staggering in blindness

Staggering in blindness,
We scream from the mountain top, 
“I will dwell here forever!” 
This is pleasure.
We moan and wail deep in the valley,
“Liberate me!” 
This is pain. 

Life is movement ,
Up and down,
Without cessation.

We walk into illusion, 
the mountain top our destination. 
Frantically we search for a path that will lead us to this imaginary place of endless bliss, accomplishment, and permanence. 

Me, the prisoner and the prison guard, 
the wanderer and the enslaved,
the shackled and the freed.

Oh the endless seeking!
Infinitely we search,
pursuing the exit, never to escape.
Failing to see,
vision fills only with blindness,
leading us deeper into illusion,
narrowed perception,
Ignorance. 

There is no destination.
Humanity, a vibrant sea of temporary vibrations,
falsely pursuing solid ground in a universe of oscillating emptiness. 

The ups and downs do not define life. 
Life is found somewhere in the middle, 
in the flow, 
in a space that is always shifting, 
expanding and contracting, 
breathing pulsation. 

This high is the birth place of the next low.

Our destination is not on high or to resign to the bottom. 
Life is found in process, 
in the movement between the poles,
found in acceptance,
the middle.
Resolution of opposites,
The sun that rises must set,
Life promises death,
Possession leads only to loss,
Joy begets sadness,
Freedom is not the opposite of constraint!
Change the only constant,
Life never ceases.

Be aware of the poles, our attachment, and aversion,  
they send us chaotically bouncing back and forth, 
up and down without reference, 
violently thrashing our way through life, 
never escaping reaction. 

Insight is our only hope to find balance and health, 
to see the nature of all life, 
to know the way. 

There is no where to go,
 you are already here.