binds you

Is spontaneity?

Though human in appearance,

It doesn't seal the doom

Of one who makes a living

By giving others room.

It takes no dedication,

Persistence or tenacity

To see you're seeing through the void

And never through opacity.

Life will only come 'round right

When you have gained the prowess

For seeing what you really are

And living this-here-nowness.

I see the faceless seer.

I see the lively scene.

I see no self-decider

Residing in between.

Those who know do not explain

As those who don't may do.

Words may point you to the main

But looking's up to you.

Look in for doing nothing.

Look out for all is done.

Look in and out for wholeness

And see the two as one.

Suchness! Wholeness!

Oneness! Isness!

More than This

Is monkey business.

Wholeness of perception

Will never really dawn

Till I see that I am both

The looker and the looked upon.

You say you're comfy in your skin?

You say you have your head on straight?

If that's the kind of shape you're in,

My friend, I must commiserate!

Within I see the I-am-not.

Without I see all isness.

To see the two together

Is my one and only business.

There is a Great Pretense

That troubles and bothers:

That I am for myself

What I look like to others.

There is a Great Image

That thrills and inspires:

It is seen from the center

As candor requires.

Some say nothing should exist.

I say that Nothing does.

Look within to see the place

Where Nothing ever was.

The truth is not so difficult.

It's really just a simple scheme

To see within the way things are

And see without the way they seem.

Anyone can do it.

One needn't be a whiz

To see within what-isn't

And see without what-is.

What do I do to merit This,

This vision of the Free and Clear?

Well, absolutely Nothing!

I simply disappear.

Some people just refuse to look.

And do they make me weary!

Is Seeing way too simple or

A threat to pride and precious theory?

And even if you do not look

And go your way with no regret,

Until you see your missing head,

You ain't seen Nothing yet!

Please don't take my word for This.

Look for yourself to prove my thesis.

The world in here's an empty whole.

The one out there has gone to pieces.

Whenever I encounter

Hostility and rancor,

I find safe harbor in the Void,

A firm and steady anchor.

Whenever there's a problem

I look within and see

I'm sitting in the only place

That's ever problem-free.

When circumstances trouble,

I turn attention's arrow,

And quietly I watch the One

Whose eye is on the sparrow.

I am not what I'm told I am

By boisterous majority.

On what I See myself to be

I am the sole authority.

And what I See when gaze goes in

Toward Center, Heart and Soul

Is simply Nothing, simply put,

A Naught, a Void, a Gaping Whole.

It's great to see infinity,

The very source and origin,

Is found here where I lack a head.

I find it most encorigin.

It's life that's always doing me,

Not I that's doing it.

Were I to see it differently,

Then I'd be full of spit.

I do not need your holy creed,

Your dogma, faith, or liturgy.

For I have everything indeed

In This, the Bare Necessity.

A single truth exists for me

That I can say I have no doubt of:

While seeing what I'm looking at

I'm seeing what I'm looking out of.

No need to play the angry ape,

To live in rage and errancy,

When just an inward glance lays bare

Your absolute transparency.

It isn't idle talk to say

There's nothing to attain.

All Truth belongs to you today.

All seeking is in vain.

Here I find the only place

That's ever worthy of my trust,

Here where I can see no face,

Beyond the reach of moth or rust.

Here the Seer, there the scene.

And nowhere separation,

No gap, no distance, no between,

No room for fear or consternation.

One's Life is given of a piece.

It's whole and not a fraction.

Until you See that this is so,

You'll get no satisfaction.

Am I who I am for me

Or who I am for others?

The former viewpoint nourishes.

The latter chokes and smothers.

Here's where all is Freedom.

There's where all is bound.

There I fight my battles.

Here I stand my Ground.

When you're looking here Within,

You're seeing God's Abode.

You have the Name and full Address.

You need no postal code.

But just in case you want it,

I'm glad to let it slip.

Everybody should be told

God's postal code is ZIP.

Notice what is always so:

You haven't any place to go.

Do not wonder how you got here.

Clearly you are never not here.

Presence of Naught within

Presence of All without

This is what the Seeing of

The Headless One's about.

Intellectuality

Is leaving you kerfuffled?

Can you drop the mind and See

Veracity unruffled?

An eye can't see itself they say,

Cannot see its glint.

A camera cannot snap itself

Into a glossy print.

A blade can't cut itself I know

In pieces two or three.

But all that doesn't go to show

That I cannot see Me.

I looked without, please have no doubt,

A gorgeous world I saw.

I looked again, this time within,

And saw awareness in the raw.

Looking out at what I have

While looking in at what I lack,

There's never need to worry.

The Void has got my back.

I'm present where the whole abides,

Where opposition coincides,

Where all and naught are never two

And quite enough to see me through.

Nothing's missing in my life,

But all is out of place

When I think that centrally

I have a human face.

The only thing there is to get

Is certainty that This is It,

For after living with the lie,

The Truth is bound to satisfy.

When I'm seeing who I am

I see there is a chasm

That separates my problems

From me the one who has 'em.

Seeing can show it directly.

Living can do it with passion.

Words cannot get it correctly,

But dimly and after a fashion.

Is the self, and is the world,

Real or mere illusion?

I fear that I will never know

Till I jump to my final conclusion.

Would you know the all-at-once?

Then see how this and that connect.

When you do, I guarantee,

You're whole, complete, and oll korrect.

When I'm seeing as I ought,

I see within that I am Naught.

Without I see I'm All as well.

What better tale could someone tell?

That definite and solid self

I once identified as me

Has vanished absolutely in

Aware Invisibility.

Between the near side and the far

I see no similarity

Nor any separation —

My fundamental Verity.

There's but a single way for me

To be at one and love you,

And that's for me to turn and see

I'm not a head above you!

The center of infinity

Co-insides with you and me.

Don't you think we ought to try

To see our oneness, you and I?

Without I see abundance.

Within I see vacuity.

And only in conception

Can I parse the continuity.

My Eye has seen the Noumenon,

The very Ding an sich.

So let me tell you, from now on,

Nobody's fooling niche.

Within I see the world's at rest.

Without it's on the go.

With that I fear I have confessed

To everything I know.

Within I see the pure white light.

Without I see the spectrum.

Since Seeing shows the two unite,

I've no need to connect 'em.

Here I am capacity.

There I am its filling.

Fancy that, on life's marquee

I've first and second billing.

The function of Doing

Is Whole and is One

And needn't be split

Into Doer and Done.

Love your image in the mirror?

Your shadow and your silhouette?

Identify with your veneer

And that's the sort of thing you get.

Why do I value the view so much?

Here is the way I want to spin it:

I value the view as much as I do

Cuz you who are also an I are in it.

The view you have is unique to you

While the void is common and universal.

Point out to the view then in to the void

With a full one hundred and eighty reversal.

I'm the first person and haven't a face.

You are the second and have one.

Such is always and ever the case.

No other perspective can save one.

And what's the condition from which one is saved?

From living a prevarication.

From living a life that is wholly enslaved

To a clumsy and hasty illation.

Pie in the sky? In a pig's left eye.

But pie in the now for the notice.

Look to yourself if you would spy

The jewel in the heart of the lotus.

I don't know now. I never will.

I do not have a need to.

Those who say they know the truth,

I simply pay no heed to.

If it isn't on the instant

It isn't worth my time.

If there's more to do than look

It's just a mighty load of lime.

100

Facelessness is in plain sight.

You needn't search or grope.

It's always here to scrutinize.

It's ever in your scope.

You've always seen your facelessness

Accompanied by its vast largesse.

But since it's nonconceptual

It doesn't frequently impress.

It fails to draw attention.

It doesn't catch the eye.

It seldom captures notice.

Unremarked it passes by.

101

If you see you have a head,

You've got the world atilt.

And seeing such, I have to say,

You're 'bout crazy as a quilt.

102

Chance or entelechy? Which is it gonna be?

Seems to me very clear one of 'em got me here.

Am I an accident? Or was I really meant?

Was I a gleam in the Great Spirit's Eye?

103

I do not like to say it,

But I believe you're pretty screwed

If you're obsessed with searching for

Some mystical correctitude.

104

You want to be spontaneous?

You say you want to try?

With that to rationality

You've said your last goodbye.

105

All of this is what I am.

This is what exists for me.

As for that which is to come,

I'm gonna hafta wait and see.

106

Not to be is quite benign.

In fact it's where I came from.

Everything back then was fine.

Sometimes now it's just ho hum.

107

Do you know that you don't know?

Or do you think you do?

I hope it's not the latter,

But the former are so few.

108

I am always very wary

Of the extraordinary.

Living in the everyday

Seems to me the better way.

109

Where did we come from?

Why are we here?

Do you have an answer

That makes it very clear?

Yes I have an answer,

An answer most sincere.

We're here because we're here

Because we're here because we're here.

110

There's beauty in a flower

For those with eye to see.

But do you see the beauty in

This bubble of asymmetry?

111

You would not search for meaning

If you could only see

It's source is an aversion to

Inconsequentiality.

112

Please go on explaining.

Perhaps your views are not all wet.

All that I am saying is

They haven't flipped my pancake yet.

113

I didn't choose my DNA.

I didn't choose my circumstance.

But I will take what comes my way

Until the ending of the dance.

114

Life can be sad, and life can be merry.

Sometimes we don't know which is which.

Sometimes life is a barrel of monkeys.

Other times it's a son of a bitch.

120

I value my opinion

And though I may be wrong

I trust myself a whole lot more

Than any Harry, Dick, or Tom.

121

There's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

There won't be applause when the fat lady sings.

There's no kind of pie in the sky that I know of.

You get what you get without any strings.

I'll say it out loud and beg you no pardon.

In telling the truth I mean you no harm.

Nothing awaits as you cross over Jordan.

Nothing occurs when you purchase the farm.

I take it as true that my final conclusion

Needn't be mournful or sad or morose.

On this I am clear and absent confusion:

There's no coming back from the big adios.

There's no ebullition in biting the big one.

No dividend comes when you cash in your chips.

So live for the now because in the long run

Your final reward is a total eclipse.

It's here in the moment, of this I am certain,

That living is given anew and afresh.

Embrace what's presented until the last curtain.

There is no escape from the way of all flesh.

122

Ignore the golden promises

And other clever tricks.

No one's going to ferry you

Across the River Styx.

123

I once was a gleam in the Big Bang's eye,

A hope and a dream in the morning sky.

In very few years I'll return to the mud.

I hope that my peers don't find me a dud.

124

Because I've seen my facelessness

And the world of things, by golly,

I am not afraid to say

That I have seen the whole tamale.

125

This clutch of words resembles life.

It cannot be denied.

For like a life lived to the full

It's center-justified.

126

It's only my opinion

But I think you are deluded

If you're thinking that the View

Is from the Void extruded.

127

To live as though your head were visible

To yourself is sad and risible.

To live as though it's gone forsooth

Is living from the very truth.

127

To see one doesn't see one's head

Is pure phenomenology.

It puts all guesswork straight to bed

In my epistemology.

129

The way the world progresses

Is encoded in the now.

Who otherwise confesses

Has lost the way somehow.

130

What I see is bound to be

And also que será será.

You may see it differently,

But that's against the law.

131

Behold the great image of void and of view,

And all find a home and a shelter in you.

Though music and food call the stranger their way,

Of Dao there is nothing to hear or to say.

Though talk of the Dao is vapid and bland,

The seeing itself is always to hand.

132

Skills may be polished,

But vision is true

The moment your headlessness

Pops into view.

The world is completed

In full comprehension

The moment your headlessness

Captures attention.

The project's perfected,

The world comes aright

The moment your headlessness

Anchors your sight.

133

Souls are meant for better things

Than living on this earth.

How hollow such a dogma rings.

How little is its worth.

Do you wish to pass your days

In thrall to such a story?

Here and now and present ways

Are the root of grace and glory.

134

If there's something I don't know

I'm content to let it go

And content to let it stay

In the realm of I can't say

135

I am the Subject.

You are my predicate.

To see but not say it

Is just common etiquette.

136

Time gone by is memory,

Time to come anticipation.

Both are present only now.

Neither needs an appellation.

137

I can see the Great I Am

Antedating Abraham.

And what I see as true for me

Is true for you. That's it. JC

138

This is all I'm telling you:

I've seen the shine; I've seen what shone it.

I'm so certain it is true,

I'd bet my aspidistra on it.

139

See and see what happens.

Continue unabated.

Seeing's always salutary,

Never contraindicated.

140

I am the Seer and the Seen

Rather than the Doer.

To think the latter is the way

Is downright immature.

141

Looking in I see I Am,

Deeper still I see I'm Naught.

Looking out I see the world.

And that is everything I've got.

142

The past is more than memory.

Tomorrow's more than dream.

There is no change to what things are

But only to the way they seem.

143

Don't ask me what is current,

For nothing's ever new,

And currency is but the flow

That's given me and you.

144

I'm not a body in the world,

Entombed between the sand and sky.

I am the One who's ever furled

All things within the Single I.

145

I look within. What do I see?

I see the Naught and by degree

I see I Am and then I see

Ten thousand things Encircle me.

In what I see I find a clue

That says that you are I Am too.

There's no divide. I see no wall.

There's only one I Am of all.

146

Aristotle got it right.

He told us both the best and worst.

"There's nothing ever in the mind

That wasn't in the senses first."

147

No one can ever harm me.

I've seen the grand design.

No one can ever harm the One

Who's dreamed a dream like mine.

148

When seeing I am upside down

I count it pretty neat

That I am always standin' 'round

With pants below my feet.

I'm totally immobile,

And even when I'm struttin'

If I check out the bottom line

I'm sittin' on my button.

My first person view of my own body has me upside down in comparison to the view I have of you and everyone else.

Try looking for yourself—at your own body.

Do you see that you are upside down?

Do you see that your pants are below your shoes?

Do you see that your feet are at the top of your field of view?

Can you find the bottom line?

What do you see below the bottom line?

Isn't it your own faceless ground of being?

Can you see that you're looking at and from the famous void?

149

We wouldn't be so timid.

We'd beat a louder drum,

If we could see we've never been

Inside a cranium.

We wouldn't be so stuffy,

So puffed and overfull,

If we could see we never have

Resided in a skull.

We wouldn't be so angry.

We'd take a different tone,

If we could see that we are not

Imprisoned in a bone.

150

No need to be bombastic

To tell a simple story.

Avoid the periphrastic

And circumlocutory.

Just go directly to the point

Of blank interiority.

Upon the aforementioned void

You are the sole authority.

151

Look in at bare awareness,

And when attention swings,

Behold the glory of it all.

Be glad for added things.

152

I see I am positioned

Precisely at the junction

Of open inner quietude

And tumult and rambunction.

My view is simultaneous

Of inner peace and quiet

And outer agitation,

Catastrophe and riot.

153

When Jesus says that God is love

He isn't being sentimental.

He's saying I am openness

And no one's incidental.

And when he says that God's within

He's giving invitation

For me to look in for myself

At true configuration.

His burden is not difficult.

It's spacious and it's light.

He's showing me the single eye,

And giving second sight.

154

I like that fella in the mirror

The most when he stays put.

And though he's not a bit like me,

I dig him head to foot.

I used to count him ugly,

But now I plainly see

That when he keeps his distance

He's handsome cap-a-pie.

I'm sure your fella's handsome too.

Don't waver, doubt or see-saw.

No matter he's a smoothie

Or hairier than Esau.

Still you must be cautious

And keep him in his place.

The fella's got a tendency

To get right in your face.

He'll take your true identity

And substitute his own.

Keep on looking through his ruse

Until his cover's blown.

And if you look persistently,

You'll get it true and square.

The twain won't come together,

You'll see you're here and he is there.

155

God in God’s own Voidness

Lacks dash and verve and tang.

Thank God that God got lonely.

Thank God for God’s Big Bang!

Some say that I am dangerous

But won’t say what the menace is.

In saying God enjoys a Bang

I’m only quoting Genesis.

156

God is not a puzzle

That’ll wear you to a frazzle

Searching for solution.

Thank God that God is God’s bedazzle!

157

The Big One has no self at all

The little one is full of ego

The little one’s a trickster

The Big One is a True Amigo

158

The Big One lets it happen

The little one attempts control

The little one’s a big shot

The Big One’s just an Empty Whole

(The Big One is your first person faceless immensity.

The little one is your face in the mirror.)

159

Der Gott is nicht ein Preacher

Mit Sturm und Drang und Sermon.

Der Gott ist Grosse Bangman.

Forgive my Katzenjammer German.

160

Advaita says this world of ours

Is just a dream and overrated.

But when He saw what He had done,

"Good!," God ejaculated.

161

When I get inspiration,

I write these poems in haste.

I hope you will agree with me,

A twisted mind’s a shame to waste!

162

This world is not a dull affair,

High teas, High Mass and all that jazz.

And I’m not kissing derriere

When I say God’s got pizzazz!

163

I’m happy that I happened to

Happen on the Mother Lode.

I’m happy for this Great Ado.

I’m happy God let God explode!

164

God is not a scholar,

A monk or musty mystic.

God’s the Big Big Bang Man.

Thank God that God has gone ballistic!

165

When the flag is flapping,

What flaps — the flag, the wind, the mind?

I think it’s just your jaw that flaps,

The headless one opined.

166

I know my expression

Can be less than eloquent.

Some say I'm a case

Of arrested development.

But I will explain

If I possibly can.

Nothing but means nothing

But none other than.

167

Does a bug-eyed goldfish have a face?

Does a gator have a nose?

Does a pregnant lady have two feet?

Does a pachy have a hose?

No matter how they view the world,

All creatures great and small

Can see their true identity

Is not their own eyeball!

168

A seer whose single eye

Is seeing both pure and taint

Is seeing much more truly than

One whose ain't.

169

Who am I? What am I? Who wants to know?

Will wondering never cease?

Will I ever find my inquiring mind?

And if I do, will it give me release?

Who am I? What am I?

I'm sure I can't say.

I'm not quite myself today.

But give me some time, and I'll turn around.

I'm sure that eventually I'll be okay.

Who am I? What am I? I see it now.

And it makes a whole lot of sense.

I see I am what the grammarians call

First person singular, present tense.

Now I'm pinned down, located, defined,

To shout out the truth I've no reticence.

A body? A thought? I'm none of the kind.

And I'm glad to report the relief is immense!

170

I look and see it plainly,

This absence of my pate.

I take it as it's given,

No need to ratiocinate.

171

It's been called to my attention

That some of you don't like these verses.

They say your ears are hurting

And you're interviewing nurses.

I'm told I change my rhythm

In the middle of the stream,

And mix my metaphors so bad

It makes you want to scream.

I'm told I should desist and cease

Or try to be a greater stickler

For the niceties of poetry

And for the way I get the rhythm into a line in partic'lar.

For linguistic misdemeanors

I've been asked to step aside.

Against the mother tongue, I'm told,

My crimes add up to matricide.

But may I say that I protest!?

These ditties are not masterpieces,

And I prefer these little rhymes

To dry and lengthy exegesis.

I write them only for a laugh,

A joculation and a frolic,

Not to get your dander up

To send me notice vitriolic.

So if you find my rhythm jarring,

Or you think my rhyme impaired,

It could be your opinion is

A load of gottverdammte merde!

172

It does not matter that I know

A Pepsi from a Coca-Cola

Or that I learn to separate

Scheissen from Shinola

There's only one distinction

I need to be concerned about

To see the difference between

What is in and what is out

What's in is pure awareness

What's out is loads of fun

What's out is multiplicity

What's in is unified and one

What's in is This which holds what's out

What's out is that within what's in

What's out is all creation

What's in is origin

What's out is speckled, smeared and spattered

What's in is clear and clean and pure

I really have to see them both

And that is all I know for sure

173

I think therefore I think I am.

Now there's a thought in need of tweaking.

Am I an effusion of my brain

Epiphenomenallogically speaking?

174

If I'm going to be a guru

I'd like to know how much it pays

I'll need to do some planning

What is enlightenment worth these days?

Should I ever run a special?

Must I offer summer rates?

Do the seniors get a discount?

And, for those who don't get it,

are there any rebates?

Do my musings sound familiar?

Does my chatter ring a bell?

Remind me again just who was it told ya

This world is a mess

and you're living in hell?

175

I do not have a nose or ears

Or cheeks or a chin or a gob,

But I have ten little piggies,

Two feet, two legs, and a thingamabob.

176

I'd rather be decapitated

Than to be encapsulated

Inside a tiny cranium

No room for my geranium

Don't you know I'd miss it

It's a lovely pelargonium

Moreover I'd be missing out

On general pandemonium

177

A Toast to Douglas Harding on his 90th birthday

Douglas Harding's turning ninety.

Give three cheers and hip hooray!

It's amazing how the fellow

Keeps on beavering away.

Ninety years! Not much for him,

Vigorous and full of vim.

More important was the date he

Turned a full One Hundred Eighty.

He turned around One Hundred Eighty,

Only half a revolution.

Now he's turning ninety.

It must have been good for his constitution.

For when he turned about One Eighty.

He had a careful look within.

He couldn't see his head or face

Or the hair on his chinny chin chin.

And I'm so glad he did it.

I'm glad he chose to share it.

He showed me where I kept my face.

Now I no longer wear it.

So I salute you Douglas.

I stop just short of veneration.

I wish you only happiness

In your nonageneration!

178

A Guru's Life For Me

This working for a living

Is really for the birds

I'd rather be a guru

And I'm learning all the guru words

I'm reading the Upanishads

And skimming through the Geeta

I'm writing down the Dao De Jing

In English rhyme and meeta

I think I'm pretty qualified

I hope you're not inclined to scoff

I'm very even tempered

If someone doesn't piss me off

And when I am a guru

You know I'm gonna wanna

Pass the days expounding truth

And sitting down on my asana

179

All is Subject? I object!

That's not the way I recollect.

Without the objects that we see

Where the devil would we be?

Objects of perception

Are Subject through and through.

And Subject is perception

Of objects in the view.

180

Asymmetry's my nature.

I say it loud and clear.

I'm really quite unbalanced.

I see both far and near.

The near side I see nothing.

The far side I see all.

This splendid double vision

Is my only wherewithal.

So look into your nature.

I think that if you dare

You'll find that something's missing.

You're really not all there.

Your face is gone, and in its place

You're looking at the all in all.

You now have found the single eye,

Forever at your beck and call.

It's nice to be unbalanced,

To see both there and here.

It's not a bit peculiar,

Unusual or odd or queer.

You know that with the single eye

You can see both that and this.

You're looking at totality,

Eternal and amazing bliss.

It isn't very difficult.

It's not a lot of trouble

To light upon your single eye

And wind up seeing double.

181

I'm empty for the fullness.

I'm still for excitation.

I'm missing altogether.

I'm bare capacitation.

I'm turned around. I'm upside down.

I'm in an odd position.

I'm turned about. I'm inside out.

I'm Me on exhibition.

182

Do I love you? Do I care?

Do you turn me on?

Do you have position

In Jimmy's pantheon?

I'll tell you how I love you.

I'll even count the ways

You've entered my awareness

And set my heart ablaze.

You have my face, and I have yours,

For that is love's arrangement.

Between our open natures,

There's not the least estrangement.

I'm telling you I love you.

I didn't say I've got the hots.

At center we're identical,

And don't you know that counts for lots!

183

"The first property of the soul is a naked being,

devoid of all image." — John of Ruysbroeck

Awareness Uncovered

Blessed John of Ruysbroeck is standing quite in awe.

He looks within. What does he see? Awareness in the raw.

Blessed John of Ruysbroeck has seen the bare-faced fact.

Blessed John of Ruysbroeck and I have made a pact.

We've stripped awareness naked, though you cannot see whether

John and I are starkers or in the altogether.

I'm hanging out with Blessed John, I'm standing by his side.

For hasn't Johnny showed me how to be beatified?

I look within and see it — attention in the buff.

Looking in I see it all. For me it is enough.

I say that it's stupendous, and marvelous and swell,

Uncovering awareness and going 'round au naturel.

John says pay attention. Accept no substitute

For living life entirely in God's own birthday suit.

It's lovely to be naked. It feels so free and breezy.

I'm dressing down tomorrow with Francis of Assisi.

184

Feeling Guruvy

I glorify the gurus

Although they can be bossy

They have a predilection

For spreading tat tvam asi

The gurus can be picking nits

And getting downright petty

But I confess I love it

When they're pushing neti neti

And don't you know the fellas

I'm kinda sorta fonda

I find I go ecstatic

When they give sat chit ananda

I do admit I love the guys

Though sometimes they seem dotty

I hereby sing their praises

For passing out samadhi

185

Douglas is embarrassed

His vision is so plain

It's oh so very obvious

And just as right as rain!

So I am not embarrassed

To want to help to spread the fame

If more folks do not see it

It's a low down dirty rotten shame!

186

I'm stuck inside a meatball.

Won't someone set me free?

I'm pulling hair. I'm shouting foul.

This is no place to be!

I'm living in a meatball

And don't know what to do.

I'd rather be that old gal

Who's living in a shoe.

Do you think that you can help me?

I'm looking to get out of here,

'Cause locked up in a meatball

It's very dark and dank and drear.

I'm feeling kinda cranky

And just a bit contrary.

I'm seeking liberation

From this bloody solitary.

I hope that you will let me out.

I'm thinking that you just might care.

I'd like to have a look about

And catch a breath of air.

Now that would be refreshing,

And I could see what's true.

You're not the one to ask for help.

The meatball isn't me, it's you.

187

Have you heard of Douglas Harding?

It's a very wondrous story.

He only needs a moment

To take you all the way to glory.

You wonder how he does it. Well,

He does it with a spin,

A round about, and just enough

For you to see within.

He spins your gaze to vacancy,

And spins you half way round again.

He spins you to eternity

So you can watch it all begin.

After you are turned around

And you can see in all directions

You'll see that Douglas Harding

Has spun away your imperfections.

188

If the eyes in your face do offend

Pluck them out of their sockets and then

You will see all is light

All is wondrous and bright.

You will have single vision again.

189

Stringent nondualities

I simply cannot stand 'em

Yin and Yang and Void and View

Are always seen in tandem

190

Emily Beg Your Pardon

I am nowhere. Where are you?

Do you see you're nowhere too?

It's such a pity they can't see us.

They've forgotten where to look.

They don't know it's great to be us,

Really something for the book.

Aren't they gloomy, always somewhere,

Oh so local and confined?

They while away most all their days

In places only in their minds.

191

All that happens is spontaneous.

And I am is just extraneous.

I can't take credit. I won't take blame.

It's all a very silly game.

What happens happens. I can see it!

And I cannot help but be it.

There never were two ways about it.

I am not going to pout. It doesn't bother me.

I let it come and go at will.

As if I had a choice!

It's not my fault. I think I'll chill

And sit back and rejoice.

192

I didn't need an operation

To remove my capitation

Just a very fast redaction

Right away I'm back in action

And action's back in me

I saw my head was my besieger

Submitted to a quick procedure

Took a look in my direction

Couldn't find an imperfection

What a way to be!

I'm telling you it's very easy

There's no need to get all queasy

Everyone has got a topknot

Look and tell me what have you got

Tell me what you see

Aren't you empty, blank and void,

Not some kind of humanoid?

To see your true identity

May just be a minor shock

To see your head, I think you know

Would really be a crock

193

Call it God or call it One

Or call it Naught at all.

Far better that you see it

And see that words are off the wall.

194

Point your finger toward the place

Where people say they see your face.

What, I ask, do you see there?

"Nothing", you say. Well, I declare!

What you see is what you are.

And I say it's consequential

That, though you're seeing nothing,

It's a nothing with potential.

It holds the entire universe

And all that does arise.

This nothingness is really you.

Your face is your disguise.

Now you've seen your nothingness,

Do you see that you're omnific?

You are the one and only,

And your vision's beatific.

195

I Hear America Thinging

Johnny's thinging Rosalie.

Tommy's thinging Bill.

Mary's thinging Dickie.

I'm feeling rather ill.

I think that all this thinging

Is really quite all right.

As long as I don't thing myself,

I'm never out of sight.

196

It Is Consummated

There's no need for faith now we can See,

And no need for hope to come set us free.

There's no need for love put forth as a rule.

This isn't a tale I tell out of school.

It isn't a secret but open to all,

For everyone's chosen who answers the call.

No one's excluded who's willing to look.

No better good news has been writ in a book.

When looking within is paying your dues,

Woe unto those who simply refuse.

When looking within Is the one thing to do,

Clearly and truly it's now up to you.

"What myself is, is the noticer. When the noticer is noticed,

that's what I call awake." — Robert Saltzman

"Don't overlook the looker." — Douglas Harding

197

I see my face is open wide.

I see it's full of light.

And where I thought I had a face,

The world is shining bright!

198

Fortunate indeed you are

If you have got propensity

To watch your inner emptiness

Explode into immensity.

Fortunate again I say

If you have got proclivity

To see your central nothingness

Embrace the whole festivity.

I know I am repetitive.

I hope I don't harangue.

What joy and what felicity

To watch the steady state go bang!

199

If I should say I know the Truth

Please tell me I'm a dope.

And should I say it one more time

Then, honey, wash my mouth with soap.

200

My death's an event I would like to postpone,

For a serious question arises.

Will I have the presence of mind to bemoan

My life when it sumtotalizes.

201

Measured time both long and short'll

Prove the present is immortal.

One who waits for vow or spurn'll

Find the now to be eternal.

"The ontological structure of Way in the structure of human consciousness, thoughts arising from the same generative emptiness as the ten thousand things. Hence, Way is utterly inexplicable for it quite literally precedes thought. Lao Tzu says that being and nonbeing give birth to one another: they are one and the same, but once they arise, they differ in name." — David Hinton

"The aspect of the Laozi that I find philosophically most interesting...is its challenge to human agency. The modern Western philosophical tradition, which started off with the discovery of subjectivity, has been so focused on the ego and its powers that the position of the Laozi may be perceived as somewhat scandalous. Its maxim of 'non-action' (wu wei) leads to a general view of the world—including human society—as a mechanism that is not so much based on individual activities as it is on a functioning of what happens 'self-so' (ziran) or spontaneously. It is this 'autopoietic' alternative that I find exciting."

— Hans-Georg Moeller

202

When Jim is dead and buried

or burned or whatever becomes of him

Will he be praised or slandered?

Will there still be enemies and chums of him?

Who will be here to send up a cheer

To give him a sweet bye bye,

To say he was handsome, kindly and dear

While he's eating his pie in the sky?

Will the world still exist?

And will Jim be the grist

for the mill of some future narrative?

Or will he be forgotten

when he's smolderin' or rottin'?

Is knowing the answer imperative?

But you know that I can't help but wonder

If this old rollin' world will still be

This world about which it often is said

That it was and it is and it will be

203

Some are saying I see nothing.

Some are saying I don't see.

Will somebody please explain

The difference to me?

204

Don't interfere with anyone's course.

Let none interfere with your own.

There's never a time for calling in force.

Keep trusting in letting alone.

205

Face-to-face is an unlucky lie,

A lazy and languid locution.

It ought to be against the law,

Even against the Constitution.

206

Cheek to Cheek

We've never been face to face.

We've never stood nose to nose.

We've never seen eye to eye.

So here's what I propose.

Let's never go head to head,

Or have a tête à tête.

Let's go hand in hand

Through this merry minuet.

"Nowadays I never even feel that I am choosing. It is clear to me that 'Robert' exists in mutual co-dependence with everything else in the universe, and consequentially has no more power to choose what to perceive, feel, or think, than a jellyfish has the power to swim against the tide." — Robert Saltzman

"See, life is spontaneous. It happens—in the words of the Taoists—ziran, which means 'of itself so'—that’s the Chinese expression for nature, what happens by itself. What isn’t pushed, but it just pops up, you see?" — Alan Watts

207

What do you see where others see your face?

Is it just another member of the human race?

Or is it all vacuity,

The root and derivation of the family tree?

208

I see the sky then I look down

I see the sea then down again

I see the sand but this descent

Hasn't nearly ended yet.

I'm not offended just amused

To see my pants below my shoes.

To see my shirt below my buckle

Really gives me quite a chuckle.

Below my shirt now I am seeing

The everlasting Ground of Being.

I love it being turned around

With my body upside down.

My attention just may settle

Now I see I'm ass over kettle.

I sure am feeling mighty fine

Here beneath the bottom line.

209

By noticing the wholeness

Of presence every day,

The answer isn't given,

But the question falls away.

210

I'm reticent to criticize

They tell me that it isn't wise

But I will do it anyhow

So hold on now — don't have a cow

I found Suzuki a little kooky

And Krishnamurti's bitchin'

had me shakin' and a-twitchin'

So I read The Book by Alan Watts

and books by lots of other sots

And I must say I'm not jokin'

Nissargadatta's really smokin'

Then I followed old Ramana up to Arunachala

But on the way I lost my Wei Wu Wei

So in my Absence here is what I have to say

From Douglas Harding I'm not departing

Come whatever will or may

He took off my head and left me for dead

And all I can say is hooray

Hooray hooray for Douglas

He's the one who left me mugless

He showed me that it's really great

to run around decapitate

Hooray again I say

Hooray for Harding, Douglas E

He 'breviates anatomy

Obflisticates all flummery

Ain't that the way it oughta be?

Hooray for Douglas E

I'm glad to take my medicine

from Harding, Douglas Edison

He showed me the light

He showed me it's right and proper

to eliminate my topper

For that I say hooray

I apologize to the other guys

for thinking bad of what they had to offer

Pardon me for what I said

I lost my head

and I do remain a scoffer

So hooray again for Douglas

He took my head

And abridged my stance

He didn't even need a lance

He merely showed me where to glance

And now I am obliterated

And my pate is busticated

I'm finished with this poem

Hooray hooray hooray

211

Where will my goings on go when I'm gone?

Where will I have any fun when I'm done?

Will I still be the One when I'm finished?

Will I be diminished and scoffed?

Will I be demolished when I See that I'm polished off?

212

If you think I have a head

Go up and have a stare there

Get up so close that you can see

There isn't any there there

No there isn't any there there

And there isn't anywhere there

But I am quite aware there

And I do not have a care there

Hear hear I think you're where there

Has never been a there there

So have another glare there

There's neither here nor there there

There's really only here here

There's not a he or she here

It's very very clear here

So come on up and see here

Have another peer here

Get really very near here

You'll find I disappear here

If you think I have a head

213

In a time out of mind

A big bang blew its inside out

To see what would surface.

214

Point Counterpoint

I look into the polished mirror

and point at my reflection.

He points too, and this in spite

of all polite convention.

I'm pointing at a handsome face,

if handsome I may judge.

He's pointing into empty space

without a spot or stain or smudge.

Still he's pointing right at me,

overruling my objection.

He's pointing at original

and absolute perfection.

The setup lacks all symmetry.

It's very plain to see

that I look at periphery

while he is looking in on me.

I'm pointing at a face out there.

He's pointing here at nothing,

not at visage plain or fair,

not at body, skin or stuffing.

Though I'm empty, null and void,

my presence is required

for this fine fellow to appear

and for him to be admired.

Without me, he'd be nowhere.

Without him, I'd be bored,

For he gets up to many things,

some proper, some untoward.

I'll miss the fellow when he's gone.

I know that someday he'll go packing.

But I'll be here, and so it's clear

that nothing will be lacking.

215

look here

see here

it's all here

it's always here

it's always been here

and it's here to stay

it has nowhere to go

and nothing to say

it's been nowhere

and it's going nowhere

this here and now

but i'm sticking with it

because it's it

it's the only show in town

and it's a no show at that

this it

it's an it that won't quit

i'm sticking to it

i'm stuck on it

i'm looking into it

i can't avoid it

and that's it

216

I've never known the Yin to spin,

For it's the stillness here within.

Contrariwise, the Yang can't stop

Pirouetting like a top.

217

Appearing and seeming, dancing and gleaming,

What do they occur within?

I look and I find, instead of a mind,

"A hole where a head should have been."

218

Awareness here, appearance there,

Between the two no boundary.

Now I have a quiet mind.

Goodbye doubt and quandary.

219

Don't tell me that I stink of Zen

When I show you where It's at.

If you refuse to look, my friend,

You're smellin' like a civet cat.

220

Don't denigrate the body,

For it's the one in charge

Of thoughts and deeds and feelings,

Of consciousness at large.

221

I is the eye that eyes the world.

I is the universe eyeing.

Know it or not, the live long day,

Eye am it without even trying.

222

Consciousness and circumstance,

It takes them both, it's true,

To live a life of wholeness

And drop all bugaboo.

223

St Catherine of Genoa

I'm not a morsel, piece or chunk,

Or portion of Divinity,

For I am whole, and I am free,

And "God is all of God in me."

224

It's what I'm always on about.

I'll say or scream or whisper it:

If you would see the Unity,

You have to see the disparate.

225

No verse is ever perfect.

I'm sure I've never read one.

And even if I never do,

It won't disturb my head none.

226

Assume or exclude a world out there,

It doesn't matter a bit.

It's the seeing itself that requires due care

And to which I am pleased to commit.

227

Absolutely certain, without a single doubt,

This is my condition when I do the turnabout.

When I do the big one eighty

I put the world aright.

When I see the ground of life

I live in pure delight.

228

Seeing's only here and now.

It knows no future tense.

So please don't put the looking off

With verbal flatulence.

229

When I become a guru

I'll give the teaching gratis

And never raise an issue

Over monetary status.

Nor will I ask for fancy cars

But if by chance some schmoozer

Wants to get in good with me,

I'd take a PT Cruiser.

230

Tell me does the Moon exist

When no one's looking at it?

When someone says it doesn't,

Believe me, Bro, I've had it!

231

I don't know the source. I don't know the course.

I don't know the reason for being.

But I know the whole is one single flow,

And what-must-be is what I am seeing.

232

Keep it simple.

Keep it sensible.

Keep it factual,

Not ostensible.

233

Please don't be a splitter.

Prefer to be a lumper.

Take it as a motto,

And stick it on your bumper.

234

Conjecture, guess, and speculation:

These I do not need.

Story and confabulation:

These I do not heed.

235

One who doesn't like my views

I figure for a dope.

Here is my advice to him:

Go away. Piss up a rope.

236

From what I see to what I am

The distance measures naught.

When I look from here to there

The line of sight is but a dot.

237

One doesn't earn one's headlessness.

One has it for a glance.

Nor does one have to practice

What's given in advance.

238

Ten thousand hours are not required

To see one cannot see one's face.

It happens on the instant.

It disappears without a trace.

239

I'm to you what you're to me.

Let's call it reciprocity.

If I'm a man then so are you.

If I'm a planet you are too.

If I'm a star you are as well.

And on and on till who can tell.

240

Do I go for honesty?

Or do I go for hope?

The former is the one for me.

The latter's for the dope.

241

There I am impermanent.

Here I am immutable.

The lack of boundary 'tween the two

Is clearly indisputable.

242

The side I see from is perennial.

It's the void I'm seeing through.

The side I look to is ephemeral,

A never ending change of view.

243

There is no what, there is no who,

And nothing does the seeing.

That's the way it looks from here.

I hope you are agreeing.

244

I am the great allowance

One calls capacity,

The seat of observation

And room for things to be.

245

Some people say I'm pain in the neck.

Some have a lower opinion.

It's okay by me because, dontcha see,

That over my mood they have no dominion.

246

Present to the present,

To this and here and now,

I am all that ever is,

So to myself I bow.

247

Some who see they have no head

Remain completely terrified

To execute the doer,

To commit homuncularicide.

248

There was a time when I was Naught.

That time is coming soon again.

I will not mind it very much.

Just look where I have been!

249

Why disagree with ghosts in a dream?

With mere apparitions that ain't what they seem?

Why be disputing with what isn't there?

Why do I ask? And why do I care?

250

There's not a single brain in sight,

Nor do I see a neuron.

I'm pretty sure I have it right,

But what's this trip that you're on?

251

The Void and the View are ever not two.

One doesn't arise from the other.

For some it is very easy to see.

For some it's a bit of a mother.

252

I live in a vacant dwelling.

I walk through an empty door.

I look through an open window.

How could I want for more?

253

It all began with a fabulous bang

That set the whole trajectory.

The rest of all this Sturm und Drang

Is wholly complementary.

254

They tell me I'm the Doer,

But I can plainly see

That who I really really am

Is but the Absentee.

255

Only this and this alone,

Oh what a bloody bore!

If you don't see the two-in-one

You oughta get what for!

256

Instrument of Peace

What's the story with Francis

Preaching naked to the birds?

A scandal to the stuffy and stodgical

Even though his birds were ornithological.

Still they reprimanded,

For whether warm or chilly out

Francis of Assisi preached

To birdies with his willy out.

257

Do you desire to not desire?

Such a silly contradiction!

Such a wish will only lead

To a life of foolish fiction.

258

Headlessness — you've got it!

There's nothing more to get.

The only getting left for you

Is getting used to it.

259

Douglas Harding is my hero

For showing me the one eight zero

Linda Blair is not

Though she could do a three six aught.

260

Please Stand By

We're having trouble with transmission

There's going to be a slight delay

It's just a technical condition

So please don't go away

We know it's been an imposition

So here is what we've done

We've scheduled Nirvana for early mañana

And put off Samsara till half past tomorra

So please come back! We've barely begun!

261

Now I lay me down to sleep

If I wake up I'm going to weep

When conscious life ain't really real

It's only sleep has much appeal

262

Excuse me! Excuse me!

Am I missing something here?

Could you please enlighten me?

Make it very clear?

I sincerely want to know.

This isn't a rebuff.

When I see that I am everything

Isn't that enough?

"As soon as I recognize that my voluntary and purposeful action happen spontaneously by itself, just like breathing, hearing, and feeling, I am no longer caught in the contradiction of trying to be spontaneous. There is no real contradiction, since trying is spontaneity." — Alan Watts

"All this choosing one thing in preference to another is illusory, a great cover-up. Separate individuals, as such, are powerless to make the slightest difference in a universe where every one of them is tightly controlled by the rest. Pretending otherwise, pretending that, as our sole selves, we exercise free will, is as absurd and dishonest as it is vainglorious—and stressful." — Douglas Harding

263

Panegyric

I'm the biggest fan

of the Great God Pan

Though I know he's got

a reputation.

I'm pushing his agenda

And spouting adulation.

Pan and I are buddies

I hope you will ignore what's said

By all those fuddy-duddies

He's a real thoroughbred.

His intentions are quite simple

Really not much more

Than see Big Pan

Look right here

Show little pan

the door.

Though you may see

my mortal pan

I tell you here I see

The Empty Pan

the Spacious Pan

And there his panoply.

So listen up

I say again

You know I really am a

Fan of Pan

the Vacant Pan

And of his panorama.

264

Master of the West

I am the master of the west

I live in the center of the best

And if you're in my neighborhood

It'd do you good to look me up and give me a call

The two of us will have a ball

I'm the guru of the east

I can help you tame the beast

Just bring me a flower and a piece of fruit

I'll give you a robe and a horn to toot

I am the keeper of the gate

So what do you say?

Do we have a date?

Get your ticket and don't be late

Enlightenment is really great

I'm the king of the world

My flag is unfurled

I'm riding on clouds

I'm wowing the crowds

So come and see me anytime

Just sign right here on the dotted line

265

The capital fact of headlessness

Is that I haven't got one.

And isn't it a mighty shame

That I ever sought one?

266

I do not have a head I said

But I have a face in the bathroom mirror.

And when I go to have a peek

I'll tell you what — the boy's got cheek.

But he ain't got class in the looking glass.

He always looks in my direction

'cause he doesn't know no better.

And the face is very funky

on this cheeky little monkey.

So I wash my clarity

as I stand before my vanity.

And as I clean my emptiness

his face is somewhat less a mess.

I rub and scrub right here

it's clear

his face will

never disappear.

But I don't worry

I don't care.

Now he looks presentable

I'd take him anywhere.

267

I lived in a world where I didn't fit in

Until I came to see

There's all the room in the absent face

For all the world to fit in me.

268

There is no God in Heaven

All dressed up in His Finery.

God's the Naked Center,

The Near Side of the Binary.

269

In the place

You see my face

I see naught

But empty space

270

What I see Here, I see of course.

It needs no explanation.

If I deign to call it Source,

That's pure confabulation.

271

Experience the center

And it will see you through

Words will not connect you

Explanation will not do

272

Looking in to see myself

I find I disappear

Inwardly I see the depth

Outwardly I see veneer

273

I'd really like to stay alive

To breathe and to metabolize

So till the day that cannot be

I'll ride the wave of entropy

274

If here you say you see your face,

You've reached the height of vanity.

Why not let it seek its place

And thus restore your sanity?

275

Seeing's straight and simple,

And so it makes me quizzical

When seers want to go beyond

And make it metaphysical.

276

Do you want to hold control,

Oh you of little trust?

And will you ever realize

That way of life's a bust?

277

Headless seeing shows it all,

But ego asks for more.

Ego's never satisfied.

It's such a dreadful bore.

278

Here I see my empty core.

There I see my circumstance.

If I say that I need more,

What I need is a kick in the pants.

A kick in the pants metaphorical—

A boot on the butt oratorical—

That's all that I ask. Are you up to the task?

Can you give me that kind of tutorial?

279

Determinism doesn't doubt.

The course of life is certain

From the day that you were born

Till the day they drop the curtain.

280

Everything happens spontaneously.

It happens the way that it has to.

Be one of the first to see the light

Rather than one of the last to.

281

I'm giving up on argument

And disputatious chatter.

At present it is my intent

To minimize the matter.

282

Look for yourself

If you have the moxie.

There isn't a way

To see it by proxy.

283

This-here-now will see you through,

Over and over, again and again.

Seeing this is always new.

Talking of it soon wears thin.

284

Nothing persists. Nothing recurs.

Nothing returns. Nothing repeats.

The moment is new. The moment is now.

The moment is fresh and alive and unique.

285

Look where you think your head should be,

And don't reflect upon it.

If you're looking honestly,

There's Nothing 'neath your bonnet!

286

Life is unfolding energy.

That's all I have to get.

More than this will never be.

That's quite the end of it.

287

I'm always seeing the face of the Whole

If only my local part of it.

Looking within and seeing a hole

Is surely the way to the heart of it.

288

Each moment I'm an expression

Of what the Whole is up to.

That's a way of putting it

I'm able to say yup to.

289

I missed your comments for a time.

That's all I've got to say.

I love the way you make a rhyme.

So never go away. (Robert Saltzman)

Once I tried to go away,

But, damn, it didn't work.

It seems I'm here and now to stay —

A happy little quirk. (Jim Clatfelter)

I've tried the same myself you know,

Oh my, oh gee, oh dear.

No matter what I do or say,

I seem to be right here. (Robert Saltzman)

290

I think I think reflectively

When I think I am I-Am.

When I say I see I-See,

Mary had a little lamb.

291

Life has served up quite a feast

Of beauty and of hurt.

Why not top this meal off

With Nothing for dessert?

292

You can't annihilate Nothing

Or kill what doesn't exist

Or do away with Empty.

What is it that I've missed?

Maybe you've not thought about it.

Maybe the topic's taboo.

Maybe the answer is silence,

And I will hear Nothing from you.

293

Don't put down the world I see.

It's quite a lovely part of me.

Denigrate the One I am,

And I do not give a damn.

For I'm the low point of it all,

A vale of tears and joy.

And if the same applies to you,

Attagirl! Attaboy!

294

This-here-now is all you get.

Stop expecting more.

If someone tells you otherwise,

Katy bar the door.

295

And how are you? What's up? What's new?

Exchanging commonplaces

Is such a lovely thing to do

When we see we're trading faces.

296

Void and view arise together.

Void and view are what I am.

Some will say these words are blether,

Some a tidy epigram.

297

Pretend I never have, my friend,

To wisdom or to wit,

But say you have the Answer,

And I do not care a bit.

298

Would've never happened.

Could've didn't either.

Should've is a fantasy.

Relax and take a breather.

299

When time has called my number up,

I don't intend to lumber up.

I'm going where the timeless hides

And laugh until I split my sides.

300

I am not in the driver's seat.

Therefore consequentially,

I will count it pretty sweet

To tag along with destiny.

301

What is the Source of everything?

— the primal question begs.

It's one of daddy's swimmers,

And one of mommy's eggs.

302

I once was a gleam in the big bang's eye

And now I'm a part of the sizzle,

In which the decades pass me by

Till I'm a part of the fizzle.

303

At center I'm the empty space

In which this all is happening.

The show appears and moves apace

In me who is the packaging.

304

I do not know what makes it go.

I don't know how it got here.

I know that I can see the flux.

That ain't all but that's the crux.

305

24/7 I don't see my face.

It's an indisputable fact.

It isn't a task for which I must brace.

It's something that's easily tracked.

306

Here is a void and never a face.

It's powerfully nice to notice.

But notice or not it stays in place.

It sits in the heart of a lotus.

307

A single way to straight and narrow,

Stiff and upright like an arrow.

Nature goes for ways that bend,

Not for ways that condescend.

308

Evie's snake and Adam's apple,

Jonah's whale and Noah's ark.

With such myth I cannot grapple.

The whole damned cult has jumped the shark.

309

A path to here? A street to now?

A road to this? A route to Dao?

A track to the moment? A lane to being?

No way is required for genuine seeing.

310

What one is is this-here-now.

One is it automatically.

It isn't acquired. There is no how.

Nor is it given erratically.

311

Experience is simple

One sees with little fuss

There isn't any doer

And no homunculus

312

Spiritual seekers seem to think

Duality's a load of rot.

Of number two they raise a stink.

They say that One is all we've got.

313

Some of these poems might appeal,

While others might even appall.

Even though it's a package deal,

No one's required to like them all.

314

When Laozi says do nothing,

He means there is no doer.

And that's the way the fellow's felt

Since he was just a little puer.

315

We split the thinker from the thought,

The agent from the action.

We split the doer from the deed

And get no satisfaction.

316

Some have the thought that all that one does

Is done by a purposeful agent.

I won't say the thought is so wrong that it stinks,

But I will say the attitude's fragrant.

317

I am I in all who've lived,

In all those yet to be,

In everyone who's living now.

Sweet immortality.

318

Some people say what wasn't born

Will never have to die.

But neither will it ever live.

Such reason's gone awry.

319

I see the inner simple

I watch the outer flow

It brings me satisfaction

And makes the moment whole

320

When you're noticing the two,

The inner void and outer view,

Then life is being smoothly run

In you who are the whole in one.

321

Pure awareness at the hinge

All appearance at the fringe

When you see the two as one

Then your task and charge is done

322

To live and not be curious?

Don't even get me started.

To live the unexamined life

Is for the chicken-hearted.

323

It's all just arising

And passing away.

It's not of my doing

Or under my sway.

324

The void is simple

The view is spontaneous

Picking and choosing

Are wholly extraneous.

325

In any situation

There's just one thing to do.

See the absence of your head

So plainly Here on view.

326

Please try looking for yourself.

You are the sole authority

On who and what and where you are

The singular majority.

327

My soul is a hole in the plenum,

And yours is on show on a face.

My life carries on in between 'em,

These places of glory and grace.

328

Isn't it encouraging

That all you have to do

Is not ignore the emptiness

Within that's really you?

You're not like your reflection.

You're clearer, and you're nearer.

You do not bear resemblance

To the stranger in the mirror.

You're Absolute Proximity,

Capacity and Clarity.

I've said it, and I now repeat,

You are the Singularity.

329

You ask me how they're hangin'.

I do not mean to clown,

But ever since I lost my head,

I find 'em hangin' upside-down.

330

What is God? And Who am I?

These questions are identical,

Though countless generations

Have called them antithetical.

331

If there were no language,

There wouldn't be a need

To posit separation

Of the doer and the deed.

332

There is no truth in labels.

They do not point the way,

For Dao is but a nickname

And God a sobriquet.

333

Between the near side and the far

I see no similarity

Nor any separation —

And that's the Truth and Verity!

334

Here's the outside in.

There's the inside out.

That each one is the other

I see without a doubt.

335

What I seem to be for you

Can leave me quite deflated.

Since I see it isn't true,

I will not be intimidated.

336

At center I am absent

Yet present all around.

Here I'm missing, lost for good.

It's there that I am found.

337

I don't mind that fellow

Appearing in the mirror.

He always keeps his distance

And never comes much nearer.

He seems to know where he belongs.

I'm sure he knows his place

Is in my human region

And never in my face.

338

When outwardly appears the All

And inwardly Vacuity,

Between the two, it's obvious,

There's no discontinuity.

339

I have the All. I am the Naught.

It's really quite an awful lot.

I've little need for other stuff.

The Naught and All are just enough.

340

I have the View. I am the Void.

And yet I do not get annoyed

When people offer other stuff.

The Void and View are just enough.

341

I am who sees and what I see.

I am the two together.

I'm both sides of a unity

And shall remain forever.

342

That old deceiver Laozi

Wrote quite a tidy gospel

In which he wrote "To capture Dao

In words is quite imposs'ble."

343

You must try looking for yourself.

Don't take me at my word.

You say you're much too busy?

Ain't that the best I've heard!

You say you'll have a look someday

When you can find the time.

I trust the little birdie more

Who told me that's a load of lime.

The only time to see is now.

The only place to look is here.

Don't gamble living will allow

Another day, another year.

344

The past isn't real.

The future's conceptual.

The present is now,

And now is perpetual!

345

This that is cannot not be,

So please be very wary

Of anyone who ever says

"That wasn't necessary."

346

I am what I am.

I do what I do.

And I understand

That goes for you too.

347

I don't know how I do it.

I don't know how I'm Aming.

In light of such unknowing

I guess I'll keep on jamming.

348

Balancing seeing of Void and of View

Will lead to a life harmonious.

Deny or promote just one of the two

And all will be quite cacophonious.

349

Here's the void. There's the plenum.

I'm so lucky to have seen 'em.

Seeing two I must be wary

Not to miss the unitary.

350

Trusting in the here and now,

Allowing is my only ploy.

This is all I can avow:

I'm being drawn to truth and joy.

351

I have no mind of any kind,

And that is why I've smiled,

For I know all there is to know

About the Undefiled.

352

Is emptiness for seeing?

Am I the one to do it?

Or is it really only that

I'm always seeing through it?

353

All my thoughts, all my feelings,

All my doings come to me.

I see I'm naught in essence but

This empty receptivity.

354

When I look sincerely,

When speculation ceases,

My energy divides between

Potential and kinesis.

I like the situation.

I look for no improvements.

I am the unmoved mover

And the unmoved mover's movements.

"It is whole: empty awareness and this expansive presence of existence. It is a single tissue. And to dwell here in the beginning, before all words and explanations, empty mind mirroring the ten thousand things with perfect clarity—

that is complete and whole. It is to know existence open in its fullest dimensions, to feel all of that depth." — David Hinton

355

I lost my head and can't save face,

Can't see my two blue peepers.

But I have found my Single Eye,

And the rule is finders keepers.

356

Fightin' and fussin' and spittin' and cussin'

Are part of wholeness too.

Even when someone bites your ass,

What're you gonna do?

357

Nothing's missing, nothing's lost.

Life happens as it should.

Would I change a single thing?

You're goddamn right I would!

358

Am I free to change my mind?

I look within and see

It isn't I who does the work.

But mind that changes me.

359

One thing is sure

If any is sure:

One's not a First Cause

In miniature.

360

Opinions are fine,

And so is philosophy.

Just keep in mind

They're full of bogosity.

361

The Fact we seldom notice

Is vanishingly odd:

Within we see the spirit,

Without, the bones, of God.

362

As life emerges from the Naught

One sees what Nothing's doing

And looks at the Inscrutable

In process of unscrewing.

363

Death may take my future,

And rob me of my past.

But I live in the here and now —

It's time that doesn't last.

364

There's never been a single thing.

Then where's defiling dust to cling?

If you can reach the heart of this,

Why talk of transcendental bliss?

365

The living truth I enter

When seeing I'm the Center

Isn't whole until I see

That you are my Periphery.

366

Respect no opinion.

Reject all persuasion.

Truth doesn't hang

On time or occasion.

367

It seems that you know nothing.

Well I know nothing too.

Still I'm happy Nothing

Is ever in my view.

368

Some see one. Some see two.

Some see three together.

It doesn't matter what you see.

It only matters whether.

369

No one's lost in emptiness.

No one's lost in form.

No one's ever lost at all.

Wholeness is the norm.

370

There's in here,

And here's in there,

And that accounts

For everywhere.

371

Yin and yang are one in Dao.

This is my persuasion.

I neither know the why or how

But witness the equation.

372

One needn't try to make it stick.

Attention is no glue.

Practice can be pretty slick

While adding nothing new.

373

Without I see the matrix.

Within I see the kernel.

Without is temporality.

Within is sempiternal.

These are not exactly one,

And not exactly two.

If I want to know the Word,

Experience will do.

374

The body lives at one remove.

The head resides at two.

The Presence at the Center is

The very Heart of you.

375

When I look me over

I fail to find a face.

Where one ought to be I see

The ever-present root of grace.

376

The various religions —

I'm not inclined to rate 'em.

I'm going to put my money on

The seeing of the Datum.

377

Emptiness becoming things

Is never seeing true.

Abandon all opinion

To get a proper view.

378

Everything's before you,

And nothing's everywhere.

Awareness of the never two

Is whole and not a share.

379

This human world I think I see

—astonishingly weird—

Is not the world that's given me

But one I engineered.

380

Once it's pointed out to me,

I view it on my own.

To see my head is missing,

I need no chaperone.

381

Some call it God. Some call it One.

Some call it 'I don't know.'

Some others turn and see the Ground

That makes the whole thing go.

382

What's given is what's needed

For the circumstance at hand.

I'm given all I need to be,

To do, to know and understand.

383

Within I find eternity.

Where everyone's immortal.

I hope you look and find it too

Before you laugh or scoff or chortle.

384

Mad and crazy thoughts arise.

The process never ends.

When I ignore each one of them,

They don't invite their friends.

385

It seems to me infinity

Could never have a center

That's other than ubiquity,

And here is where I enter.

386

Looking in and outward too

You find no separation

Without you see appearance

Within origination

387

Knowing that one never knows

Knows knowing as a fiction.

Knowing that is certain sure

Is surely an affliction.

388

Do I see I see from Glory,

From the wholly absent Face?

If I do I know my story

Will be one of Love and Grace.

389

Presence of the timeless here

And the momentary there

Make it absolutely clear

I am present everywhere.

390

There's only one thing necessary —

See the truth that sets you free.

Of more than This — or less — I'm wary.

Truth admits of no degree.

391

You have me covered.

The Void has my back.

When This is discovered,

There's Nothing I lack.

392

Is awareness where you are?

I go to have a look and see

That when I go I don't go far,

For all that goes goes on in me.

393

There is no separate who who sees.

There is no separate scene that's seen.

Both you and I are free as bees,

Both here and there and in-between.

394

I am not what I look to be.

I'm not as I appear.

In Truth and in Reality,

I'm Absolutely Clear.

And yet I'm full of everything,

For Nothing can escape me.

Both joy and terror on the wing

Surround and clothe and drape me.

And this arrangement satisfies

By leaving Nothing lacking.

I have the world as it flies,

The Void I have for backing.

395

Within is found the Steady State.

Without is evolution.

Please feel free to quote me, mate,

With proper attribution.

396

Seeing here and there as One

Is my singular agenda.

There is no more to say! I'm done!

Absolutely no addenda!

397

The very Truth is surely said

On each occasion that you

Raise a glass on high and say

"Here is looking at you."

398

Life goes on so very merrily

When I act involuntarily.

When I act with good intention

In come fear and apprehension.

399

The moment is nothing but flux and change,

Birth and death its constituent parts.

Nothing within it remains the same.

It's simply the flow of endings and starts.

400

I can see I have no head.

I see Nothing Here instead.

I see there all that I've got.

Here I see What Is is Naught.

401

That Way I see Function.

This Way I see Principal.

When I see both Ways at once,

I see I Am Invincible.

402

Here is the skinny on ultimate matters.

Those who say that they know do not.

Don't be a ninny and follow their natters.

Don't be a sucker and swallow their rot.

403

Conditioning can never end,

Yet I am not downhearted,

For I'm in the position

Where conditions never started.

404

Does a dog have consciousness?

Think about it! Don't give up!

You may see what Joshu saw:

Consciousness has got the pup.

Does a doggy have free will?

Think about it! Don't give up!

You may see what Joshu saw:

It's the will that's got the pup.

405

I am the light above all things.

I am the all and everywhere.

Split the wood, my spirit sings.

Lift the stone, and find me there.

406

If I'm defined by what I own,

Then everything I lack

Will be my definition too,

A monkey on my back.

407

With nothing to do

And no one to do it

There's never a need

To get around to it.

408

It doesn't take a who to see,

A God, a Dao, a you or me.

When only Seeing is what is

It isn't mine or hers or his.

409

My view of you

And your view of me

Have nothing in common

And never agree,

But my view of me

And your view of you

Are always the same

And never are two.

410

Seeing neither knows a past

Nor looks to future days

But always holds the Infinite

Eternal in its gaze.

411

The Present isn't ever split,

Needs no repair or suture.

The Present is the Whole of it.

There is no past or future!

412

No one ever hollers

At Zhuangzi's empty dinghy

Because the boat does not contain

The slightest "I am" thingy.

414

When first I saw my Nothingness

You could have tipped me with a feather.

Others are for show and dress.

I'm always in the All Together.

415

How do you manage all those legs?

The dragon asked the centipede.

I see they manage on their own,

And that's the way my will is freed.

416

Higgledy-Piggledy

Douglas E Harding

Surrendered his seat

In the sapient race.

In spite of unmerciful

Begging and pleading,

This fellow from Nacton

Just wouldn't save face.

417

Here and there and everywhere,

Now and then and ever,

I am every when and where.

How could I be more clever?

418

Seeing I am emptiness,

Capacity and room.

Surrender I cannot finesse.

Who's to surrender? What and to whom?

419

There's nothing else in all the world

Upon which everyone agrees,

For seeing's always total and

Admits of no degrees.

420

To say deep sleep is ultimate

To me it kills the deal

By draining all the life from what

I see is really real

421

What-isn't really really is.

What-is can only seem.

What-isn't isn't Nothing

Without the presence of a dream.

422

Who am I to say I see?

An article? An entity?

When Seeing from the Vacant dome,

There's simply Seeing. No one's home.

And if you hear me say I see,

It doesn't mean I think a me

Is needed when I see or say

Or think or pass the time away.

423

The Void is a void you shouldn't ignore.

And sure it leaves you wanting more.

And more it is happy to provide.

Just take a look to the other side.

425

There I am the temporal.

Here I am eternal.

There I am peripheral,

Here the nut and kernel.

426

How could I merit praise or blame

Or be ashamed or proud,

When seeing I'm the mystery

Behind unknowing's cloud?

427

For when I drop the lump of self,

Let want and expectation go,

I see that all is Oneness

And I'm living in creation's flow.

428

I'd rather See the One I Am

At center indestructible

Than focus on periphery

And battle with the ineluctable.

429

I see that I am Oneness.

You see that you are too.

If I am One, and you are One,

Then I am One with you.

430

If you can see you have no head,

Then you command my full respect,

For you are honest, brave and true,

And perspectivally correct.

431

Here I see the singular.

There I see plurality.

And happily I revel in

My asymmetricality.

432

See when it occurs to you

To see. That is the ritual.

For if you see repeatedly

It soon becomes habitual.

433

There's Nothing here to think about,

No mind to change or make up

Or analyze or deconstruct.

The thing to do is wake up!

434

If you can see your nothingness,

You see it whole and clearly.

You cannot see it partially

Or see it pretty nearly.

435

Are you always wanting more,

More things, more life, more stuff?

Do you see you're One and All?

Why isn't that enough?

436

All but This must perish.

Each is born and lives and dies.

But I'm not each. I'm everything,

The Void in which the Plenum lies.

437

What is has two directions,

And both are necessary.

What is within is permanent.

Without, it's temporary.

"I don’t believe anything is accidental, in the larger sense. There’s a beautiful pattern. Not plan—plans always have to be thought up. But the universe works together; everything connects. Otherwise it would fall apart."

— James Broughton

438

I'd like to be a puppeteer

In charge of pulling strings.

I'm sure I'd find my happiness

In rearranging things.

Alas I find no strings to pull,

And though it gives me pain,

I've ample compensation

In pulling Ryan's chain.

439

This is how I summarize

The headless way: I've got no top.

When I look in to see my head,

There's nothing there. Full stop.

But, looking out, I see the world,

The manifest, the myriad.

And so I always look both ways.

And that's the method. Period.

440

There is but one existence.

No matter how I try,

I cannot split the One in two.

Everything I See is I.

441

One's face is a mask,

A lovely façade,

Designed to slip over

The image of God.

One looks for oneself,

Surveying the span,

And sees God is under

The image of Man.

442

The near side gets the stillness.

The far side gets the action.

How could I count myself with those

Who get no satisfaction?

443

Everything's spontaneous

Including hesitation.

Words are all extraneous.

End of conversation!

444

Zero in on Nothing,

The vacant and the null.

Now you have the Plethora,

The occupied, the full.

445

This is really Nothing but

The Timeless Eternality,

The One that makes it possible

To manifest plurality,

The One that has Potential

To hold all things in view,

The One whose true identity

Is no one else but You.

446

If you want my best advice,

Listen up. I'll give it twice.

Don't abhor the throb and thrum.

Don't ignore the Vacuum.

447

To you my face is real.

To me it's but a sham.

For Here Within I see the One

I really really really am.

And here I'm not opposed to you,

For here I lack a face

To spoil our relationship.

I'm gone without a trace.

448

How do I see my innerness,

My core and central locus?

I do not strain. I settle back,

Let go, relax, unfocus.

449

It's really very easy.

You need not look askance

To See just what and where you are.

You are the whole expanse.

Both everything and Nothing,

The total field of view,

The One Eternal Sameness

That holds the ever new.

450

Experience is total

When seen through proper prism.

Within I see the Stasis,

Without, the dynamism.

451

See you are the Seer.

See it without let up.

See it when you're chillin'.

See it when you're het up.

See it always here and now,

And please ignore the foolish cry

That tells you that you have to wait

To see it in the bye and bye.

452

I see the open window.

I spot the common ground.

I'm going to keep on looking.

I don't intend to mess around.

453

Make all haste to see both ways,

To see the whole disparity,

To see within, to see without,

To see your bipolarity.

Do it now. Behold within.

Proceed with all celerity.

Don't overlook or disregard

The central Void and Verity.

454

Within is bare awareness,

Without, the things of time.

I see the two together,

And I shift my paradigm.

Without, I'm clad in splendor,

The dazzling contrapuntal.

Within, I'm pure awareness,

Uncovered and full-frontal.

Within, I see my nakedness,

Without, the world I'm wearing,

And when I'm seeing both at once,

I cannot lose my bearing.

455

Now that I am eighty two

I may come off a little gruff.

No longer will I hold my tongue

When I think you're full of stuff.

456

Ask—it's given. Seek—it's here.

Knock—it's open. Look—it's clear.

457

Whatever I say,

It doesn't much matter

Words only serve

To add to the chatter.

458

You have had a cephalectomy.

Still you are a horse's necktomy.

Always sending out a blastomy,

Acting like a horse's asstomy.

This whole thing is just a farstomy.

Don't be such a horse's arstomy.

Never ever giving trumptomy,

Always such a horse's rumptomy.

Please be honest and directomy.

Don't be acting horse's rectumy.

You have had a cephalotomy.

Why are you so horse's bottomy?

There's no way you're gettin' shutomy.

You can't make a horse's buttomy!

I can do that for myself!

459

One who has wisdom keeps silent.

One who has none prattles on.

One who de-faces the center

Is one we can all count upon.

460

Headlessness stands on its own.

No Pherd merde need be added.

Such a thing I don't condone.

Seeing looses when it's padded.

461

Here is doing-nothing

There is all-is-done.

See the two together

And you've found the whole-in-one.

462

Living's always nonvolitional.

Void and View are appositional.

If this is all you ever know,

I would say you're good to go.

463

Can you see your center?

And when you look around.

Do you see circumstance

Emerge from common ground?

464

If you can see the two-in-one

I would say your work is done.

If Seeing leaves you wanting more

Here's your hat and there's the door.

465

Here I have awareness

Where once I had a head

There I have appearance

Far better seen than said

466

Looking in I see I Am

Arising from the I Am Naught.

Looking out I see the world,

And that is everything I've got.

467

Point within to Emptiness,

A mark you cannot miss.

You've seen the splendors of the world.

Now get a load of This!

468

Up The Yin-Yang

We have so many problems,

It sends the mind to spinning,

For most of us are yanging

Where we should be yining.

469

No one's looking in to see.

No one's looking out.

Looking's life in full degree,

And that is my redoubt

470

I'm this in which all arises

And all that arises in it.

I'm all that the present comprises

And certain I've always been it.

471

Half the view's transparent.

The other half's opaque.

If you want to have it whole

Just do a double take!

472

Spiritual authorities

Are known for spouting twaddle.

Still one must respect them —

It's a damn good business model.

473

Mixed Weaves

America will go to hell

Unless it makes amends

For all its years of wearing of

Those cotton-polyester blends.

How do I know? The Bible tells me so!

474

Parity

Both near and far are visible,

So see them if you dare.

Conquer your resistance.

It's time to grow a pair.

475

A Brief History Of Zen

All of a sudden all fell into place

When Hui Neng saw his original face.

Centuries later and out of the blue

Ernst Mach drew its likeness both honest and true

Then Douglas E Harding with minimal fuss

Revealed its location to each one of us.

The saga is over and history's done

Now we can see this original one.

476

An undivided wholeness

Is present here and now

In the Void and in the View

That constitute the Dao.

And in the flow of wholeness

I see I'm at the heart

And find it most agreeable

To play my given part.

477

I've lived as it has pleased me.

I have to say I've no regrets.

Living with the ups and downs

Is just about as good as it gets.

478

Humans go the way of Earth

And Earth the way of Heaven.

Heaven goes the way of Dao,

While Dao is it's own leaven.

479

Pie in the sky when you die is a lie.

Pie in the now is on offer.

I'm hereby rejecting your alibi.

It's time that you open the coffer.

480

I realize that some of you

Will find my verses dodgy.

But I figure none of you

Will find them timid, weak or stodgy.

But if somehow you find them so,

I find it quite bizarre

That you're still here, and holy joe,

Why the hell'd you read so far.

481

I do what I will.

I will what I am.

Opposing ideas?

Delusion and scam!

482

He broke down the lines

And made us all equal.

His followers though

Make me long for a sequel.

483

Do I make decisions?

Or do I simply do ‘em?

When I’m watching carefully,

I see I’m coming to 'em.

When choice is coming to me

And I investigate it,

I find it given through me.

I needn’t fabricate it.

I find it quite a bother

To have to make my mind up.

But if I don’t they question me

And wonder where I’ll wind up.

It’s then I have to tell them

That I’m already wound up,

And freedom is in seeing

Where Nothing’s ever bound up!

484

I used to have a point of view

I thought was quite undoubtable.

Now I see reality

Is never figureoutable.

485

If you want to give your life

A wholly new sensation,

Here's what I commend to you:

Revise your sensory orientation.

486

That is there, and this is here.

I hope that solves your problem, dear.

487

Moses went to the mountaintop

and told us what to do.

Douglas Harding went to the valley

and asked us what we see.

Which approach to life do you want,

from the top down or the bottom up?

One based on a divine skyhook

or one that stands on firm ground?

488

These poems are meant to capture truth

And put it in a bottle.

I know they will not all succeed,

But I'm hoping that a lot'll.

489

All presence is here.

All power is there.

I'm only just saying.

I know you don't care.

490

My facelessness is naked

My panorama's dressed

The latter brings excitement

The former gives me rest

491

Sometimes I have to ask myself

What means the headless trek to me?

Not so much I must admit

With no homunculectomy.

492

If you claim to have free will,

No argument is keener

Than the one that starts and stops

With neener neener neener.

493

Here below the bottom line

I'm absolutely humble.

There where you can see my face

I do not shun the rough and tumble.

494

Reading and writing and posting and stuff

Are dangerous paths to tread.

They usually don't amount to much.

Seeing is better done than said.

495

Will is desire.

Desire is will.

I've said it before.

I'm saying it still.

496

Is there a there to get to

When it's clear it's here I am?

Those who show a way to go

Are setting up a nasty scam.

There isn't any coming soon,

No soon to be or next in line.

When someone offers such as that,

There's just one word: Decline!

497

I've seen my bare awareness.

I've seen the naked circle.

No one has said it's not the truth,

But I know someday some jerk'll.

498

I tell it like it is for me.

I never like to pull my punches.

If your views don't jibe with mine,

You know you're free to play your hunches.

499

If I believe 'cause it's absurd

Then where is rationality?

Dead and buried and interred

Along with all that's truly me.

500

Thanks for tagging along with me.

I hope it wasn't your last resort.

Take it from here. You're on your own.

All the balls are in your court.

The Positional Self

“We experience the world with our body as its center, center of vision, center of action, center of interest. Where the body is is here; when the body acts is now; what the body touches is this; all other things are there and then and that…The body is the storm center, the origin of coordinates, the constant place of stress in all the experience-train. Everything circles round it, and is felt from its point of view. The word I then is primarily a noun of position, just like this and here.”

— William James

Jim Clatfelter, June 2022

The rewards of Faceless Seeing are in the seeing itself, in the conscious living from your faceless presence, not in any words about it. But words can inspire and even bring you back to the here and now seeing of wholeness, to the Dao itself. So I will list a few resources that offer material that I consider basic to this vision and the understanding the poems express.

Douglas Harding, On Having No Head,

Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious

Alan Watts, TAO: The Watercourse Way

Witter Bynner, The Way of Life according to Lao Tzu

David Hinton, TAO TE CHING Lao Tzu

Robert Saltzman, The Ten Thousand Things

Robert Saltzman, Depending on No-thing

The Headless Way at headless.org

No-Facebook at facebook.com/groups/richardlang

Robert Saltzman at dr-robert.com

501

I raise my glass to Douglas

And wish him a happy ninety first.

I see my beverage disappear

And feel it quench my thirst.

Others take their beverages

And pour them down a toothy slit.

And though they make them disappear,

They do not taste a bit!

And now I raise my glass again

To say another toast for you.

Enjoy your day, dear Douglas.

Tomorrow you're pushin' ninety two.

502

It's a headless take on Laozi

And a Daoist take on Harding

Some will find it valuable

Others wouldn't give a farthing

503

Creation is eternal.

God's sleeve is very tricky.

There's always something coming up.

Thank God that God can't stand a quickie!

504

Why does God create the world

From God's Abyss and Chasm?

Thank God that God creates Big Joy.

Thanks God for God's Orgasm!

505

I'm glad to see the Ding an sich

Is really not a Ding at all.

It's not a thought or mental toy.

It's really Nothing but Big Joy!

What is Big Joy? It's a term used by James Broughton.

I take it to be Life itself lived to the fullest.

506.

God is not a scholar,

A monk or musty mystic.

God's the Big Big Bang Man.

Thank God that God has gone ballistic!

507

These poems are just my little way

To share a Truth and leave a

Crumb or two as I proceed

Along the Via Positiva.

508

Hurrah, the play's the thing.

The thing's the play and drama.

For that I have to praise Big Joy

And Hail to Big Joy's Mama.

509

My poems are quite ridiculous.

Your poems are tres sublime.

But here's the deal, Dear Reader,

You show me yours; I'll show you mine.

510

Perhaps these poems are nothing more

Than smoke blown up a chimney,

But so far at least it seems

I have no magnum opus in me.

511

The headless way is quite the best

If you want to See your block off.

Zen's good too, though some might say

It's just and Eastern Asian knockoff.

512

Here's how I write a haiku:

Summer evening, wide awake,

Under spell of Zinfandel,

Plop, a frog jumps in the lake.

513

I cannot solve my koan.

I do not have a clue.

When I ask the expert,

The roshi isn't saying mu.

514

I know I am laconic,

Succinct and brief and true.

It's up to you to flesh it out.

I simply lay the pith on you.

515

If nothing else has helped so far

To show you Seeing's total,

I hope I am correct somehow

In thinking that a goad'll.

516

This seeing is rewarding,

A job you cannot botch.

It isn't really work at all

To keep the quiet watch.

517

Life and death are grand events

This Emptiness contains.

While living things must perish,

The Nothingness remains.

So I take my identity

From what I see within.

How could Awareness ever end

That never did begin?

518

The world is so delightful

When I can truly See

I'm not a being in the world.

The world's a happening in me.

The truth is always here and now,

And so I take my ease.

I never have to miss a thing

Or overlook the One who sees.

519

Can you see your missing head?

You're lucky if you care to.

I hope I can encourage you.

Be brave, buck up and dare to.

Look to see your open Heart

Is noble and magnanimous.

Don't say you can't. Don't look away.

Don't be so pusillanimous.

520

I have no need to travel time.

I've found the open portal

That leads into the true sublime,

The timeless and immortal.

And when I'm truly present

I am not in a dither,

For here within the timeless now

I see both whence and whither.

521

There is no doctrine to promote.

That's why I'm rarely talkative.

The only terms that I employ

Are negative or locative.

I don't mind saying where to look

Or telling what you will not see:

Look in at voidness all the while

With dedication, ardently.

522

At center I am openness

And absolutely ample

To take on board what's given,

To welcome what's on sample.

523

With Nothing here to call my own,

No thing that could oppose you,

The only thing that I can do

Is welcome and enclose you.

524

I am not small and motionless

And flat and set in borders,

But I am headless, upside down,

And terminate in shoulders.

That's the truth and falsity

On offer in the photo

Designed to show reality

And fact in brief and toto.

525

Everything's enough for me.

Everything will nicely do.

And when I see I'm Nothing,

It's then I have enough times two.

526

The Grand Design is orderly.

The setup's neat and tidy.

And I can see it for myself

With no one's bona fide.

527

Nothing is and Nothing was

And Nothing ever will be,

And when the world has lost its buzz,

Nothing's gonna still be.

528

They said I'd have a better go

If I could be a hetero.

I don't know why they thought it so.

Or why they wouldn't let it go.

Why do they want to run the show?

Or want another hetero?

We have enough of them you know!

529

My speech is iambic

In anglic and gallic.

And that isn't bad

For an acephalic.

530

Objects always jump around,

And do so with a will.

They never hold their horses.

They never can be still.

People go to sleep at night.

But let me make it clear,

I never sleep or move or jump

Or go away from here.

531

Attention! About face!

Attention! At ease!

That's all there is to it.

Now do as you please.

532

Douglas took off Jimmy's head

Leaving him a blank instead

Jim was looking most perplexed

Really Doug!—he said—What's next?

533

Every Doggy Has His Day

I'm no fool. I've been to school

And twice around the block.

And now I'm writing doggerel

Dismissing poppycock.

534

Who is Jim? Who is Sylvia?

Does anybody know?

Are they each an aberration?

Are they God on a short vacation

Looking at a picture show?

535

Non-duality's overrated

It doesn't give me much to do

One can be fun

But it's kinda lonely

I'd rather have a second

Than be myself my one and only

I'm promoting number two

I see I'm boxed in a paradox

And stuck in a conundrum

If I could extricate myself

I'm sure I'd still be hum drum

I'm promoting number two

It isn't very puzzling

I'm not about to panic

I do not mind dilemma

I'm remaining panoramic

And promoting number two

536

I know I'm not a poet.

My verse is free and loose.

I take my rhyme from Gertrude Stein

And a rose from Mother Goose.

537

I tell you I'm a Looker

And ask you if you would

To merely turn your Eye around

And see I'm looking pretty good!

538

Am I am or am I ain't?

Do I query in a manner quaint?

Am I am? Am I Jim?

Is he me? Am I him?

Is he I? Am I he?

Or am I am an Absentee?

All my actions all spontaneous?

Are my thoughts extemporaneous?

Am I ain't or am I am extraneous?

Am I stranger? Am I kin?

Am I am the Great Within?

Do I reside beneath my skin?

Am I ain't or am I subcutaneous?

539

How are you?

Thanks so much for asking.

I'm very glad you thought of me.

I'm feeling so much better

Since I had my cephalotomy.

540

It's never either either/or

Or this and that together.

No periphery or core.

No now and then and no forever.

541

You are what is already

Just see you have no head

And keep the Inner Steady.

Why wait until you're dead?

542

Need one take a path to here?

Need one find a way to now?

Don't the questions make it clear?

One needn't ever wonder how.

543

This I see won't perish.

I'll give the reason why.

When I see, I see that there

Is no one here to die.

I am who sees and what I see.

I am the two together.

I'm two sides of a unity

And shall remain forever.

544

Here I'm living totally.

Here I'm absent, empty, faceless.

Here I'm only what I see.

Here I'm living timeless, spaceless.

545

One thing comes, another goes

Yet emptiness remains.

As both the ground and origin

Of all that it contains.

546

I see that present emptiness

Has room for friend and foe.

And I see that purity

Is spread for weal and woe.

And yet it is not present tense

But judgment makes it so.

547

Some say my verse is elegant.

Some others say it's funky.

The former say I tell the truth.

The latter say I pound the monkey.

To me this verse is but a way,

If I may speak with candor,

To give myself a goose to give

My vacancy a gander

548

I was born without a head.

It took me many years to get one.

And many, many more it took

To see it doesn't fit one.

549

I see the scene and seer meld

But never see them mix.

A paradox I needn't mend,

A split I needn't fix.

550

I say with utmost gravity

As well as wild exuberance,

I am the world's concavity

As well as all protuberance.

551

I look both ways to see it all,

And afterwards insist a

Careful look will show you are

Space and content, room and vista.

552

The headless void you see within

Embraces all external.

No need for worry or chagrin,

You've got the nub and kernel.

553

See the near side and the far

And fortify composure.

When you've seen the two as one,

At last you've come to closure.

Well, that's the way it worked for me.

It just might be the same for you.

Since now you've found your wholeness,

There is no kind of follow through.

554

The last time I said that I hadn't a head

The rejoinder was inquisitorial.

Just what do you mean? I know you were seen

On Saturday last in a parlor tonsorial.

555

Life can go on. Continue the game.

I don't mind extending the story—

On the condition that I remain

Compos mentis and ambulatory.

556

Can you see that Void and View

Are packaged in a bundle?

If you can then good on you.

That is that and Bob's your uncle.

557

In what you find yourself to be

You surely are the boss,

Even though it seems to me

To be a load of applesauce.

558

I talk too much of Donald Trump.

I rave to beat the band.

But I will stop the day I see

The lily in his hand.

559

Is headlessness a gateway?

Well say so if you wish.

To me the headless seeing

Is the very Ding an sich.

560

If you see you have a head,

You've got the world atilt.

And seeing such, I have to say,

You're just as crazy as a quilt.

561

My death is a thing I would like to postpone

For a serious question arises.

Will I have the presence of mind to bemoan

My life when it sumtotalizes?

562

I am the I in everyone.

I am the glory and power to see.

And so it has been since time was begun.

And so it shall be till eternity.

563

Back in 1953

I'll tell you something, bub,

The Lindy Hop was out of style,

But we still had the Princeton Rub.

564

Facelessness is in plain sight.

You needn't search or grope.

It's always here to scrutinize.

It's ever in your scope.

You've always seen your facelessness

Accompanied by its vast largesse.

But since it's nonconceptual

It doesn't frequently impress.

It fails to draw attention.

It doesn't catch the eye.

It seldom captures notice.

Unremarked it passes by.

565

Facelessness is at the center.

Emptiness is at the core.

Constant the experimenter

Living from the open door.

566

A point of view is my center and core,

And it's always here and now.

It's all that I've been looking for

But overlooked somehow.

567

Lin Chi (Rinzai)

Life is given as a flow,

Not by choice and not by chance,

And so I take it as it comes

And ride the waves of circumstance.

568

You say you know the Final Truth?

Well, give me just a minute

To tell you that I do not care

And haven't any interest in it!

569

Some have called it I-don't-know,

Others freedom-from-the-known.

If you're seeking Deeper Truth,

That enterprise is overblown!

570

To say it's from the horse's mouth

Is just a term of art

To cover up well-known the fact

It's really from a different part.

571

The myriad ideas of Truth

Could fill a mighty ocean,

But I refuse to pick and choose

And live by someone else's notion.

572

When I find I'm in a stew

And life's a pressure cooker,

It's time to turn attention 'round

And fix my gaze upon the looker.

573

I find I am aware from here,

And thus I've found the source

And core of conscious living.

I'm satisfied with this of course.

574

It's good to live a life that's true

And strong and brave and plucky.

If such a life's eluding you,

Then hold on to your rubber ducky!

575

I know no kind of final truth

And no concomitant elation.

To capture all that is would be

A premature encapsulation.

576

I see what I see, and the seeing is me,

So there's no need to strive to attain it.

Relax and let go and relish the show.

Who told you you ought to restrain it?

577

You say you want to share the truth.

If I object you say I'll scorch.

I do not like to be uncouth,

But get your butt off my front porch.

578

To look down upon those who suffer in Hell

Is one of the perks of the Blessed.

If that you believe, oh my and oh well,

You're mad as a loon, I suggest.

579

Do you want to be Awake?

Then wake up to the fact

That this is it and all she wrote.

There is no coming back!

580

Do you seek the Ultimate?

Some would say that's right as rain.

To me it's just inanity.

I much prefer remaining sane!

581

Killers come to gay bars

And stand and open fire.

The coppers come to stop them,

A fact that I admire.

When I was growing up, you see,

It was the cops who came

And hauled the patrons off to jail.

Things change and yet remain the same.

582

You think I should be better

At managing my mind.

The "I" you task to do the job

Is one I cannot find.

Mind cannot be managed

By any outside force.

It manages itself, you see,

And takes its given course.

Just let the mind go on its way.

It knows what it is doing.

If you go in for mindfulness,

You're in for quite a screwing.

583

Mind you this and mind you that.

Forget the whole endeavor!

Mind can mind itself, you see.

It needs your help not now, not ever.

584

You cannot change your mind, I say.

Mind changes on its own.

Comes the day you notice this,

That's the day you're fully grown!

585

So tiresome and tedious

This constant intellection.

Thoughts are so repeat-ious

I'm losing my erection.

586

I'm not a body, so you say.

I'm not a thought or a feeling.

That may be the way you play.

I find it unappealing.

587

You listen to the guru.

You say he's quite reliable.

I'm very sure his income is.

His devotees are certifiable.

588

I think I'm at my apogee

And want to keep my wits up

While I can, because you see

The enterprise may soon go tits up.

589

My facelessness is static,

My circumstance dynamic.

One is shining all around.

One is living in the attic.

590

I am not very passionate.

Some say I'm quite remote.

There's not a lot that turns me on

Nor much that gets my goat.

But there's one thing that gives me pain

In my posteriority.

The ignorant behavior of

The moral fucking majority.

591

You're ever so clever and ever so wise

To have it all figured out,

To have it defined and oh so refined,

To have banished misgiving and doubt.

To you I confess my mind is a mess.

I cannot keep track of its spawn.

With this kind of mind, it's helpful I find

To hold onto doubt as one's sine qua non.

592

Anuslusnus

Do I have an anus?

You surely are a tease.

I'll show you present evidence.

I'm just about to cut the cheese.

Sure I have an anus.

I'll give you in support

This eloquent and well-thought-out,

Odoriferous report.

If that's not present evidence,

Then I don't know a flatus

From a bowl of Boston beans

Or momus mashed potatus!

593

I am what I am,

It wasn't my choice

But with it comes freedom,

For which I rejoice.

What kind of freedom is that, you ask.

It's freedom from pride and shame and guilt,

And freedom to be just what I see,

And freedom to live just how I'm built!

594

Awareness is persistent,

Appearances ephemeral.

That is how it seems to me,

In universum and in general.

595

You don't like my opinions?

Remember those who say don't know.

You're perfectly within your rights

To tell me where the hell to go.

596

Do you disagree with me?

That's dandy and it's fine.

Most of life is guesswork,

And yours may be as good as mine.

597

It has been moved and seconded

That gays should not be shot or jailed.

But thanks to you religious folks,

It's sad to say, the motion failed.

598

You say you have the Truth in hand.

You say you know the Great I Am.

You spread the word to beat the band.

It's time for me, my friend, to scram.

599

Are you certain? Are you sure

That what you think is true is true?

That proposition is manure.

All that I can say is shoo!

600

Do I have free will?

For me there isn't a chance

Your view may vary

601

The original

Is never a reflection

Can you live from that?

602

Does a haiku count

If it's not about nature?

I need some advice

603

This spot is reserved

For a new haiku poem

If I can write one

604

Two-in-one seeing

Is a splendid way to go

In this modern world

605

I had better stop

This could go on forever

It isn't pretty

606

Aspirations and spiritual goals

Toss in the fire and shuffle the coals.

You're fine as you are. You're whole and complete.

Get on with your life and don't miss a beat.

Forget what they tell you. Just live for the day.

Don't let them make you get carried away.

All I am saying is that this is the most.

Live while you can before you are toast!

607

Say what you will and say what you can.

You surely are given the right to.

Others' opinions are fine and are grand

But nothing to give up the fight to.

608

These poems perhaps are not so good.

They may improve. I wish they would.

And so for now I will not stop,

Be the poem good or a belly flop.

609

Nothing is hidden or secret.

It's all just the way it's presented.

It isn't concealed. It's fully revealed.

To deny this is truly demented.

610

What does it mean to be fully awake?

It means standing up to the bullshit.

To hear what they say and keep far away,

Ignoring the stump and the pulpit.

611

Preachers preach from pulpits.

Politicians stand on stumps.

I close my ears to both the culprits

As they take their verbal dumps.

612

It's hard to explain. It rattles the brain

Why the will isn't free but compelled.

We're caught in a web. We're linked in a chain.

In this I am going by what I've beheld.

613

I do not do the crossword.

I'm pretty poor at scrabble.

And so I write these little rhymes.

It's my excuse to babble.

614

Why are we so curious?

Why do we want to stop the show

To question what it's all about?

We're given all we need to know.

615

The fact the earth is spherical

Is inferential—not empirical.

Why not take them both as true

And live a life that's panegyrical?

616

There are no castles in the air.

At least I've never seen one.

More than that, I do not care.

Sincerely yours, the mean one.

617

The past lives on as the present.

The future arrives as the now.

It seems to be incessant.

I don't know the why or the how.

618

You are what you are.

There's naught to become.

Take a close look.

It's all pretty rum.

619

I like collecting many terms.

I organize and then collate 'em.

I let them come alive in verse

As I regurgitate 'em.

620

You've been given everything,

Everything and more to spare.

So why do you go on and on

About your fair and rightful share?

You've been given everything,

Everything and more to boot,

All of it without a string.

Don't complain. It isn't cute

621

The guru speaks and has his say,

And yet I find that I'm a skeptic.

I take my leave without delay

When I see his words are septic.

I do not like his dogma,

His doctrines or his testimony.

I do not like his teachings.

It seems to me it's all baloney.

622

Believers say that if you spurn us

You are heading to the furnace.

Here's my very best advice.

It isn't true. It isn't nice.

623

I say what I say without filter.

I never intend to malign.

And if my words seem out of kilter,

Think for yourself. It isn't a crime.

624

Being alive is the meaning,

And yet you go looking for more.

From teacher to teacher careening,

Ignoring the fact at your door.

From doctrine to doctrine proceeding

In search of a greater elation.

You call it intelligent reading.

I say it's all bull defecation.

625

In keeping this verse so verbally terse,

I'm hoping to hold your attention.

Others have done it. Some better. Some worse.

I follow their way. It's not my invention.

626

Don't be a dick, it's the golden rule.

Don't be mean, it isn't cool.

It's not a joke to be so cruel.

Don't be a dick. Don't be a tool.

627

I saw Douglas Harding parsing

Seeing into void and view.

When I took a look myself,

OMG, I saw it too.

628

The path that's best for me and mine

Is not a path that I define.

It's one that has been given me

Here and now and ever free.

629

You whine and cry and beg for more.

You bitch about the life you're given.

Why not halt this keeping score

And show some gratitude for livin'?

630

God is a word for wholeness.

It's a word I seldom use.

It's a word with too many meanings,

And too often it's abused.

631

The rich get rich.

The poor go beggin'.

Thank you Ronald

Fuckin' Reagan.

632

Headlessness is generous,

Providing bells and whistles,

One of which is cushioning

Life's many thorns and thistles.

633

I'm wading in doo-doo and feeling so blue.

My shoes are covered. My legs are too.

Stuck in this doo-doo, I'm feeling confused.

How did I get here? My feelings are bruised.

But here I am stuck. I cannot escape.

Wading in doo-doo's a bummer to face.

From all of this muck I want to be free.

But here I am stuck just trying to be me.

But wading in doo-doo could turn me around.

In all of this doo-doo I needn't be bound.

But here I will be until and unless

I make a big move to get out of this mess.

634

Life occurs as it does because

That is the way that it must do.

Just keep calm and follow the buzz.

You've already managed to bust thru.

635

You do what you do

When you do it, that's true.

It's the way that you move

That makes it so cool.

636

M A G A O M G

Ain't that just the very best!

I D K but I M O

D J T's a P O S

637

I do not give a rodent's butt,

If someone thinks that I should care,

For their opinions and their views.

What can I say? I'm just not there.

639

I know a little bit about a lot of shit.

It's like a puzzle, hard to fit.

One piece here, one piece there,

Most of which I'm not aware.

640

Let's hear it for the USA,

Of and by and for the rich.

All that I can think to say

Is OMG, ain't that a bitch!

641

Don't let others run your life.

Only you are in the know.

If they tell you what to do,

You can tell them where to go.

642

I just turned eighty-two point five.

I'm happy to be still alive.

But from all that I have read,

It's likely I may soon be dead.

I do not like to dwell on such.

And such I don't do very much.

With how it is I do not squabble,

Never vacillate or wobble.

And so while I am still alive,

For just as long as I survive,

I will enjoy the living thrum

And then go back to where I'm from.

643

My puppy swallowed Scrabble tiles.

I took him to the vet.

I'm waiting for the test results.

Sad to say, there's no word yet.

644

The rich are for equality

Or so they rattle off.

They say we all deserve our share

Then act like piggies at the trough.

645

I'll never be dead, for when I'm dead

I simply will not be.

If to that truth I'm firmly wed

I'm snug and safe, it seems to me.

646

Who do you say is "we the people?"

Who do you think's excluded?

If you can come up with a list, I'd say

You're utterly deluded!

647

We live in spontaneity

Where all is given to us.

A flowing continuity

Is just what I intuits.

648

One who boasts is not given credit.

One who gloats is soon taken down.

Don't be the one to endorse or abet it.

Before you do that just get out of town.

649

What happens happens just one way,

And that's the way it must.

Each and all must pay and play

Until the day one comes to dust.

650

Where did I come from? How did I get here?

Where was I living before I arrived?

Never mind. It doesn't matter.

I'm just happy I survived.

651

Here we are on earth a while.

What's the meaning? What's the story?

It's not about a balance sheet,

A ledger or an inventory.

I cannot tell you what it means.

That's up to you to judge.

Please be honest, true and clean.

Do not cheat, and do not fudge.

Do you have an answer yet?

Do not fret. It's not required.

You're here because you're valuable.

That's the reason you were hired.

652

Everyone I know is dead,

Either that or of an age.

Enjoy this living till it's time

For earth to turn another page.

653

This life is fleeting.

Meaning is not in the search.

The moment is all.

654

Enjoy the present if you're wise.

There isn't any f*****g more.

You've already won the prize.

You're living in a candy store.

655

When they draw a line in the sand,

Put your foot on the other side.

That's the way we take a stand.

That's the way we make a stride.

656

Today I'm certain of the Truth

And hold it without blinking.

Tomorrow I may let it loose

With what the devil was I thinking!

657

You see what you see and that is you.

You do what you do and that is too.

You get what you get and that's your due.

Those who see are far and few.

658

When two or more are gathered

We're in the healing place

Where void and view are tethered

And living happens space to face.

659

Live your live flamboyantly

With bravery and balls.

Play your part in every scene

Until the final curtain falls.

660

I do not hold with any creed

Or any other kind of -ism.

If you would convince me, pal,

You'll have to show your syllogism.

661

The ground of being lies, I see,

Below the bottom line.

It doesn't really lie at all

But shows a truthful paradigm.

662

In writing these poems,

I don't seek approval.

They're meant just for those

Who enjoy their perusal.

663

What do I know for certain?

I know that I don't know much.

I only know a little bit

Of this and that and thus and such.

664

You wanna lose weight?

Well, here's the scoop.

You gotta eat less

Than what you poop.

665

For myself I have no face.

I hope you do not doubt me, friend.

That really, truly is the case

And will be so until the end.

666

What to say about nothing?

Well, I can tell you one thing—

Once you see it for yourself,

You'll say it's really something!

667

They tell there's pie in the sky

And that I might have a taste

Only post-mortem and after I die.

Oh what a terrible waste!

668

God got pissed and sent a flood,

But later He repented.

He was sad for what He'd done

But happy that He vented.

669

You say we have a democracy?

I say pish and piddle!

Hillary won by a landslide,

And Gore by more than a little.

670

My opinions are my own,

I really must insist.

You may disagree, but please

Don't get your knickers in a twist.

671

These verses are repetitive,

And some of them are shrill.

Don't worry when they cease to come.

You already know the drill.

672

I just can't understand it all.

I live in ambiguity.

And that's the way that I prefer

And will in perpetuity.

673

They seek and search and chase for truth.

To catch and lock it up they scrabble.

They track and sleuth and what they find

Is just a lot of Holy Babble.

And when they think they've pinned it down

They write it up and look for branding.

My best advice is look away.

It's all a big mythunderstanding.

674

We seem to be afraid to die.

And yet the one I was at ten

Has gone and bid us all goodbye.

I wouldn't want him back again.

The one I was at twenty

Saw life the way it could be.

He had his troubles plenty,

And that is how it should be.

The one I was at thirty

Has surely passed away.

I can't say that I miss him.

I wouldn't want him back today.

At forty, fifty, sixty years

Of joy and laughter, pain and tears.

I'm glad to let the decades go

And glad I had 'em, dontcha know?

Seventy and eighty years

Were very good to me.

I'd like to try on ninety.

For that I'll have to wait and see.

And if I live a hundred years,

I'll be happy to have had 'em.

And happily I'll let them go.

I have no bone to pick with Adam.

675

When I notice here and now

It has already gone and passed.

I've no desire to make it stick,

To stop the flow or call it back.

676

You're looking for the answers?

I tell ya no one's got 'em.

And if somebody claims to do,

You're searching at the bottom.

677

This nation's surely bound for hell

With drag queens reading stories

And casting most ungodly spells

On little children's auditories.

Enough with all this sissy stuff.

We want America to soar.

Let's get ourselves into a huff

And pick a fight and go to war.

678

Tax the poor.

Support the rich.

OMG,

Ain't that a bitch!

678

So many say they don't exist.

That kind of chatter's reached a peak.

I've a question. Here's the gist:

If they don't exist, why do they speak?

Oh wait, I know the answer.

Give me just a minute.

It pays to be a ranter.

There's loads of money in it.

679

Listen, pal, you're gonna die.

That's the way the cycle goes.

What will happen after that?

I'll tell ya, bud, nobody knows.

680

Tonight we'll see the longest night

In the Northern half of Earth.

The Southern sees the longest day.

So Happy Yule!—for what it's worth.

681

Today's a day to celebrate.

Let me tell you, Jack.

This, my friend, is why it's great,

Old Man Sol is coming back!

682

It seems to me that LFY

Is just about as good as dead.

So here's a big wet kissy-bye

To all of you who lack a head.

683

Everything I see is past,

At least by milliseconds.

It's the only thing that lasts.

That's the way it is I reckon.

684

The present is the past perfected,

Or so at least it seems to me.

The future's coming down the pike.

For that we'll have to wait and see.

685

All this information comes

At rapid-fire velocity.

And so I try to take it in

With heaps of dubiosity.

Endlessly it comes and comes

In infinite variety.

And so the way I view it is

With copious dubiety.

I do not know the provenance

Of all the rhetoric and shouting.

And so the proper attitude

For me is keep on doubting.

686

Awareness ought to look two ways,

To face the world like Janus.

When you only look one way,

It's then you are an ignoramus.

687

Do not split me off from all.

That approach will never cut it.

Unless you're in the mood to brawl,

Please desist and kindly shut it.

688

Please give up your dogma,

Your doctrine and your sutra.

Do believe me when I say

They simply do not suitcha.

689

Please don't tell me what to think.

Just lay back, relax and chill.

I like you so much better when

You don't get all up in my grille.

690

The world of non-duality

Drums on and on the same refrain.

They've found what looks like unity.

In doing so they've missed the twain.

691

Believe whatever things you will.

My mind is not so pliable

To take on every bit of swill

I find unfalsifiable.

692

The manifold religions

Give me the shakes and panics.

I don't admire the Vedics.

I do not like the Abrahamics.

I find at heart they're very mean

And angry and splenetic.

And I find their reasoning

Quite pallid and pathetic.

Those who take the natural

As a grand sufficient view,

Sad to say it seems to me,

Are far between and very few.

693

She can't make coffee, nosiree,

Because nobody taught 'er.

But something she does naturally

Is make the very finest water.

694

What would be the human status?

We're on our own. We're all adrift.

I share this with you gratis.

You needn't pay. It's not a grift.

695

Don't blame yourself for fuck-ups.

They're really not your fault.

And calling foul on others

Isn't worth a grain of salt.

Things happen as they happen.

That's how the cookie crumbles.

It doesn't make a lick of sense

To live a life of groans and grumbles.

696

We're here for but a moment.

We do our dance, then pass away.

The moment goes on. We're given our chance.

Let's hope it lasts another day.

697

I am is the noticer, not the decider.

I've fully digested the fact.

I am the seer and never the chooser.

That's how it's given. I can't take it back.

698

Here I see stability.

There I see the wobble.

Seeing both I'm running free.

Missing one I'm bound to hobble.

699

Help! I cannot stop the rhymes.

I know they're not in style.

If you find them wearisome,

You're free to change the dial.

700

To use the word I

Doesn't imply that I is

The prime decider.

701

The function of I

Is to be aware of all

That is occurring.

702

I write these verses freely,

And if they seem absurd,

I hope they do not show that I

Am mentally disturbed.

703

I am going to try to haiku.

And if I don't succeed

I will sadly say goodbye to

All this poetry and screed.

704

Count the syllables

Five, seven, and five again

That's how you haiku

705

The purest form of mind is wordless

Laozi says in chapter one.

And if you get just what he means

You can stop the search. You're done!

705

Each day I find I wake up sad.

This old world's so out of tune.

And though my reason's iron-clad

I find I'm over it by noon.

706

Time is passing. Time is brief.

It's fleeting and fugacious.

Time provides and time's a thief.

But in the end it's gracious.

707

In Russia Putin's all the rage.

Stalin's star is rising too.

On Trump I hope we've turned a page.

Nothing on this earth is new.

708

You've made mistakes and made amends.

If I may be so very bold,

I will say with all my friends

Welcome back into the fold.

709

Don't say gay in Florida.

You know they give no quarter

For kindness and for tolerance.

There's more than gators in the water.

710

Don't send your kids to Sunday school.

Don't expose them to the rumors.

The teaching is duplicitous.

The teachers are pernicious groomers.

Don't listen to their rants and raves.

Their preaching is outrageous.

They find a thrill is throwing shade.

All they do is quite umbrageous.

711

With me, me, me and my, my, my.

Something's bound to go awry.

It's such a poor modality,

This toxic me-centrality.

Why not make a little room

For the other in your life?

It may reduce your doom and gloom

And Sturm and Drang and petty strife.

712

Do not dare to be yourself.

Be as other people judge you should be.

Holy crap and what the fudge!

I wouldn't be it if I could be.

Try a little blending in.

That is how you ought to go.

Just be pliable and bend.

Be correct and apropos.

Be the way I say to be.

You can do it. Why not try?

Get the hell away from me!

Adios! Adieu! Goodbye!

713

These poems are coming rapidly.

I hope they're making sense

And not expressing vapidly

Or find me sitting on the fence.

714

I will not give you my advice.

I do not think I should.

So if you want it, please think twice.

It just may do more harm than good.

I used to like to talk and chat

Or share an admonition.

Now I find I'm shut of that.

I'm cured and in remission.

I'm not the one to analyze

Or remedy an ill.

You're the one who has the fact.

So go ahead. You know the drill.

715

I'm only saying what I see

In toto and full ration.

No cover up or hectoring

And not a bit of speculation.

716

I've heard I have a countenance.

I'm sure I've never seen it.

I won't give in to such a trance.

I'm glad it's never been like that.

717

The poems are many. The fans are few.

I am not fond of much ado.

The situation's fine with me.

I write 'em and I set 'em free.

718

One ought to take the view of Janus,

Always looking either way.

The rhyme that comes to mind is heinous.

I'll finish this another day.

719

Twenty twenty-three

What it brings we soon will see

Hope it doesn't suck

720

We'll long remember Sep eleven.

Let's do the same for Jan the sixth.

And don't forget who got them going.

A pox on both the little pricks.

721

"I alone can fix it."

And you believed it true.

See the bloody mess you made?

That's what comes from sniffing glue!

722

I know that someday I will die.

I do not like the fact.

But that's no reason to deny

That I will have a final act.

723

My only time to live is now,

And so I'll live it on the boil,

Until it comes my time to bow

And shuffle off this mortal coil.

724

Everyone has someone

Who makes the heart to melt.

Sadly true, it's just the way,

They're in love with someone else.

725

Here is my prayer

Deliver me from horseshit

Talking to myself

726

Do you see that you are free

To take it like it comes?

To take on board the view you see?

To go with how it's given, chums?

727

I see the Void is here and now

And when the View is added too,

Well Jumpin' Jesus, Holy cow,

I'm finished, done, completely through!

728

I do not need to imitate

Or follow some old saw.

Explanations not required.

This is it! Hooray! Voilà!

729

Looking in I see the Void.

I see it plain and clearly.

It beggars all description.

I say so most sincerely.

730

We cover the void

With opinions about it

No profit in that

731

The void is empty

Can we let it remain so?

Freedom from the known

732

Can I see the void I am?

Can I keep it wordless?

Adding words, a total sham,

By definition: worthless.

733

I am I and you are you,

And ne'er the twain shall meet.

Both of us are on our own

As we breathe and face the heat.

But if you need a helping hand,

I will lend it if I can.

Just come knocking at my door.

If no one answers, don't be sore.

734

I'd rather be naked than fully adorned,

Faceless and choiceless and hopeless as well.

Such a condition is not to be scorned.

Covering up's the inception of hell.

735

No need to be contentious.

More power in the gentle.

To think aggression wins the day

Is quite a heavy dose of mental.

No reason to offend you.

If you disagree it's fine.

It seems that we're on different tracks.

So you go your way. I'll go mine.

736

God made us or we made God?

No longer do I comprehend.

I used to have an answer, Maude.

Now I find I'm on the mend.

737

Why do we split the world in two,

Separating me and you?

There is a way to heal the wound

By seeing void and view attuned.

738

I hear it started with a word.

And thus began the riot.

I also heard it's going to end

In everlasting peace and quiet.

739

I see what you appear to be,

Not what you really are.

Myself I'm seeing inwardly.

You I'm seeing from afar.

740

I am the seer of the scene.

I am the scene as well.

That's all, I say, there is no more,

As far as I can tell.

741

What am I seeing in the mirror?

It isn't who I am!

And if it is, let's make it clear,

I'm in a pretty monstrous jam.

742

Here I see my facelessness.

It's constant and unchanging.

There I see the world at large

Forever rearranging.

743

Here I see the faceless void,

Which I take to be my core.

If this gets you all annoyed,

Hold your tongue. Don't be a bore.

744

Here upon my shoulders

I see my glassy essence.

Those who say they see their head,

Are making up a vile excrescence.

745

Here I see the virgin datum,

Unadulterated fact.

It is the underlying stratum

On which this living world is stacked.

746

One thing dies.

Another blooms.

Life goes on

In different rooms.

747

My face is your appearance.

I am is your reality.

Seeing this should demonstrate

A strong conviviality.

748

I is a person.

We's a collective.

That's how it appears

From this one's perspective.

749

Please ignore the ballyhoo

And theologic tricks.

What you get is here and now.

I hope the message sticks.

750

We have a fear of not to be,

And so we cling to being.

But what you are is here and now.

What is it you're not seeing?

751

Live, laugh, suffer, die,

And after that just nothing.

Thank you, I'll take it.

(Words of Robert Saltzman)

752

The message is the medium,

Experience the meaning.

And though we call it headlessness,

The substance is the seeing.

753

The seeing itself is sufficient.

There isn't a need for belief.

Nothing about it's deficient.

It's total, and so's the relief.

754

You're finally whole when you notice your hole,

The one you have instead of a head.

And when you see you're not in control,

You're privy to the total spread.

755

Events occur a single way.

No option's ever given.

They happen just they way they must.

That's just the way events are driven.

756

One fine day I just showed up

In a family in East L.A.

I knew not how I got there

Or where I'd been before that day.

I asked the mother where I'd been

Before I showed up here.

I wasn't anywhere, she said,

Don't ask that kind of question, dear.

With over eighty years gone by

No answer has appeared.

I may be going back there soon.

The whole damn trip's been pretty weird.

757

Life's a given, not a chosen.

That's a fact I like exposin'.

It's all you ever need to know.

Why not relax? Enjoy the show!

758

Observer/observed should not be split.

They go together hand in hand.

They form a fabric double knit.

The melding of the "two" is grand.

759

Legs on a snake,

Tits on a boar.

That's all you will get

By asking for more.

760

Laozi's not a know it all.

He is, in fact, a know it not.

Most of what most people know

Is bovine excrement and rot.

761

Can you see you dwell at center,

And the door is open wide?

You needn't ring a bell to enter.

Here's the place where you reside.

Now you've found it, come inside.

Here you claim your true abode

And watch your emptiness collide

With circumstance—the mother lode.

762

I've lived already eighty years.

I've left some debris and some rubble.

Why would I want another round

To live somebody else's trouble?

763

Here the void and there the view.

These are one and never two.

If you can live with both, you see,

There's nothing more you need to do.

764

I don't know, and you don't know

And he and she don't either.

Say you do, I'll disagree.

Come what may, I'm no appeaser.

765

I reside at the eye of the storm,

From here I witness happenstance.

It's here tranquillity's the norm.

It's there there's gaiety and dance.

767

If emptiness is what I am,

The place from which existence springs,

Then thankful, I must say I am

For these ten thousand added things.

768

Don't speak of eternality.

All I know is here and now.

I only know what comes to me.

And even that, I don't know how?

769

I'm here when I'm here

And gone when I'm gone

And happy to hear

The the world carries on.

770

Don't tell me I'm not mortal.

Don't tell me I won't die.

Don't tell me there's a portal

To some Spirit in the Sky.

I'll know what happens when I die.

I'll know if you speak truth or rot.

I'll know the final how and why.

I'll know it then—or maybe not.

771

So many friends and mentors

Have already passed away.

I know my time is coming soon.

I kinda hope it's not today.

772

Many thousands dead in Turkey.

When one is saved, well, God is Great!

That kind of logic's kind of murky.

Who the devil made the quake?

773

Don't ask yourself: What am I?

Say rather: This is it!

Or hold that thought entirely.

I really do not care a whit.

774

"This is it," they like to say,

But whatever can they mean?

They haven't landed on the It

Until their facelessness is seen.

775

As I see directly

I haven't got a face,

My core's completely empty

To let the living world take place.

776

Many of us are pretty sane,

But I'm sure it is no shocker

If I say I often think

Many too are off their rocker.

777

It will happen one fine day

When all the stars align,

l will leave this human fray

And drop directly off the vine.

But please don't feel sad for me.

I've had my share of life unbidden.

It's all the way it has to be.

Now it's my turn for the midden.

778

This place where others see my face

Is where I see my empty core.

The world I see I don't erase

By hoping for a new decor.

779

Today's the day I'm eighty three.

I think it's pretty nifty

That I may have more time to be.

Cuz of that I'm feeling thrifty!

780

Here the void, there the view.

These are one and never two.

That all there ever is to see.

So from today it's up to me.

781

My facelessness is nothing,

Of which there can't be more than one.

And so you say I'm also you.

You must believe I'm pretty dumb.

Don't entify this emptiness.

Don't make it out to be supreme.

Don't call it a projector.

Don't make my life a dream.

782

I want to be what I'm not now.

Well, criminy and holy cow!

Why want a thing that cannot be?

Why not just go with what you see?

There is no path to what you are,

Nor method to transcend it.

Searching leaves a mighty scar.

Never would I recommend it.

What you are is fine as is.

This is what you should explore,

Not some kind of mythic bliss.

This is it! There ain't no more!

783

You're one and complete

And full and entire.

Enjoy what's been given.

Explore and admire.

784

Nonduality is phoney

Cuz it splits the world in two.

Such a trick is pure baloney.

Just ignore that kind of spew.

785

If X represents my remaining days,

The days I have until I'm done,

Then each dawn when I awake

I'll know my days are X-1.

786

Why are we dissatisfied?

I offer here my native wit:

Our naked nature's covered up.

We're dressed in clothes that do not fit.

787

What is is made of that which was

And is making what will be.

That's the very latest buzz.

Time's a process, dontcha see?

788

He's gone to a better place, he has,

If dirt is better than air.

Nirvana and heaven and all that jazz,

It's all a bit too much to bear.

789

What's to transcend

But the search for transcendence,

The thought that there ought to be

Far more than this?

What's to explore

But this living resplendence?

Look for yourself.

Do a one-eighty twist.

790

There is no I who has my thoughts,

Nor one who has my feelings.

Its plethora of shoulds and oughts

Is really very unappealing.

791

Please don't denigrate the past.

Without it there would be no now.

The present's made of memory.

The past continues. That is how.

792

I think I have more poems to write.

I hope I am not done.

I hope they don't turn off the light

Before I reach one thousand one.

793

He knows why he does it, he likes to say.

He knows he's the primal causation.

A likely story that has to betray

His thrall to a comforting confabulation.

794

I don't believe. I do not doubt.

I simply do not know.

I just embrace what comes about.

I live it then I let it go.

795

Being is the message.

Seeing is the medium.

Further seeking leads to this:

Futility and tedium.

796

The seeing itself is sufficient.

There isn't a call for belief.

Which kills the need for argument

And delivers a blessed relief.

797

When you see the now in part,

You have a chance. You've made a start.

When you see the moment whole

You've liberation for your soul.

798

Why not admit that nobody knows?

There isn't a call for belief.

Just go with the way existence flows

And give a big sigh of relief.

799

What are you seeking?

What is the search for?

And is it worth falling

Right off of your perch for?

800

Why speak of things you cannot know?

Why engage in endless chatter?

Much of what most others know

One might compare to fecal matter.

801

Events occur a single way

And happen without choice.

Though some of you may disagree

There is no call to raise your voice.

802

With void in back and view in front,

Everything's accounted for.

What do you get if you're still on the hunt?

Legs on a snake. Tits on a boar.

803

Many say they know the facts.

That's okay, but here's the scoop.

They're just repeating other acts.

And most of them are nincompoops.

804

If I ask myself "Is this all there is?"

Then I've failed to look and to see.

If that is the way that I live my life,

Then I'm bound to come down with that old ennui.

805

I'd rather be sane than enlightened.

I'd rather be brave than be frightened.

But on this I'm the same as all others.

And often I don't get my druthers.

806

It's not about divinity

Or holy nonduality.

It's all about the seeing of

This living mutuality.

807

Don't copy what the gurus say

Don't let your cortex shrivel.

Don't let the stinkers win the day.

Don't listen to their drivel.

808

We want to know the answers

With firmness and finality.

But all we ever really get

Is guesswork and banality.

809

Sometimes I do not know what's up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sometimes I think I do.

For that I'm sometimes happy. (●'◡'●)

I hope the same applies to you.

810

My time will come. I know not when.

When I come to my final conclusion.

I'll make no guesses until then.

Not for me a life of confusion.

Not for me this speculation,

This overheated imagination.

Preachers and teachers and gurus go hang.

I'll live while I may and leave with a bang!

811

Do you think you think your thoughts?

If so, another think is due.

Not that you can manage that.

You get the thoughts that come to you.

812

What is all this, and why am I I?

I could have been somebody smarter.

I've many complaints much bigger that this,

But this one will do for a starter.

813

Now that I am kind of old

And on the road to bye-bye,

Though I soon may leave the fold,

I'm happy that I had the fly-by.

814

What and why and where and when

And how I do not ask.

All of that's beyond my ken.

Settle down and pass the flask.

815

When others tell you what to think

That's the time to raise a stink.

When others program what you know

You ought to know it's time to blow.

816

How do I look to you from afar?

How do you look to yourself where you are?

Answer the questions, and get them correct.

You're bound to be pleased with the aftereffect!

817

You are what you are.

You get what you get.

Some of it's good.

Some of it's not.

818

Don't go by that which others speak.

What you see is what you seek.

Don't go by what is bought and sold.

Go by that which you behold.

819

Don't tell me that I should believe

In anything I can't perceive.

To trust in words and tales and lore

I find to be a ruddy bore.

820

I'd rather go by what I see

Than by what you say is true.

Here is how it has to be:

I'll do me, and you do you.

821

Save me from the MAGA minions,

From all of those who hump the Trump.

Leave me to my own opinions.

Listen, pal, I'm no one's chump.

822

The way it was was fine for some.

The way it is now is better.

Do you think that thought is dumb?

Go ahead, bud, write me a letter.

823

Let me tell you what I know.

Let me get it off my chest.

What I know is that I don't.

Take that in and leave the rest.

824

Let the left brain split the world,

And let it name the parts.

Let the right brain see it whole.

That's the highest of the arts.

825

The right brain sees in parallel.

The left brain sees in series.

The latter sees the details well.

The former sees the meaning.

826

Noticing your facelessness

You do not lose appearance.

You simply focus on the whole

And so regain coherence.

827

There is a doer in the brain

Who sits upon the right.

The left brain takes exception

And hankers for a fight.

The left brain wants to hold the reins

So it can be the guide.

The right brain has no words at all,

And so it lets the matter slide.

The left brain thinks it's in control.

The right brain is holistic.

The left controls the story.

The right's impressionistic.

828

What all this is I do not know.

It's how and why the same.

I've no control. I don't direct it.

This life, I say, is nature's game.

829

Don't tell people what they should be.

Harken to the way they are.

Don't deny them what they could be.

That won't get you very far.

830

I tell you how I see the world.

You say my view is incorrect.

Is it any wonder then

I stand aloof and circumspect?

831

Life happens as it happens,

And no one makes it so.

If you think I should say more.

Sorry, pal, I've gotta go.

832

Three on the tree or four on the floor,

That's not the way this living works.

It happens automatically.

We don't control the snags and perks.

833

Dao's the Way that nature flows,

What it is and how it goes.

More than this nobody knows.

So tie it up with ribbons and bows.

834

You are what you are and you do what you do.

You think what you think and you get what you get.

That's about all that one can say.

Anything more is a crock of cheese.

835

I'm happy to have had this life.

I'd gladly take a little more.

But all in all I have to say

I got what I came looking for.

836

Keeping one's head is a capital crime.

In fact it's a terrible trick.

I've been accused of it so many times,

But no one's been able to make it stick.

837

Don't tell people what to do.

Just let them go their way.

You really do not have a clue.

You truly haven't earned a say.

838

We're still touting The Birth of a Nation

And singing the South of the South.

We're still living in Uncle Tom's Cabin

And cheering the orange-colored louse.

839

I've always been a regular guy,

And now as I near the end of my span,

A regular guy I will remain

With a daily dose of raisin bran.

840

Some say they have no preferences.

How would I counter such a lie?

I think I'd offer up a lunch

Of puppy shit on rye.

841

I do not make these thoughts I have.

They well up on their own.

And when I say them right out loud,

Some applaud while others moan.

That's just the way it is, my friend,

The way it has to be.

Thoughts come up and then they go.

Perhaps it's something you can see.

842

Can you see the empty center

And embrace the outer flow?

Can you see the two as one?

If so I'd say you're set to go.

843

The center is empty and single

And roomy enough for all

To stage a lively party,

So come on in and join the ball.

844

At center I am all alone,

Empty, void, and right at home.

It's here I hang the welcome sign.

And that's the very bottom line.

845

There isn't an option.

That is the story.

It is what it is.

It's all mandatory.

846

I am what I am, and by golly

I didn't request it to be so.

To deny what is so would be folly

And quite unproductive, ya know.

847

People will say to live in the moment.

Where the heck else could I possibly live?

Don't listen to all of the shite that the foment.

Ignore what they say and forgive.

848

Face and faceless held asunder,

Posited in unity,

Is the key to present wonder.

Let's take the opportunity.

849

Just what is nonduality?

A word not in my lexicon.

I've had so many answers, but

They're all a lot of who shot john.

850

I've been called impertinent, discourteous and biting.

I've been called a wise guy and even a silly old smarty.

Still I have to brag a bit in this that I am writing.

I've never once in all my life

cast a vote for the Grody Old Party.

851

Nothing's forever.

Everything changes.

Nothing is final.

It all rearranges.

852

Today is a day of thanksgiving

To say for this living I'm glad.

It was nice of existence to have me.

I truly enjoyed being had!

853

Yang is waxing.

Yin is waning.

No more kvetching

And complaining.

Sumer is icumen in.

854

The center is simplicity

Where each is just the same

As all the many others are

And nothing has a name.

855

The farther you go, the less you know.

There's wisdom in returning

To the place you never left

If you are so discerning.

856

If you possess more than you need

You are yourself possessed

By the need to keep it all

And grab a portion of the rest.

857

Each of us has seven holes

Foe seeing, hearing, eating, breathing,

Plus another couple more,

And these are for relieving.

858

It is what it is, whatever it is,

No matter who knows it or not.

I cannot explain, nor do I complain.

For wisdom that's all that I've got.

859

What I am and what I see

Are equally a part of me.

What I want and what I do

Are also added to the brew.

860

Two things you should never do:

Avoid the void. Eschew the view.

Two things which you surely must:

Pay the tax and bite the dust.

861

Who knows what it is?

I certainly don't.

Tell me you do,

Believe you I won't.

862

No need to tame the monkey mind

If you enjoy its antics

Or if you are a linguaphile

In love with grammar and semantics.

863

First I wasn't. Then I was.

Pretty soon I will not be.

Though I will not know it,

It's then I will be free.

864

They like to tell me I'm in charge

And blame me when I get it wrong.

I wish they'd change their thinking fast

And come up with a different song.

865

What does it truly matter at all

If appearance is real or just an illusion?

Either way I live with it all

And have no need to reach a conclusion.

866

Tomorrow I'll be eighty three,

And though I'm going to the dogs,

There's still a lot of life in me.

It's much too soon to pop my clogs.

867

Let's have a talk and meet in the middle.

Let's air our views and try to agree.

If you refuse, go piss in a fiddle.

That's the best offer you're getting from me.

868

I remember the day that Harry beat Dewey.

I remember the day that Joe Stalin died.

And though this new world's a little bit screwy,

I'm still not quite ready to get off the ride.

869

Why do they tell us we can't do it?

Because, you know, they were told the same.

We couldn't do. So neither can you.

It's all a part of an ongoing game.

870

Praise and blame can drive one mad.

Commend or condemn, that's not the way.

I'm holding my opinion.

That's all I have to say.

871

Hamlet said "How like a god!"

Pavlov retorted "How like a dog!"

I don't know which of them got it right,

But I did enjoy the dialog.

872

For giving explanation

I'm really not the man.

I'm just a little tiny flash

In Douglas Harding's pan.

873

Look within, and look, and look.

Be tenacious. Hang on tight.

Yoy say that you see nothing?

I say you're bang on right.

You see the True Location,

The place where all are One.

You see the Void that spins the world,

Suspends the stars and shines the sun.

You see the Total Emptiness,

Much more than just a rarity.

You see the One and Only,

The Peerless Singularity.

You're seeing This which was not born,

Nor lives, nor breathes, nor dies.

Stay with this One Awareness.

See how it ramifies.

See how it carries consequence

To be your Destiny and Source,

To see the Total Emptiness

That everyone ignores.

874

Does Rumi sound like a straight boy?

When he looked in the eyes of a girl,

Did he remark to the dervishes:

"What the hell, I'll give it a whirl?"

And should the very truth come out,

Many a preacher would die of fright

To learn the real whereabouts

Of Jesus and John on a Saturday night!

875

So quick to dismiss this world as a dream,

As mere apparition — alluring illusion.

So quick to divide the Is from the Seems.

Go on with it then. Forgive the intrusion.

876

I've seen my inner Clarity,

And here is what I've reckoned:

I've seen the Singularity,

The One without a second.

877

True Seeing is available

No matter how you feel,

Embarrassingly obvious

and really, really Real.

You must continue looking

If you would see the glory

Of living in the Steady State.

Resolve cannot be desultory.

878

Eliminating deficits?

Paying down the debt?

You wonder whether I approve,

And I just say "You bet"!

Everybody working?

Paying bills on time?

Well, you may not be for it,

But I can tell you I am.

Tax cuts for the wealthy?

Watch it trickle down?

I tell you I'm not ready

To endure another round.

I'm sticking with a winner.

One needn't be too brainy

To know that Al and Joseph

Can trample Bush and Cheney.

879

Bullshit from the pulpit.

Flim flam from the soapbox.

How 'bout we slow things down a bit

And spend some days in detox.

880

Why is it hard to face up to our fate

And admit that our days will reach an end?

Why not take time to celebrate

Before we've gone totally round the bend?

881

The Last Laugh

Since I heard Wei Wu Weighing in

On matters weighty, matters thin

I find I have a brand new spin

With Lazarus I laugh and grin

And if I give a big guffaw

I hope you will be kind

I fear that in my Absence

I've lost my peace of mind

Am I Absent? Am I Present?

Was I ever here?

And if I was, where did I go?

You look like someone in the know!

Where did I disappear?

I'm the Presence of an Absence

That isn't even here

An Absence of an Absence

Oh my! Oh gosh! Oh dear!

Such fabulous verbosity

Such howling funniosity

Do you see it? Do you care?

He's got me so tied up in stitches

I think I just might pee my britches

If anybody's looking

I'm glad I won't be there

Absence! Presence! Presence! Absence!

First the one and then his brother

I may be going schizophrenic

But I glad to have each other

After all this cachinnation

Lazarus and I

Are ready for a long vacation

Wei Wu Wei bye bye!

(October 1998)

882

The vision of your missing head

At first may scare and frighten

But you will see eventually

It's absence will enlighten

883

Dear Friend and Gentle Reader,

I hope you will agree,

A verse is only helpful if

You stick it in your memory.

884

A doer isn't needed

Indeed is quite extraneous

When everything that happens

Is utterly spontaneous.

885

Nature abhors a vacuity

Especially in perpetuity

She finds her felicity in asymmetricity

And notices no incongruity

886

The choosing self is a flattering fiction

With overtones of pride and guilt

As well as a haunting malediction.

It's best to keep it under your kilt.

887

You're The One

Face to face or vis-à-vis,

It's me for you and you for me.

An absolute duality are we.

I see you, and you see me.

And what else could there ever be?

For me you are my own reality.

You fill my void and nothingness.

I love you more guess,

For I possess your showiness in me.

You've given me a view to see

And interred my capacity.

We together make a binary.

I'm the zero. You're the one.

And, when all is said and done,

Without you I would suffer from ennui.

But don't you see that's not the case.

Because of you I'm full of grace.

And furthermore I'm very full of glee.

And so for now I rest content,

Admiring my astonishment

And blessing you for being here with me!

888

When I feel the frazzle,

I look within and notice

I am the jewel with dazzle

In the center of the lotus.

889

As soon as you're born you're fucked, I'm afraid.

Always alert to get paid or get laid.

What's there to say but I wish you good luck.

Take what you get and don't be a schmuck.

890

Many claim to know the Truth

And love to scream and shout it,

But I must confess to you:

I don't know jack about it.

891

Though life at times can be a pain

My attitude won't sour.

I'm happy to have had the chance

To strut and fret my given hour.

892

Let me tell you what I feel.

Let me do my little dance.

My doings happen on their own,

Arising out of circumstance.

893

As long as I'm here on this mortal knob

I'm going to say what I have to say!

You think I oughta shut my gob?

Well that'll be the goddamn day!

894

I don't speak of Truth with a capital T.

It lives in a realm beyond my ken.

I'm quite content with the world I see

And glad I can count from one to ten!

895

Of what you say, I must admit,

I can't make heads or tails.

To answer such I'm quite unfit,

And so I wish you happy trails.

896

The Id says yes. The Super says no.

The Ego decides and offers a why.

Can you let each one of them go?

Who needs these little homunculi?

897

There is no doer of the deed.

The actor is the action.

Until on this you're up to speed.

You'll get damn little satisfaction.

898

If there's a thought that there might be a thinker,

Ask yourself who told you that.

Why did you tumble hook, line and sinker?

Why in the hell did you not smell a rat?

A thinker's not needed for thoughts to arise.

Can you not see they rise on their own?

I figured you for both clever and wise.

Now I'm reduced to a grimace and grown.

I'd like to believe your viewpoint could change

By a serious look at the matter

That thoughts are all spontaneous.

If not, I'll continue to natter.

899

Now that I have reached an age,

I could expire any year.

Until that last day comes along,

Hold you laugh and hold your tear.

900

I'm glad to say that what I say

Leaves me in good company.

So whether you do or don't agree

It's all the bloody same to me.

901

Whenever I say you should look for yourself,

I say it with hope you will do it.

But if you say no or that you must go,

What can I say but you blew it?

902

I'm feeling pretty hearty.

I don't believe I'm fading fast.

I still enjoy the party, but

I know I wasn't made to last.

903

I used to be a vegan,

But now I'm an octogenarian.

I used to a youthful soul,

But now I'm a bovo-pollotarian.

904

Why do I think the way that I do?

What is the source of my notions?

No need to worry or get in a stew.

They're due to cephalic commotions.

905

The doer is superfluous.

S/he spoils every deed.

There's really nothing to discuss.

I'm warning you! Take heed!

906

Forgive them, please, I'm asking you

Because they know not what they do.

Then take a break and cool your fever.

You don't know what you do either.

907

Look for yourself and see what you are

Until you can't possibly doubt it.

To seeking say goodbye and au revior.

And please don't rattle on about it.

908

You did it of your own free will?

I'm hoping you'll do me a favor.

Muzzle that thought immediately!

I cannot condone that type of behavior.

909

Here I see unicity.

There it's multiplicity.

I don't divide them into two.

And I don't hold with those who do.

910

The world is fucked. And do you know why?

So many want much more than their share.

That kind of thinking is set in the die.

What can I do? And why should I care?

911

We're going to hell in a handcart,

And there isn't a thing we can do.

Unless we're suddenly super smart,

We'll be taking it up the kazoo.

912

I do not know nor do I ponder

What it is that lies ahead

Awaiting in the deep dark yonder

For the living or the dead.

913

Abandon expectation.

Relinquish yes and no.

Let it go the way it will.

Relax. Enjoy the show.

914

I came when I had to.

I'll go when I must.

I'll be very sad to,

So pardon my dust.

915

The teachers teach.

It's quite a circus.

They're no longer

Fit for purpose.

916

Dust to dust, I've heard it said,

And let the dead inter the dead.

Since I was only here on loan,

Why not put it on my stone?

917

If you're looking for the self

Look in to where you have no face.

If you're looking for the no-self

Look in to the very same place.

918

Naught would appear if there were no awareness.

Awareness would die were there naught to appear.

What could appear, I mean in all fairness,

Absent awareness, so empty and clear?

919

Since you say there is no you,

I want to ask a question, honey.

Can I have your bank account?

I sure could use that money!

920

Whatever it is that you wanted to be,

You're still a product of circumstance.

To be any different from nature's decree

You've never stood a snowball's chance.

921

In dreamless sleep the looker is gone.

There's nothing at all to be seen.

The looker is the sine qua non,

The mandatory go-between.

922

What I know amounts to nothing,

Just enough to live a life,

Not enough for all this fussing

About who's wrong and who is right.

923

Some of these poems are pretty good,

Some of them only fair.

Some say some are awful.

I don't care.

924

All events are self-arising,

Including everything I do.

So it shouldn't be surprising

That the same applies to you.

926

When you see you have no head

You've surely found the art

That leads you to a quiet joy,

An open mind and ease of heart.

927

When I see I have no head

It's very odd that still

I can't let go of that old saw

Called freedom of the will.

928

When I see I have no head

But have a simple blank instead,

It's this I always give my thanks to.

What in heaven's name can blanks do?

929

I don't engage the great pretense

That I'm the author of my thoughts

Or that I have to go along with

With all your woulds and shoulds and oughts.

930

What am I—a demigod

Who gets to dictate what I do?

I understand that I am not,

And neither, pal, are you.

931

We're part of the order of nature

And cannot rise above it.

You have another thought on this?

I'm glad to tell you where to shove it?

932

I'm not a god of any kind—

Not a major nor a minor.

Since I gave up divinity

I've got to say I've not felt finer.

933

In giving my opinion, friend,

I'm never very wary.

I give it with the knowledge that

Your own view is apt to vary.

934

On Ultimate Matters

The questions are preposterous,

The answers hard to swallow.

They do not make a lick of sense.

I hope there is no test to follow.

935

Now is the past of what will be,

The very foundation of what's to come.

And now is made of what has been.

I hope you get my meaning, chum.

936

Beauty, wholeness, grace

And satisfaction come from

Seeing your true face.

937

Everything's changing.

Nothing's invariable.

Locate this Nothing.

938

You say you have it figured out.

Well that's a sorry piece of luck.

To have the final answer now

You have to give the future up.

939

It happens when it happens.

You get it when you get it.

There's not a thing that you can do

To hinder or abet it.

940

I state it as I see it.

I do not ask that you agree.

Your opinion is your own.

It doesn't bother me.

941

The world will go the way it goes.

There's not a thing can stop it.

It has direction of its own,

And yours can never top it.

942

I've seen the wonders of the world.

I've seen my original face.

I'm thankful to the powers that be

For setting me a place.

943

Do you think I think my thoughts up?

No, they simply come to me.

I needn't get myself all wrought up.

I trust in spontaneity.

944

Here I am, I'm glad to say.

I need no explanation

Of how it came to be this way.

I'm glad I'm on my pre-vacation.

945

I've had my four score years and more.

I'm happy to have had 'em.

I'll soon be knocking on the door

That comes to all the sons of Adam.

946

If you disagree with me

I really will not care.

I'm gonna like you anyway.

I won't be going spare.

947

My life was set when the big bang bung,

And none of it can be unwrung.

This doesn't cause me any stress,

Because, you know, it's just a guess.

949

You really want to know the Truth,

And that is what you need to seek?

Though your questions may be good,

I'm telling you the answers reek!

950

Freedom from the known

Is a freedom worth having

To say I don't know

951

Here and now I'm free

Not bound by any belief

I am what I see

952

Here's a way that I can offer:

Learn to live with I-don't-know.

Those who posit final answers

Are are almost always blowing snow.

953

Everything I ever do

Occurs before I do it.

If you are thinking otherwise,

It seems to me you blew it!

954

I am a product of the past

With impact on whatever's next.

It's all unwinding on its own.

I hope this doesn't have you vexed

955

If you think my views are trash

Then I'd like to wish a

Very happy life to you

And bid you bye, Felicia.

956

Question: Just who am I?

Answer: You are you.

This is all you need to get.

There's nothing more to do.

With that I'm going to shut my mouth

And go completely mute.

You'll get it from that gesture—

Assuming you're at all astute.

957

Words need not be multiplied

To see the way it goes.

The pattern's clearly cut and dried.

At least so I suppose.

958

We are what we are

And cannot transcend it.

The spiritual journey—

It's high time we end it.

959

The center or periphery—

Oh which of these am I to be?

Though you may want to take a side,

They both are a-okay with me.

960

It all occurs for a reason.

How would I know such a thing?

The sentiment to some is pleasin'.

To me it has a hollow ring!

961

If I see just what I see

And see it bright and clear,

I'm bound to lose that old ennui,

For that's the way it works, my dear.

962

Perhaps this frantic life we lead,

This life of strife and drama

Won't finish with a period

But just a simple comma.

963

I see the absence of my face,

But glad I am that I see yours.

If the latter weren't the case,

Life could be an awful bore.

964

Do you need a meaning

Beyond this life you see?

Stop with all your preening

To see that you're already free.

965

Do you want to live your life

Forevermore on edge?

Then go on asking questions.

That's the truth, so I allege.

966

What you are is given

Is not of your making.

But in a place and for a time

It's present for the taking.

967

I don't know what it's all about,

Nor do I have a need to.

And no one's told me anything

I'd willingly concede to.

968

Existence as a riddle

One needs to figure out?

Living as a question?

What on earth is that about?

969

A freedom well worth having

Is freedom from the known,

A freedom from all certainty

While you are here on loan.

970

Is this all there is?

What the heck is wrong with you?

What more do you want?

971

Behold the Great Image.

It's yours to acquire.

It brings satisfaction

And tempers desire.

972

Explain the inexplicable?

Of course it can't be done.

But many try it anyway.

So let them have their fun.

Let them live in storyland.

I'm here to tell you what.

Just ignore them if you can.

It's no skin off your butt.

973

There's very much that I don't know

And very little that I do.

Though you may know much more than I,

The same, my friend, applies to you.

974

Some people seem to know what's right

And speak with great cocksurety.

With them I do not deign to fight,

Nor will I feign credulity.

975

They say I'm playing with my words.

To this I readily admit.

To say it's wrong is quite absurd.

What else would I be playing with?

976

Why do they teach the things that they do?

Because they know no better.

What they believe was taught to them.

And that's the end of the matter.

977

Things, you will find, are just as they are

And cannot be different by even a whit.

Though you may differ and hanker to spar,

I really don't care. I don't give a darn.

978

Replacing thoughts with thusness

May seem a worthy goal,

But thoughts are part of thusness.

Missing this I'd be a fool.

There's no replacing needed.

It's fine the way it is.

Leave me to my preferences,

And just go mind you biz.

979

Do it—you wreck it.

Skip it—you're fine.

Let it be—you've got it made.

On its own—it will unwind.

980

Why is there something rather than nothing?

It didn't have to be that way.

Well, that's the way it is, my friend,

And so it has to be, I say.

981

It happened to happen the way it did

Because that is the way that it had to,

If you could change it the tiniest bit

Laotse would say you'd be mad to.

982

You can shout it from the rooftops

From Timbuktu to Samarkand.

Perhaps it would be better though

To find a way to lend a hand.

983

This is it, just as it is.

And as it is, it's pretty neat.

You can't get away from the way that it is,

And you can't walk away from your feet.

984

Don't preach to me tradition.

Don't pour me in a mold.

And please don't tell me what is best.

That kind of thing is getting old.

985

Just who is a seer?

Well, count yourself in

If you see a hole

Where your head should have been.

986

What will happen when we die?

I do not know, nor would I bet.

And here's the simple reason why—

As you can see, I ain't dead yet.

987

I've been in this world a good many years.

I've suffered the slings and the arrows.

I can assure you I'm shedding no tears

To know that my span on earth narrows.

988

In writing these poems

I don't seek approval.

They're meant just for those

Who enjoy their perusal.

989

It's bunk and rot and hokum

As well as tarradiddle.

It's just a load of tommyrot

To claim you've solved the riddle.

990

Laozi 56

Those-who-say-they-know don't.

Those-who-say-they-don't do.

Can you solve this paradox?

Then count yourself among the few.

991

Theories are cheap.

They're had for a song.

Read 'em and weep.

They're all of them wrong.

992

There is no call for argument.

Why should we ever squabble?

For when you get right down to it,

It's really all a lot of twaddle.

993

Living happens on its own.

It's wholly inexplicable.

Whatever you may tell yourself

Is fully inapplicable.

994

Faceless is the portal

To the deepest ground of being,

To that which is immortal

And accessible by seeing.

995

I do not drink. I do not smoke.

I do not take caffeine.

Still I think I'm pretty woke.

There's Nothing that I haven't seen.

996

At the age of thirty three

I lost my human head.

It didn't put me up a tree

But made me sane instead.

Now that I am eighty three

I'm happy to confess

It isn't coming back to me,

And that's not just a guess.

All my thanks to Douglas H.

For showing me what can't be seen.

It is the center of my life,

And lends it quite a sheen.

997

I'm Nobody special,

And neither are you.

I've seen that I am Nothing.

Have you seen it too?.

998

Seeking Truth? Haven't found it?

That's the truth you're looking for!

Why keep skirting all around it?

Why keep coming back for more?

999

Humoresque

Please oh please oh Isabella

Won't you let me be your fella?

Isabella let me be your beau.

We'll spend our days in disputation,

Build ourselves a reputation.

Round and round and and round and round we'll go.

You'll be my inamorata,

Correcting all of my schemata.

Isabel, you'll give me quid pro quo.

I will be your holy terror,

Pointing out your every error.

I'll say yes whenever you say no.

We will meet in cyberspaces,

Put each other through our paces.

We will be a dog-and-pony show.

And we will be so very wary

That we never are contrary.

We will argue pianissimo.

I hope you don't think I'm a phoney,

Just a Yankee macaroni.

Isabella, say it isn't so.

I'll be waiting for your answer.

Though I am a strange romancer,

Isabella let us do-si-do.

1000

I don't need your philosophy.

I don't want your religion.

I've considered what I see

And formed my own opinion .

1001

Oneness is good

But overrated

If it excludes

The variegated.

1002

Reverse the arrow of attention,

Aim directly at its source.

Pointing to this new dimension,

You will see the truth perforce.

You will see life's epicenter

And will find it null and void.

Though this looking's voluntary,

With this request you are enjoined.

1003

Laozi 56

Those who know can never say,

But surely they can point the Way

And then suggest you do the same

To see the core that has no name.

1004

What will happen when I die?

I cannot say, but I can try.

Will I hear the angels sing?

More likely not a blessèd thing.

1005

Faceless is your heart and core—

The emptiness that makes you whole,

That brings you satisfaction,

That amplifies your soul.

1006

Emptiness is immanent.

It isn't transcendental.

It's at the center of your life,

Not something incidental.

1007

The Golden Rule—

I'll say it quick.

In just four words—

Don't be a dick.

1008

Lose your conclusions.

They're mostly illusions.

Sink your convictions.

They're certainly fictions.

1009

The Copper Rule is pretty cool:

Do not do to others

What they wouldn't want you to.

1010

I see what it's like to be me.

Likely others disagree.

That's okay, and I don't mind.

They should go by what they find.

1011

Once one sees what's pointed out

By looking in the headless way,

One is whole and doesn't doubt.

That's all I have to say, José.

1012

When the mighty dollar dips,

It's tax the poor to save the rich.

So it is, and so it's been,

And, brother, here we go again.

1013

What-it-is is all that is.

There is no what-it-ain't.

Such it is and so must be.

Thus I offer no complaint.

1014

Awaken to the spacious view,

Where seer/scene are one, not two.

Encompassed by the faceless sea,

A wholeness opens, wild and free.

1015

The Void and the View are companions.

They're never encountered apart.

They complement one another.

Do you want me to draw you a chart?

1016

When I first saw the Zero

It did a number on me.

Soon were gone unhappiness,

Regret, and even ennui.

1017

My human face resides in you,

And yours resides in me.

I hope this very simple fact

Is one that you can see.

For capturing this vision

Will surely set you free

For seeing that our lives occur

In reciprocity.

1018

Pointing at one's facelessness

Is the journey of the hero.

Taking it with playfulness

Will help you reach ground zero.

1019

Ultimate questions don't matter at all

Their answers are not in the offing

When answers are given by sect or cabal

The proper reaction is scoffing

1020

Give up directing others.

Just let all others be.

Make no threat or promise.

Allow them to be free.

1021

What is my true identity?

Where is my proper station?

Here it is and now it is.

I am the Great Accommodation.

1022

It's given not chosen

And that is exact.

I take my repose in

This glorious fact.

1023

I am the great allowance

One calls capacity —

The source of observation,

And room for things to be.

1024

When I see my head off

Illusion is destroyed.

Instead of a head, I'm happy to have

A very commodious void.

1025

I am a Zero, a Zip and a Blank.

I am a Void and, just to be frank,

I am a Cipher, a Nil and a Nix.

Wouldn't you say that's a fine bag of tricks?

1026

I've seen that I'm a point of view

And concluded you are too.

It matters not the words we use.

Seeing matters. Keep it loose!

1027

How shall we live on this mortal coil?

Perhaps we should simply sit with our shit

And happily let the whole thing roil

Until one day we're done with it.

1028

The Void is fixed.

The View's in flux.

The two are One,

And that's the crux.

1029

The cat was never in the bag.

It's walking in the open.

The cat is black. The night is dark.

The circle is unbroken.

1030

The I I am at present

Is not the I I was

Before I saw the I within,

The I who never does.

1031

Why do I seem to speak without end?

Why do I push and agitate?

I do it just for you, my friend.

I'm nearing my expiry date.

1032

What will happen when I die?

Will it be the end of me?

I figure it's my last goodbye

And hope that I can R.I.P.

1033

I am what I am

I do what I do

I get what I get

The same goes for you

There's much that we share

And much that we don't

Affirm it I will

Deny it I won't

We're in it together

And in it alone

That isn't a fact

I would ever bemoan

Sometimes it's pleasant

Sometimes it sucks

Sometimes it's decent

It's always in flux

That's how it happens

The way it occurs

It seizes the moment

And never demurs

Get with the program

Stay out of the way

There's no better method

To capture the day

I've no more to say

I'm ending it here

We're in for another

Spin of the sphere

1034

I have heard I might not be,

But I don't let it bother me.

It's just a thing that people say

To keep the fear of death at bay.

People say a lot of shit.

I've said things too, I must admit.

But if today it goes my way

I will mute and silent stay.

1035

I don't have a choice.

I do what I do.

Those who can grok it

Appear to be few.

1036

I know I'm alive.

I won't when I'm dead.

I might be surprised.

No more to be said.

1037

I submit these poems to you

Now before it's much to late.

It seems the proper thing to do.

I'm nearing my expiry date.

1038

You tell me I'm not real.

You say I don't exist.

It seems to give you pleasure

To give my balls a twist.

Well, let me tell you here I am

And here intend to stay.

If I'm unreal then you are too.

So kindly go away.

1039

I'd say it's best to let it be,

Cuz that's the way it is.

Listen to me carefully.

Tomorrow there will be a quiz.

1040

What I say is mine for now

But on the instant fades and dies.

I do not know the why or how,

And I will not theorize.

1041

What if this and what if that?

These kind of questions leave me flat.

Why not avoid the counterfactual?

Stick with what you know is actual.

1042

You do what you do

And not what you don't.

You will what you will

And not what you won't.

You ask can it be

As simple as that.

I've opened the bag

And let out the cat.

1043

The light that shines in each of us

Will shine in others when we're gone.

Still I'm not in any rush

To hear that final requiem.

1044

Grab ahold and get a grip.

Life's here and now and gone too soon.

Why not just enjoy the trip?

You know the moment's opportune.

1045

When I state my point of view,

Others point to each mistake,

And though it's really up to you,

C'mon, pal, I need a break.

1046

Here they are. Enjoy them now.

Who knows if there are more to come!

They come to me from God knows where,

Then head out to oblivion.

1047

Give me a dollar, I'll tell you what's so.

Open your wallet if you care to know.

This is your warning, in forming your mind,

Truth ain't for sale. Cash cannot bind.

Look for yourself. It's gratis to all.

Fork out a penny, you're in for a fall.

1048

You do you, and I'll do me.

But listen to me, brother,

If by chance we two agree,

Perhaps we'll do each other.

1049

Others aren't real, you tell me, friend.

Perhaps they're not real to you.

On that opinion I never will spend

A penny, a dime, a nickel or sou.

Don't mean to be rude in stating my case.

Others are those whom I cannot efface.

It's I who is missing and quite out of sight.

That's how I see it and find my delight.

1050

Satori? Samadhi?

What do I care?

I am what I am,

And I'm already there.

Perhaps I'll have an aha,

Perhaps a revelation.

But I won't keep my fingers crossed.

That's far above my station.

1051

If I never have satori,

That will be too soon for me.

I would rather live my life

And go by only what I see.

1052

I've heard it said it's all illusion.

But if I go by what I see,

It leads me straight to this conclusion:

It's all as real as a kick in the knee.

1053

I see it, but how did it get here?

I don't know how or why it is.

I know I haven't made it.

You may conclude I'm not a whiz!

1054

Swept along with the tide applies

To each and every one of us.

So why not live with open eyes

Until you're ushered off the bus?

1055

Nothing to do. Nothing to see.

Nothing to quibble about.

Nothing to hold your attention.

Nothing to question or doubt.

1056

The nothing, the void, the nil, and the naught,

The zero, the zip, the zilch, and the aught

Are words that should tell you and help you confess

That nondual nature is unconsciousness.

1057

Disagree with what I say?

On occasion so do I.

So I go by what I see.

That's my way to simplify.

1058

Whatever you say

I don't disagree.

When counting your foes

Please disinclude me.

1059

Aspirations and spiritual goals

Toss in the fire and shuffle the coals.

You're fine as you are. You're whole and complete.

Get on with your life, and don't miss a beat.

Forget what they tell you. Just live for today.

Don't let them make you get carried away.

All I am saying is that this is the most.

Live while you can before you are toast.

1060

Please don't say I don't exist.

I'm pretty sure I do.

Saying that, if you persist,

I'll same the same of you.

1061

Let it go or hold on tight—

As if it's up to you.

Such a choice is fancy's flight.

You will do what you will do.

1062

I have a hole where a head should be,

A void, a depth, a mystery.

If you look you just may see

That you too are an amputee.

1063

Sometimes it takes a shift

Into a different gear

To get a brand new list

Of topics to appear.

1064

The invitation holds for all

To turn and have to look.

And that means nearly everyone

Save the occasional schnook.

1065

Was it all in vain?

It got you where you are now!

Maybe thank the fates?

1066

Imponderable?

We can ponder all we want.

It gets us nowhere.

1067

The presence of your face

Is the absence of my own.

Seeing such creates the base

For living in the zone.

1068

I'll admit the past is not,

But I won't say it wasn't.

The future isn't either.

Only now is current.

1069

Headlessness is not in words.

You really have to take a look.

You have to see it for yourself.

In truth you have to be off book.

1070

Instead of pointing at the moon

Point your finger at your face.

Doing so and seeing naught

Everything falls into place.

1071

Point a finger at your face.

There's Nothing there to see.

On that you have my promise

And a lifetime guarantee!

Point a finger at the moon

Or anything at all.

All of these will be here too

Until the final curtain call.

If either one goes missing

You're in a real jam.

It's time to take another look.

Believe me, sir. Believe me, ma'am.

1072

All the deeds I've ever done

All the thoughts I've ever held

We're not of my initiative—

Each and every one compelled.

1073

The void is free. The view is bound.

Please do not the two confound.

This is a vital truth to see.

According to yours truly, me.

1074

I write because I like to.

I write because I must.

I hope it keeps me satisfied

Until I bite the dust.

1075

Things happen as they have to.

They happen as the must.

There is no other option.

No need to get all fussed.

1076

Here it is the way it is.

There it is the way it goes.

How and why that this is so,

It seems to me nobody knows.

1077

Dao is the way to go your way

While letting others go their own.

Dao is the way of wei wu wei,

A path where peace is clearly shown.

1078

The one who sees is in your view.

It's image is perennial.

And in its train it brings to you

The fleeting and ephemeral.

1079

Those who know have naught to say.

Those who say know not.

Those who see have found their stay

And profess to knowing squat.

1080

If it is it's natural,

For nature's all that is.

To comprehend that this is so

One needn't be a whiz.

1081

Diminished by addition

Augmented by subtraction

Point the way to zero

For total satisfaction

1082

The law of reversal

The law of return

Is one you should master

Is one you should learn

It has the strength of water

And the power of the still

Its flow is automatic

It has no inner will

It operates by gravity

It seeks the lowest places

Sometimes it moves but slowly

Sometimes it fairly races

Eventually it finds its way

To the common source of all

To the grand and oceanic

To the global reservoir

When at last it reaches home

At the place we call the best

It knows it's found its origin

And plays both host and guest

1083

Hermeneutics is a word

I wish to God I'd never heard.

It simply doesn't speak to me.

In point of fact it's Greek to me.

1084

Hui Neng said, "Original Face

Is what you're looking from

Out at what you're looking at."

I hope you get his meaning, chum.

1085

Those who say don't know.

Those who know know they don't know.

That's the way it is.

1086

I'm both my point and field of view,

A both that's one and also two.

I know no better way to say it.

See it now and don't delay it.

1087

Flowers and bees give us honey. Trump and his kind take our money. The MAGAts extoll His mega-bankroll And laugh when we say it's not funny.

1088 Trump and MAGA, Trump and MAGA Go together like the mallophaga Go with itch and scratching. Gosh, I hope it isn't catching.

1089

For noticing the noticer

Any time is opportune.

See when it occurs to you,

Morning, night, or afternoon.

1090

Department of Injustice!

I needn't say much more,

Except to ask the powers that be

To save me from El Salvador.

1091

We're all outsiders in a way.

Awareness stands alone.

In our essential solitude

We're always on our own.

1092

We have a yearning to belong.

We want to have a we of us.

So we assume identity

With all the others on the bus.

1093

What happened to the liberal arts?

Why did the social gospel die?

Why do we gravitate to parts?

Tell me what has gone awry.

1094

We like to form our little groups

Where each one's thoughts must be the same.

We join with other nincompoops

To play our silly little games.

1095

Trump's in the White House.

Oy gevalt!

Trump's in the White House.

Not my fault!

1096

I am what I am.

I do what I do.

And what goes for me

Goes double for you.

1097

How does it work? Why do I feel?

Why do I think as I do?

Why am I I? Why are you you?

I gotta admit I haven't a clue.

1098