Consonant: Keeping On

Continuing to seek
Before mind,
And ending up
Patching clothing,

But it’s the same thing
Mundanely performed,
Peering between
The threads;

There is before mind
Here too, as everywhere else
Within the practical
Everyday tasks;

Herein lies the core,
All the answers
I am looking for,
Within these spaces too;

The texture
Of the cloth
Reveals
The fabric of reality.

Sitting and breathing afterwards,
Observing the present feeling,
Relief and release
From the need to do,

Which I would not feel
If I had not done
All the work
That came before,

All that hand sewing,
Which so wonderfully
Concentrated my attention,
Replacing a collar and mending,
And watching for before mind.

Consolidation: Before Mind

The place before mind
Is what I am seeking;
Not staying with words,
But abiding in between,

Not hanging out
With objects
But in the spaces;
This is my quest,

This is the reason
I keep starting over,
Striving to get back
To the beginning,

Looking for the time
Before mind,
The darkness
Before existence.

Once I tried to look beneath
My darkness,
And there I found light,
There I found bliss,

But where I need to go
Is beneath even that,
Back to the darkness
Back to before mind.

This is not denial of now,
But recognition;
That’s when I began
To clean this place:

Only after seeing
That before mind
Is the only location
From which
The fullness of life can be realized.

Consolation: Getting Things Done

No time for sadness,
It’s a luxury I can ill afford,
As I continue sifting
Through my possessions,

Not knowing where to begin,
I randomly moved about,
Vacuuming here,
Sorting and tossing there,

Washing and drying,
Clearing up and
Packing in
Wherever there was space,

No room for sorrow though;
I haven’t the time,
I have to keep going
No matter what the feeling.

This was my activity
For today,
Letting emotions float by
Without grabbing them,

Neither feeding them
Nor holding them,
Only beholding them,
As I moved from task to task;

But when I got tired
I did sit for a while,
Doing nothing in particular
Just being with everything.

As it came up,
I noticed sounds and sensations,
Eyes closed and then open,
Resting in the present moment
For a short time.