Meaning is Being

If I reach for it

I can take it

Pleasure I want to grasp

But if I grab it

I regret it

Stuck in pain’s aftermath

Money won’t buy me happiness

Even if I dock my yacht nearby

A life of wealth and flashiness

Won’t stop death’s sudden goodbye

Rocked to sleep in the arms of desire

Only to sink deeper into attachment’s nightmare

If I take and steal my fortune

I may break and die of exhaustion

Unknowing that I’ve been neglectful of

The giving of living the true meaning of love

I may acquire and save vast treasure

But still expire craving past pleasure

A clinging upbringing

Skews a worldview

Being taught at the beginning

To own the best view

It’s giving that gives meaning

Not taking and selfish dreaming

Giving love to oneself and love to all

Befriending all hearts, forgiving their faults

Opening beyond what we thought we knew

Un-centering my part to be whole and breakthrough

The loneliness of separateness

The rigidness of fearfulness

The cold-heartedness of meanness

The solipsism of narcissism

The isolationism of protectionism

The egotism of perfectionism

The dank reductionism of rank racism

Let’s cast that aside, uncross our third eyes

Find peace to abide in, love to synchronize

When we relinquish, unloose, release, and let go

We extinguish, diffuse, our greedy I’s, then we know

That it’s all about stopping, quitting, and halting hubris

Dropping and aborting any struggle to improve this

But when we’re in the murk in a muddle in the dark we’re befuddled

But in the middle, with no jiggle, shines the brilliance of stillness

At the core in the center of thought’s cacophony cyclone

There’s a door that we enter where no pathologies are enthroned

Finding harmony in clarity and emptiness in eternity

Is nothing, sweet nothing, nothing else compares

To an infinity of empathy that’s calm, coherent, and aware

In mystical timeless multi-dimensionality

Ringing in lyrical silence in concurrent universality

Consciousness that’s anonymous

With clairvoyance in commonness

Overflowing in the freedom of no escape

Facing the vile while embracing limitless space

No boundaries no mind no mindscape

No memories no time no blind faith

Just listening to symphonies so sublime

While glistening epiphanies sing rhythm and rhyme

Synchronicity thrives in simplicity

Authenticity survives in vulnerability

We tune in to the out-breath and are zero

Lucidity in equanimity

Availability to serendipity

We find peace in the death of the ego

– Colin Farish

Love's Reservoir

If we fix and cheat our consciousness

with tricks and treats of acquisitiveness

we poison and break our sweet, lonely hearts

When we deny the truth

as a battle cry for a coup

we choose to destroy and not create

we endorse ignorance and embrace hate

white grievance exceptionalism

thinks freedom's torch needs blood to burn

brown, black, yellow, red, and Jew

everyone else's blood but you?

don't give dark thoughts room to swarm

insect clouds blast from blowhard's bullhorns

obscuring our clear sky of open mind

With toxic plots that knot en masse 

that darken our days with flash-bangs and tear gas

they blot out the sun, blinding our gaze, 

with widespread dread from inbred lies 

spoon-fed trumped up meant to colonize 

forked tongues that muddle our head

clashing smashing into deadly bloodshed

the banality of mendacity breeds

misled hotheads seeing red 

they lose the thread of what's sound and true

they misconstrue according to

their misleaders and deluders

in samsaric Deja-vu'

be still, and chill, with the skill of neither pushing nor pulling

ambushing or bullying

let all the mud settle and sink back into the slew

all the belligerent ignorance inside me and you  

unburden your vision un-blot and undo

our pernicious blindness with all its hullabaloo 

let our spirits shine kindness 

with the goodness we once knew 

let the spacious infinity of gracious serenity

surround and unbound our confusion and woe

no more obsequious supplicants 

and devious truculent(s)

vowing to pay homage to some bozo

let that go before we all go extinct

quit being a sucker, duped and hoodwinked

regroup and see we're all the same 

don't be fooled by a corrupt con game

behind all the noise of obstructionist demagogues

and reductionist ideologues 

with their contortionist lapdogs

is the dissolution of duality 

with all its pollution and brutality

let's keep vigilance for the menace of divisiveness

the illusion of separateness 

creates confusion in desperateness

way upstream at our root core and essence

we merge, fuse and meld

in conscious luminescence

all beings in all times

many limbs from the same tree

nerve-endings and sock puppets

of an infinite intelligent mystery

a musical resonance of limitless blessedness 

irrespective of

our shapes, forms, and colors yet heard of

we are music, sweet music, the music of love

all beings in all times

panoramic consciousness

in dynamic mindfulness

vast hearts with vast minds

conjoined entangled, enmeshed, and entwined,

expansive, wholistic, artistic and kind

open-hearted and ready to listen to each other 

our soul sisters and soul brothers

and all creatures on earth mother

in the fullness of being

timeless in silence,

insight lights up minds like stars

an unceasing fountain

from love's reservoir

– Colin Farish

Living In Love

You look into my heart
Like you’ve known me before
You know my rhythms
You see my yearnings, 
You understand my depths
Better than I 
In the clear mirror
Of your open eyes
Your love flows

Through me
And grows inside me
In my still quiet places
Like swollen seeds in the darkness
Sprouting towards the light
Uncurling, unfurling, and stretching 
Out of the mud of opinions
Into the infinite sky of open minds
From the sacred earth of our loving hearts
Our roots drink from crystal springs of kindness
Our flowers blossom in dazzling suns of compassion
Our souls sing harmony with all bodies and minds
Unclouded, unfixed, and limitless,

Can we see without being seers?
Love without being lovers?
Uncenter ourselves from ourselves?
Tune our heartstrings to the key of gratitude?
So in this moment, 
With this breath, 
We can be 
Free in life 
To live in love
With death

– Colin Farish

Infinity's Wholeness

I’ve planted my fair share of selfish seeds

That grew into a karmic tangle

I confused my wants with my basic needs

Until my dharmic spirit felt strangled

But when I stopped, the thought-mud

settled down and cleared the air

The grasping silt sank and the masking clouds cleared

Visibility became boundlessness

An indescribable view without a viewer

Indefinable and new, uncovered without a pursuer

Our shared essential nature is the most ordinary blessing

Where our potential is much greater than whatever we’re possessing

To do whatsoever is necessary

For whomsoever is in need

To be a forever emissary

Together planting seeds

Of stillness and compassion

With such clearness we can’t imagine

Where forgiveness can just happen

If what’s within us gets examined

Let’s quit pretending to be split

And start befriending our inner critic

Who can be an insufferable tyrant,

Or a supportive disciple

If we stay vulnerable and silent

Without distortion or denial

With a light touch attention is present

A gentle hush comprehension is transparent

Then our centerless source of clarity is boundless space

Tenderness dissolves false identities in groundless grace

What a relief to finally cease and desist

No more beliefs, only peace, and nothing to resist

A deceiving squint of our ego in time

Can no longer convince our lidless third-eye

That sees, without a seer, into unbroken emptiness

That can be, now and here, in open receptiveness

Quiet calm and resting in completeness suchness wholeness

Unbiased aplomb nesting in the sweetness of kindness’s closeness

Enfolded dimensions reveal and ask us

To remove our blindfolds that conceal this vastness

The observer is the observed

The subject/object duality once hellish is moot

When we nurture and persevere,

And don’t neglect reality for selfish pursuits

Why trade away sacred repose?

In loving service for every being?

Why be betrayed by the hatred of those?

Who would hurt us with misattributed meaning?

For fleeting phantoms of a fictitious future

Competing tantrums from ambitious suitors

Choosing the chooser of banal misconception

What a confusing abuser installed in perception!

The gentleness of lovingkindness compassion

Morphs and transfigures undoes and unfastens

All clinging and attachment to the misery of separateness

By bringing our fragments back into infinity’s wholeness

– Colin Farish

For Melissa

Your body spurs my passions

Your mind affirms my attraction

Long bronze hair frames deep brown eyes

That are faithfully fair, profound, and wise

Fast to smile, praising everyone’s worth

Relaxed yet wild, staying rooted in the earth

You dig in the dirt to pull out the pests

From a sprig of past hurt to a full bush of regret

To make space for our hearts to open and uncover

Forsaken grace unbroken to discover

Your kinship mirror is here

In a timeless nexus

Where all splits disappear

In clear light that shall bless us

Your flowering blossoms thrive

Planted in blood rot they bloom long

Empowering awesome and alive

Sown in mud clots they grew strong

Your lotus of loving kindness freely shares

Immanence with every being

You’ve shown us love’s brightness really cares

With your transcendent beauty and inspiring meaning

Your life is a love song honoring ancient spirits

Played on sky strings and garden drums

A bouquet of souls waits patient to hear it

When lightening dances in your thunder heart

I am grateful, your beloved, your dear friend

Your silent sentinel of sacred sustenance

Wakefully hugging you till our years end

In our vibrant dimensional co-created multiverse

– Colin Farish

Empty Into Wisdom

Adding is knowledge

Releasing is wisdom

A mirror reflects but never sees itself

What appears is just an illusion

Parallel mirrors together will see

An infinity beyond mind’s confusion

Caring for the mirror of relationship

In both darkness and clear light

The dissolution of illusion comes

With no clinging, fight, or fright

If we know to look in, we see

We listen and move towards the thunder

We don’t get hooked by dreams,

Opposition, or selfish blunders

We abandon, relinquish, unhand, and let go

We snip all the strings of our marionette show

Revealing an infinite kaleidoscope view

When the you as you know you is hopeless and through

May your “I” die right now, into One, from time’s two

Say goodbye and be done, there’s no ‘how’ to undo

Leap to the stars in one giant stride

Drawn to the nearest far quiet side

Instead of adding information

To ambition that’s never complete

That you guard in a crumbling tower

With avarice for power heavy with conceit

Empty each breath every second

Of all arrogance, pride, and deceit

Make space for an upwelling of wisdom

One cup swelling and then some

Isolation from grace is perception’s mistake

Compassion is where we all come from

An unbounded mountain of beneficence

An inexhaustible fountain of intelligence

Suspending all limiting preferences

Revealing unfathomable concurrences

Coherence and kindness flow in waves of love

Unimaginably blessed, cared for, and loved

Uncover your transparent omniscience

Rediscover your inherent percipience

Acquiring more will update mind’s prism

But crowd your dreams with misused knowledge

Releasing it all makes space for true wisdom

That finds meaning in embracing all wonder and love

– Colin Farish

Blossoming Mindfully

Let us gather to re-member this moment

Without a viewer

Not scatter or dis-member time

Into past and future

A fragmented mind is like a skipping turntable

It’s narrow, repeating, discordant, and unstable

Remove the sack of assumptions

That crowds your head with racket

That blinds your vision with overfed opinions

With little room to unpack it

Let all rise and fall in wonder and awe

Be in tranquil meditation

Cling to nothing in thought let all judgements dissolve

Untangle identification 

Let mind’s sky clear into infinite space

Let fear disappear of inexhaustible grace

We can’t change the past, but we can certainly heal it

By tuning into this moment our presence reveals it

Vibrating harmoniously, we ripple concurrently

Birthing potentials from stillness coherently

An effortless release of whatever’s holding us back

Obscuring our perception with disinformation attack

We don’t need to know where we’ve been to see where to go

When we’re present within, our responses just flow

From compassion and kindness that fountains endlessly

With gratitude and love we blossom mindfully

– Colin Farish

Beautiful Way

With the energy we’re saving

By minimizing craving

We increase intelligence

Dispelling ignorance

By dissolving our arrogance

With precise questions

Absent aggression

Thought sludge sinks

Heavy views

Of what we thought we knew

Depressurize and shrink

In the spacious infinity

Of audacious serenity

Illusory subjectivity,

That mendacious duality,

Of persona’s insularity

Ceases to reify, then ossify

Far better to inspire and simplify,

Sanctify and revivify

With un-fixated mind in non-located time

There’s jubilant gratitude

With an exuberant multitude!

Ego’s distraction

Is unskillful action

Distorted abstraction

In knee-jerk reaction

Trivialized absurdities

Emphasized externalities

Indulging incoherent eccentricities

Is unconscionable irresponsibility

The nowness of breath

Is vainglory’s death

In desire’s demise

Craving’s downsized

In expansive magnificence

Of silence’s beneficence

Discursiveness acquiesces

In centerless quietness

In luminous consciousness

The wave is the ocean once more

Harmony in motion is restored

Compassionate wisdom,

Clear Light through a prism

Fills full hearts and bright minds,

Unblinking eyes that shine

In open cloudless skies we synchronize

Our lucid intentions, with consonant emotions

Revealing spontaneous inventions

In concurrent dimensions

Cojoined by strands of attention

Ecstatic comprehension

We deep dive into stillness

Beyond light and darkness

Or pain and pleasureless-ness

Or Joy and sadness

Or death and aliveness

Or dullness and fullness

Until all is nothing

Tremendous ordinary nothingness

And nothing is all

Oh, it’s nothing really,

Really nothing at all

In the gob smacked eternity of tranquility

We release undo and let go of dichotomy

There’s nothing to tempt me

When there’s plenty of empty

In the boundlessness of impermanence

There’s transcendence of otherness

This inseparable oneness is limitless bliss

Sentience at play

In love’s exceedingly meaningful

Beautiful way

– Colin Farish