IṢA: The Present and Approaching Lord / Joshua Alan Sturgill
The Lord of Heaven will be clothed with Earth
and all that lives will be His adornment.
Therefore, glean at the edges of the world’s feast
and do not wish for the wealth which commoners seek.
Working steadily at simplicity,
each moment gains a hundred years.
Freedom is labor in cooperation with the Lord.
All around you are the lost spirits
feasting on nothing, in rooms of enticing darkness.
But the Lord’s Spirit leads the Sane Man upward
along abandoned passageways, into the open sky.
The minds of commoners are empty and grasping.
But the Spirit is already complete, already holding.
In stillness the Spirit moves everything.
To the Beyond-Being Ocean, the Spirit draws all good deeds:
Beyond action and stillness;
Beyond created and uncreated;
Beyond ahead and behind;
Beyond thought and emotion.
Do you wish, O Sane Man, to live beyond fear?
Hide all beings in your self, your self in all beings.
When the Sane Man becomes no one nowhere,
what ignorance or distress can ever find him?
Where is the place without the Spirit’s Light?
The dark rooms are known to Him;
Even those in empty ignorance
He guides along the passageways of Eternity.
Chasing your desires, you fall into darkness.
Chasing your wisdom, you fall into deeper darkness.
But the Sane Man knows darkness, because he knows his self.
The Sane Man explains all things of the Spirit.
The Sane Man does not cling to desire
and by desire he conquers death.
The Sane Man does not cling to knowledge
and by knowledge he enters life.
Chasing what is nearby, you fall into darkness.
Chasing what is far above, you fall into deeper darkness.
The low and the high alike lead away from light,
as the Sane Man understands.
The Sane Man does not cling to things,
and by things he conquers death.
The Sane Man does not cling to ideas,
and by ideas he enters life.
Truth’s face is hidden and revealed
within a golden circle. Pray thus:
Unveil yourself to me, O Lord!
Lord of Light, reveal yourself to those who love truth!
O Sun and Moon, stars of heaven,
enlighten and do not blind me;
help me find the hidden Spirit
— the Spirit within you is my own Spirit.
May all things return to their rightful place:
the body to earth, and the soul to life.
O my soul, practice recollection of the eternal things!
O my soul, practice recollection of the eternal things!
God, You enlighten by the Light which You are.
Lead me along the passageways You alone can go
and deliver my soul from the rooms of enticing darkness.
By these requests which do not arise from my own desires,
do I not offer You, O Lord, prayer and adoration?
All poetry and supplementary material: copyright 2024 by Joshua Alan Sturgill. All rights reserved.
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