Prison

WORDS LIKE LIGHT 

Monday, December 27, 2021

The astonishing truth is that I have been in a prison for most of my life, and I myself  have been the prison warden!

I realized this truth, once again yesterday, as I was walking through the house. Somewhere in the dining room, it instantly came clear to me, like a light suddenly shining, that I have been locking myself up, day after day, for 80 years!

I saw that the jailer has been me, and the jail has been my own beliefs. It was as simple and clear as that. I continued walking slowly around the dining room table, trying to see this revelation as clearly as possible. I said it over and over to myself: 

I have been in prison for 80 years, and the prison has been my own beliefs about the absolute power of matter. I’ve believed that life is basically composed of material ‘stuff’ separated into countless ‘things’, including ‘me’, that are endlessly struggling with each other, causing endless fears, dead-ends, and disasters.   

It seemed so obvious to me as I stood by the window near Delycia’s beautiful flowers: My beliefs about the ultimate power of ‘things’ have kept me in prison for all these years! I have been living, day after day, in a prison of my own making!

      I kept walking slowly around the table, slowly seeing this truth more clearly as I walked. I said it over and over to myself: My beliefs have kept me in prison! Only my beliefs! 

         And slowly I saw this marvelous truth: I can free myself instantly, easily, and always! At any moment, I can walk away from my prison as a totally free man in a totally free and boundless universe!

         I think I must have bounced or danced around the table a few times as I said these words to myself. And I’ve been occasionally bouncing and dancing ever since.  

And here’s a poem I wrote several years ago, on a similar theme …

OPEN DOORS


All the doors are open,
but you don't do
what's so easy to do,
don't walk through the doors
to the wonders that await you,
but you carp and complain
that everything sucks
in this life that you say
holds you prisoner,
while the doors stand open,
all the thousands of them,
all the thoroughly friendly doors
wide open to wonders
you never dreamed of,

and what I don't get
is why you don't
simply turn
and look
and walk through?

Some scenes from the beach, today and yesterday …