One or Two

I received a message on my answering machine that told me that if I truly believed the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Poonja-ji, and some of the other beautiful beings that existed, then I would not separate myself from the Beloved: “All the teachings say that we are one. If you are one and the same with the Beloved, then you can’t speak about the Beloved or to the Beloved because you are one. You can’t make any differentiations if you are one and the same. Thus, by making a differentiation, you are implying that you have not reached the place of oneness. And that being the case, you don’t understand oneness.”

There is a part of me that agrees with this comment and says, “Yes, I should give these things up and not speak to the Beloved as if the Beloved were somebody else.” This thing about being one is true. We are one. We can’t be two. Everything that exists comes from an underlying oneness. In That everything is one.

But within the oneness there are facets; and there is something in me that says, “If I feel like I want to speak with a Beloved as something outside of me, then I will do it.” So I don’t know what is right or what is not right.

The appearance can be given that if we don’t make any distinctions or any separations, then we have reached oneness ourselves. Therefore everything is finished. We are enlightened. We are in oneness.

But then there is no more appreciation left.

I guess we are supposed to be in a state where that’s fine. But I think awe disappears and we start getting colder. We start to get nonchalant and much more detached. Then nothing matters about anything.

That’s exactly how I felt for many years. Then something inside of me said, “Yes, even though we have oneness, this human form has to give respect and thanks to something that I call the Beloved. This form wants to love that something that we cannot talk about.”

Something in us longs to thank

and to be in love with That!

So I guess this is a deviation from the so-called purity of some of the teachings.

It’s easy to take one side in all these things. To take one side of something and to say this is the side. But there are many sides. It’s like a beautiful diamond with many facets. What makes the diamond so brilliant is all the different facets. One facet alone doesn’t make it bright. It’s the reflections of all the facets that make the whole thing brilliant.

DUALITY’S BEAUTY

Across the street I see jacaranda trees

their purple glory fallen away,

barren between bloom and leaf,

a thousand naked limbs reaching for the sky

doubled against a mirrored wall.

A familiar wetness slips my eye

and with cool finger traces the contour of my cheek

as I am overcome with joy and a longing

to melt into oneness with such Beauty.

So the Beloved replied:

Oh, my beloved, don’t ever think that raising your head

out of the sea of oneness and saying ‘I’

is anything less than a holy event.

Why do you spit upon the face of ‘I?’

To declare ‘I’ is a miracle of consciousness,

a deliberate thrust of the Beloved

to burst apart and become two

thus becoming both

explorer and the explored, seer and seen,

knower and known, lover and the beloved.

Don’t ever think that seeing Beauty

is less than being Beauty.

Don’t forget in your love for the Oneness

that Duality is Its sacred child.

Duality is the blessed consciousness

by which I come to know

how splendid I am against a mirrored wall.

Shivakti

THE BELOVED’S INVITATION

See me … touch me … know me.

Don’t hold me to a higher purpose aloof and apart

There is no purpose higher.

Hear me … taste me … smell me.

I have laid myself before you in infinite array.

Why do you wait to partake?

Feel me … sense me.

Let me see who I am

through your eyes.

Come, my love,

I have poured the wine and called forth the music.

With trembling breath I await your embrace.

Let us dance this time together.

Know me … love me … aum.

Shivakti