The desert offers you nothing
and demands everything in return.
The delusory appearance of lifelessness
empties out the senses
in their longing for affirmation of purpose.
“What good am I if there is nothing to see?”
“What will I do if there is nothing to feel?”
“What will i judge if there is nothing to smell?”
“Where will I find joy if there is nothing to taste?”
“What will I think if there is nothing to hear?”
And then a deathening quiet.
stirless
soundless
aridification
conceptless.
Raven floats over gurgling
or were they laughing?
Wind rumbles like a distant train
before forcing ancient dust
down your agape mouth.
the sky drones
and the stones sing
the sages illuminate
and the cacti practice.
Suddenly the empty nothingness that the desert first offered
is luminous with the infinite
unborn
non-regressing
thinkless
suchness.
Just as you reach out to grasp the offering
The desert wind roars ungently through
the ebony, moonless, star-painted, shadow laden night,
scattering stability and haveness
wringing out the mind of any possession
and dashing new realizations on the sandy wash.
Stumbling into the orange and tourquoise dawn
the first despondent thought is
“I have lost everything.”
Raven floats over gurgling
or were they laughing?
Wind rumbles…
