No Inner Baggage

Many people don't realize until they are on
their deathbed and everything external falls
away that no thing ever had anything to do
with who they are. In the proximity of death,
the whole concept of ownership stands
revealed as ultimately meaningless.

In the last moments of their life, they then
also realize that while they were looking
throughout their lives for a more complete
sense of self, what they were really looking for,
their Being, had actually always already
been there, but had been largely obscured by
their identification with things, which
ultimately means identification with their mind.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit," Jesus said, "for
theirs will be the kingdom of heaven.
''What does "poor in spirit" mean? No inner
baggage, no identifications. Not with
things, nor with any mental concepts that
have a sense of self in them.

And what is the "kingdom of heaven"? The simple
but profound joy of Being that
is there when you let go of identifications and so become "poor in spirit."

Eckhart Tolle -- A New Earth

Forgive the Dream

All your images of winter

I see against your sky.

I understand the wounds

That have not healed in you.

They exist

Because God and love

Have yet to become real enough

To allow you to forgive

The dream.

You still listen to an old alley song

That brings your body pain;

Now chain your ears

To His pacing drum and flute.

Fix your eyes upon

The maginficent arch of His brow

That supports

And allows this universe to expand.

Your hands, feet, and heart are wise

And want to know the warmth

Of a Perfect One's circle.

A true saint

Is an earth in eternal sping.

Inside the veins of a petal

On a blooming redbud tree

Are hidden worlds

Where Hafiz sometimes

Resides.

I will spread

A Persian carpet there

Woven with light.

We can drink wine

From a gourd I hollowed

And dried on the roof of my house.

I will bring bread I have kneaded

That contains my own

Divine genes

And cheese from a calf I raised.

My love for your Master is such

You can just lean back

And I will feed you

This truth:

Your wounds of love can only heal

When you can forgive

This dream.

~ Hafiz from "The Gift" translations by Daniel Ladinsky

Don't forget to forgive the dreamer, too...