We could be less.
This moment is held by
temporary walls.
They will shatter in the wake of life’s
forward thrust.
And then...what will we
become?
Some people need walls.
Some...long to feel a fierce
wind.
We could be weightless.
And give ourselves to the air
of gathering storms.
In the face of something fierce...we could
simply let go.
We could be less.
And unafraid of what
we are -
We could fly.
~
We could be less. We could be less than the painted images projected from our mind. We could be soulful…stepping past the confines of solitary moments strung together in formation of a life. We could be the speck of dust that flourishes in a storm. We could give up walls and expectations…moving beyond the scope of what we believe we are. When this moment shatters…new worlds will be born. Who will we be then?
A moment is created by its very limits. Even the memories of the most beautiful happenings are bound to fall short as they are retold in the freshness of new moments. Every moment will shatter. The walls of our self-importance must be continuously shored against the oncoming storms of time. Imagine the great amount of energy we must expand to hold these walls in place. Imagine the freedom gained by simply being…less.
No walls. Those fierce winds bite through flesh and soul. We face the storm naked…with no weapons save our openness. We have only our selves to give. The storm takes it all…our flesh, our holdings, our illusions, and our truths. We are left with only the essentials of what is now. We are weightless. We are free.
The spiritual life is a grand paradox of diminishing self-importance and a growing belief of a greater identity. When asked of his life purpose and mission Gandhi replied, “to reduce myself to zero.” And so his ego reduced and his spiritual greatness grew.
We may cling to our self-importance only at the risk of being shattered with the last of our earthly moments.
In truth…every moment is a small death and a new birth into now. The Tibetan Book of The Dead describes such moments as bardos. Bardo is a Tibetan word meaning transition or gap. It is the in-between state of what was and what will be. Bardos are most commonly referred to as the states that occur after death and before re-birth. They are moments of great uncertainty and doubt. They are the shattering of lives and the empty spaces of before and after. And that is their great promise. In this vast emptiness, in the bardo of now, reside the seeds of our greatness. The Buddha arose from under the Boddhi tree awakened. Jesus in the flesh was shattered by the cross…He rose in spirit as the Son of Man. We are destined for equal greatness. Yet first we must be present to the promise of each moment. The potential of the cross and the resurrection belong to every breath we draw and release. That’s the natural bardo of now.
Sexual orgasms have been called “the little death.” The ego dies at the hands of pleasure. For a brief moment we are shattered by bliss. Should we rise in full ego glory and congratulate ourselves for fulfilling our desires…the opportunity of the bardo will be lost. We will be re-born as a replica of what came before. This is not bad. We have desires only so that they may be fulfilled. Yet the very same desires that provide momentary pleasures…also point to heavenly stars. Desires are the map that will guide us to heaven. And none will lead us more fully than the desire to fall endless into the flesh of another. The secret is to fall with grace and love. We must trust that within the uncertainty of ego-less space…we will rise again. And we will…every time. We give ourselves to each other and to the fall exactly because of this leap of faith. We are Shiva and Shakti…destroyer and creator. We fulfill the promise of one another. We are the opportunity within the bardo of the “little death”. We are the mountain that provides the leap, the air that breaks the fall, and the wind that teaches our loved ones to fly.
All this…by simply being
less.
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