Enlightening Nonsense

© September 15, 2009

“He accepts this world. He accepts everything; he denies nothing. He is for total acceptance—acceptance of the whole…Those of us who are fragmented and incomplete will first divide him into parts and then choose what we like. And when you choose a part, at the same time you deny the rest of him. “

—Osho from Krisha: The Man And His Philosophy (pp. 44+58)

.

You see me as a child, exploring the world with innocent eyes

And so you grab that snapshot of me to put on your altar

Saying how, “We must remember to be like children”

Pretending to yourself that you are close to me

With your beautiful talk of sparkling eyes

when each of your days is lived with dull, gray vision

And your very worship is a refusal to let me grow up

Your incomplete devotion is not child-like

It is childish

.

As a young man, I stole the bathing women’s clothes

And ran up a tree

Leaving them naked

This picture doesn’t make it onto your altar

And the only way for it not to taint

The image that you keep of me

Is for you to destroy the evidence

In any way you can

So you burn the picture

By telling everyone, “That story is just a myth”

Or that I never really existed at all

.

Perhaps the picture of me dancing with a circle of women

Makes it onto your altar

Because you have no understanding of TOTAL love

for LIFE and ALL it contains

This picture feeds only your immature sexual fantasies

And you use me to justify an obsession that is keeping you from

WHOLENESS

.

You see me with my flute

Dancing and smiling

Wearing silks and gold and jewels and a crown

And dancing with many, many women

And because you know only the suffering

Of incomplete prophets

Who taught that misery was the way to Paradise

You have trouble containing me within your vessel of limitations

.

For unlike Jesus, I would have had a smile on my face

While they whipped and beat me and hung me on the cross

And so those events would pale to you who live in the past

For you would not be able to discern them from the rest of my LIFE

of music and dancing and smiles and joy

.

Unlike Buddha, I would have tossed the

begging bowl and drab clothes and celibate monks

ALL into the sea

And replaced them with feasts and colorful silks and women and dancing and music

For I am not afraid of eating for pleasure

Or wearing clothes that are beautiful

Or dancing with girls

Buddha was not a complete man

For he didn’t know how to renunciate

the attachments of his princely upbringing

While still retaining the riches to play LIFE royally

.

When I appear in the form of a wise teacher to Arjuna

And share the principles of karma yoga

about taking action without concern for the fruits of one’s action

You interpret my words

Through the mind of you and all the LIFE-denying beings

before and after me

And the only way you can understand these words

That float free from your cages of

renunciation and punishment

of judgment and dogma

of hate wearing the costume of love

Is to deprive yourself of receiving payment for sharing your gifts

As well as denying others ALL they would gain in their giving—

something much more valuable than a small loss of rupees

And you insult me by claiming your renunciation of LIFE

Devotion to me

.

You take my words and fit them into your own attachments

To what you call “Truth” or “Justice”

And so you serve without reward

And hold onto the anger you feel

for working hard

without acknowledgement or support

Words you will never say out loud

For you are cowards afraid of living LIFE

With ALL its experiences and emotions

Which includes

ANGER and SADNESS

WAR and DEATH

DISEASE and DECAY

Get paid or not

That has no bearing on my words

If your focus or care still remains on the reward—

given or not given

You might as well take it

For when you are unconscious

It is easier to be wealthy than a beggar

.

You promote non-violence as a higher “Truth” that cannot be disputed

And so when Arjuna tells me he doesn’t want to fight in the war

For what is the purpose of killing my relatives.

For a throne?

I’d rather be poor than to harm my family!

You, too, remain on the sidelines

Without even the guts to take his side

And stand against me for what you claim is your Noble Truth

When I tell him that he is a warrior

And his role is to fight

And instead of living truthfully

He is living like a coward

You are too afraid to enter the battle

If it means dying to ALL you hold near and dear

And choose instead to take yourself out of the game

And insult existence by calling this LIFE

.

You can’t justify my call to arms

For your altar contains nothing but

beautiful flowers and crystals and incense

And the smell of carnage doesn’t suit a nose

Whose only experience has been sandalwood and roses

My altar contains manure as well as flowers

And in the inclusion of it ALL

I don’t only accept what LIFE has to give me

…I appreciate it fully

.

And so you call the Gita an allegory

Saying it is “symbolic” of something deeper

That it, as well as the great war of the Mahabharata, never occurred

Whether it did or did not

Whether I am a creation of God

Or a creation of Man

You are just like Arjuna

hiding behind cowardice

and calling it principle

.

I was sleeping under a tree

When a hunter

Who mistook me for a deer

Unleashed an arrow from his bow

That penetrated my heart

And killed me instantly

No last words of wisdom

No “Why me?”

Just a sudden death while asleep

parallel to the death

of all of you who walk around

with the external signs of LIFE

but inside have gone to sleep long ago

.

“What kind of death is this for a god?” you ask

For you need drama to give your gods worth

A cross…an assassination…at least a gathering of devotees

While I need nothing

Not a mission…

Not a meaning…

Not even you…

To make my LIFE abundant and FULL

.

And so you color me blue

And take the pieces of me that you like…for Truth

Modify the pieces you don’t like…as allegory

And throw away the pieces you can’t justify…as myth

And you pretend to see the full puzzle of Who I Am

.

I have but one request to make of you:

TAKE ME OFF OF YOUR ALTAR

Krishna’s hand or feet or face

Is not Krishna

For in pieces I am not WHOLE

And in pieces I am of no use

there are already plenty of piecemeal gods

that will happily accept your worship

helping remind you of what you are not

.

I only want to reside on your altar

When you accept ALL of me

and ALL of yourself

And not just the snapshots that are easy for you to look upon

Or the ones that fit nicely into the design of your altar

your mission or plan

.

Then maybe I will remind you not of what you lack

But what you contain

Not of what needs to be removed

But what needs to be embraced

Then maybe you will finally see in my WHOLENESS

Not something you can never be

But something which you already are

.

“He accepts life in all its facets, in all its climates and colors. He alone does not choose; he accepts life unconditionally. He does not shut love; being a man he does not run away from women. As one who has known and experienced God, he alone does not turn his face from war. He is full of love and compassion, and yet he has the courage to accept and fight a war. His heart is utterly non-violent, yet he plunges into the fire and fury of violence when it becomes unavoidable. He accepts the nectar, and yet is not afraid of poison.”

—Osho from Krisha: The Man And His Philosophy (p. 7)

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 7:06 pm and is filed under Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.