EMPTY

What remains in pristine timelessness?

Photo by Yuri Antonenko on Unsplash

EMPTY

Without pretense
	empty

Empty of striving
	empty of even gratitude

Empty of trying
	empty of becoming

Empty of I AM anything at all

Empty of teaching
	of others and their stories and
		strivings

Empty of time

The seed has developed, blossomed
	And emptied itself
The seed has done this over and over again
	Started anew
		Now empty

No more rebirth
No need to prove itself
No need even to look
	to further remind itself
		how exhausting all that is
			after All

Empty of The Special

Empty of Service
	of being the One Who Serves

Empty of the need to change
	and the need to rearrange
	the need to fix
		and to heal

Empty of the need to exit the wheel
	What wheel
	Whose wheel
	Whose will
	and Who Cares

Empty of anything
	to be
		other
			than
				IT IS.

Unchanging, eternal
		Stillness

Stillness sans identification
	no need for knowledge
	no need for states
	no need for renunciation
	no need for acquisition

No need to figure it all out
		to understand
		to make sense

No need for Beauty!
	or the need to be loving
	or the idea of compassion
	or the story of bodhisattva
		here to save all beings
			From the wheel

	What wheel?
		Whose wheel?
			and whose will anyway?

Here we stand
	beads on a string
	jewels in the net
	glimmering, flickering
	emanations of Totality

For this one, Eternal Moment
	without conditions
		expectations
		strivings to be or not to be

The sweet purity of Life, It-Self. 

Thank you to the hundreds of people around the globe who participated in the Solstice writing exercise, “An Invitation to Your Unknown Self.” Many people reported feeling lighter as a result. Some shared about feeling waves of grief and release. I also heard, “I was blown away by how many roles I’m playing.” A couple people told me they’re continually adding more roles, identifications, posturings, expectations of behavior to a notepad. They keep popping up, like Whac-A-Moles.

If you haven’t done the exercise, you may check it out here.

An Invitation to Your Unknown Self

On Friday, December 20, I did the exercise myself, offering the pages to our woodstove. Next day, I awakened pre-dawn on the Winter Solstice and lit a single white candle. Then, I sat down by the fire to write the clearest words possible in that pristine energy. These words became “Empty.” I shared it with my non-dual spiritual community at our monthly satsang, hence I’m sharing the audio version with you all, too (above).

Thank you for reading and listening, and a blessed holiday to you, held in all the spacious Emptiness.

Erin Reese