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The Longing
I am dreaming
I am dreaming everything –
and everything which happens to me
happens because I dream it.
My dreams are not always the dreams
which I wish to have –
but they are the dreams
which I choose to have.
They are my dreams,
both good and bad –
for that is my choice
and to imagine that there is no choice
is also a choice.
There is always a choice –
always.
I am longing
I am longing for everything –
although I do not always know
what it is that I long for.
Neither do I need to know –
for not knowing is for me
the most precious longing of all.
This is the longing of my heart’s secrets
and my heart does not tell me everything –
neither would I wish it to
for I will know all these things one day
when I awaken.
Pastel Portrait of Emma © by David Bergen
This is a truly great mystical poem of incredible depth and knowledge. The poem is very direct, almost blunt. Yet words contain so much that volumes many books could be written what the poem is revealing. I feel that the poem touches upon the nature and condition of human experience. The universe including everything we experience is experienced through our consciousness. Eckhart Tolle states that all our experiences, even that of the so called material world, can be summed up into 3 things: thoughts, emotions and feelings, and perceptions. Even the perception of material things can only occur within consciousness. In Advaita Vedanta and in Buddhism, the universe with its infinite multiplicity appears due to Maya or Illusion. However, to state that the world is not real and have that concept as a concept would not be entirely true. Maya is Brahman as the underlying Oneness, reflected as the many. The world appears real but it is more accurate to see it as relatively real, and that there is an underlying Reality that exists within it.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem the one thing that does not change is the "I." "I am dreaming... I wish... I choose..." If what is experienced is a "dream" and therefore not real or ultimately not real, then what is real? The answer lies in the nature of the "I."
I love the line, ".....and to imagine that there is no choice is also a choice." What wonderful and very insightful line.
The second stanza talks of the longing, "a longing for everything." Everything that we desire and want in this human experience is actually an attempt to satisfy this "longing for everything." To become aware of this is an important milestone. For this longing is the longing for the absolute truth. And yet, this truth cannot be simply known as an intellectual concept. It must be realized. The last line of the poem is wonderful:
"This is the longing of my heart’s secrets
and my heart does not tell me everything –
neither would I wish it to
for I will know all these things one day
when I awaken."
The idea of not knowing, and being comfortable with not knowing is a second milestone. This is a realization that we cannot know truth in the process of logic, in a rational way. What is more fundamental than knowing is being. Being is simply awareness. What is the nature of awareness itself, devoid of any object of awareness? The realization must be an experiential form of insight, or an
awakening as it is described in the poem.
This is truly a beautiful and a great mystical poem. Thank you for writing this and sharing this with us!
Beautiful! The painting and the poem.
ReplyDeleteThank you Dorine and Joseph for your warm comments. Joseph, you truly see into the poem and your thoughtful analysis makes it clear that the way in which we also experience these levels of being is what my poem wished to express.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful poem, drawing and blog Emma! I'm overwhelmed. Soo much to read and look at!
ReplyDeleteThank you Vanessa, for your heartfelt comment, and I am so glad that we have connected.
ReplyDeletethis poem makes me want to lie on the grass, late at night, and watch the stars up in the sky. Allowing my body and soul to sink into the mystery and allow.
ReplyDeleteI am right beside you, dear Joss! ♥
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