The Living Imperative

 

It is not the conscious mind

That drives the engines of our cells.

Flowing through us is the living elixir,

The living imperative,

To be alive!

 

The Conscious mind becomes

The interface of life and death-

The mitigator of

The forces of Nature, and

The forces of birth, growth, and regeneration.

 

In all of us lives the drive

That rises from the living sea,

Consciousness - the living foam

On the waves of rapture

That underlie all we do.

 

The living imperative embodied,

The foundation of all our values,

All our morality,

Our conscience:

The sharp-pointed tip of

This sense of Life,

Of purpose,

Of living in the Way.

 

 

August 30th, early afternoon

Yoshi’s, San Francisco

 

Later that same day, a haiku

 

The tea was quite nice,

Delicious to the bottom,

Cool ceremony.

 

 

and later, still at Yoshi’s

 

what are we that we are not?

Great.  Tall.  Proud.  Wise.

we are all these things.

in our dream self,

the dream self that is present

when we forget who we are,

and become what we are not,

when we are who we can become,

when we cease to filter the grand,

and be.