blank space
Today I find myself empty
Empty of words
Empty of color
Empty of strength
Empty of grief
Empty of empathy
Empty of ability
Empty of thoughts even
I’ve been here many times
I understand it better now
I will allow
I will rest
rest from thought
rest from guilt
rest from wanting
rest from expecting
rest from having to
rest from desire
I rest in my truth
rest in faith
rest in trust
rest in love
rest in what I believe
rest in what I have experienced
I will just be
stay open
stay present
stay here now
in wordless prayer –
Allowing the emptiness to be
Today I am empty
and it is
well with my soul.
💭
AL
Writing about empty mind is not easy.
When I have got it, there are no words.
When the words come, it goes away.
Sitting in anger and fear,
Mind is full of the past and future.
Images of catastrophes big and small
Jostle for a seat at the brain.
Resentment, incredulity and disappointment
Slide their way into heart spaces
Pushing out loving-kindness.
Equanimity lies in pieces.
Some of us scrape up that slimy
Emotional stuff and put it in jars
To carry along with us,
And then we complain that
Our load is too heavy.
We need to put down that
Lumpy sack of ooze
And take a breath.
The sage said,
“I pack no provisions for my long journey—
Entering emptiness under the midnight moon.”
He did not pack his ego,
Or his remembrance of self.
He carried no big plans
Or regrets of the past.
Like a wise fool he may have
Even forgotten to leave.
While he sits still in darkness,
The moon travels the sky.
🗯
Empty Mind by Tom Barrett
I have a small vial of clay
that used to hold my father’s ashes.
They’re on a hillside in Montana now;
the vial is clean and empty,
ready for me.
I should keep it in my pocket,
hold it deep in the folds of my coat,
until I am folded into my little vial of clay.
It asks me, what is the difference
between you and clay?
The answer is water.
That, and love.
The little vial of clay says daily:
drink water while you can,
and love.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.
Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.
Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.
Open your hands,
if you want to be held.
Sit down in this circle.
Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd’s love filling you.
At night, your beloved wanders.
Don’t accept consolations.
Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover’s mouth in yours.
You moan, “She left me.” “He left me.”
Twenty more will come.
Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.
🎴
A Community of the Spirit by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
– Rumi
life: acoustic & amplified 