In the Bardo of the Jaws of Death
There are many ways to pass from this world,
From silence to violence,
The inevitability of transformation embraces equally,
But the expression of the transition depends entirely on the path thus far.
Love and craving, freedom and fixation: relationship is everything,
Because everything is relationship.
But Death itself is peaceful.
Possibility expands to fill the in-between.
In every heart, a heaven and hell
When the shell finally shatters,
Fears are faced in fractured mirrors
As memories scatter like flowers.
Haunts and wants, prayers and regrets, shiver and shimmer and fade away.
In the Bardo of the Jaws of Death,
Dissolution is measured, layered,
An inexorable peeling away of elemental familiarity.
Earth into Fire into Water into Air into Space,
The constructed self dissolves like mist in the morning sun,
Evasion is unlikely. Defenses fail. Momentum prevails.
The continuity of karma assures a fixed and fated if faithful unfolding.
The reflexive response of fear does the rest.
Only Grace and Wisdom can intervene, but this has always been the case.
Choice is still possible at this point.
But most never reach out. Most never even know how.
Many things must still be understood
After understanding is no longer available:
That creation is incessant,
That solitude is impossible,
That emptiness is seething fullness,
And time an empty notion,
That thoughts are mere expression,
Like waves amid the Ocean,
That Life is its own meaning,
And Bliss is just the subtle kiss of this all-consuming fire.
Preparation is essential.
Release must be relearned.
Grasping-and-rejecting run neuron deep,
All pain comes from trying to hold onto movement-and-change,
But it is all just movement-and-change,
The magical display of Awareness.
Resistance is absurd and impossible.
Nothing is really happening.
Essence remains immutable.
Recognition is liberation.
All reactivity simply spins the Wheel.
Release the final contraction.