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Nothing I am ever conscious of is other than consciousness.
The taste of snow melting on the tongue, the bleeding sky at sundown, my lover’s sigh of surrender, the silent glory of my child… Life in its countless guises—human, demonic, and divine—ten thousand variations on the ten thousand things, and yet never for a moment other than consciousness.
The mind is seeking always to become not-mind, and so crafts apparitions such as self and world, seer and seen, mind and not-mind. It crafts past, present, and future, and space with its directions; it fills these with beings, objects, and events. Diving into this whirlwind of phantoms, it loses itself in its own vapors.
And all the while, consciousness abides. It accompanies all movement, yet remains unmoved. It receives all wounds unwounded and lives through every death. It embraces every height and depth without extending. Though older than the world, it is ever born anew.
The mind, frightened of its empty nature, seeks to fill itself with its creations. Or once exhausted by this work, it seeks to return to the rest it has forsaken. Thus, it spirals and tangles up the knots it then untangles. And all the while, consciousness abides.
But empty or full, manic or at rest, the mind never knows anything other than its knowing. The emptiness it flees is the fullness it is seeking. Bidden or not, found or forgotten, one or in ten thousand pieces, consciousness abides.
May we rest as that emptiness full to the brim,
Simeon
“Consciousness does not arise in time; time arises in consciousness.”
— Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Suggested Reading
The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy is especially powerful for seekers who feel that spirituality has been reduced to technique or self-improvement. Coomaraswamy writes with uncompromising clarity about tradition, symbolism, and the sacred foundations of art and culture. His work points beyond belief systems toward a lived participation in truth.
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Thank you Simeon! This is beautiful.
So much in so few and so very beautiful phrases, Simeon -- this is gorgeous. Shared to fb now. Thank you!