All You Can Eat — A Buffet of Silence

All You Can Eat — A Buffet of Silence

In the world’s vast buffet of offerings—

Māyā, Īśvara, ignorance, knowledge,

student, teacher, retreat, reflection—

all are served upon the table of Brahman.

The wise begin with the appetizer

called Meditation:

a taste of silence before the feast of life.

I make an appointment

with my own self for contentment.

I am not running away from life;

I return to myself.

In the marketplace of the

Eternal Whole Foods

an ancient soap is still sold:

Om Namah Śivāya!

It cleans the mind’s inside,

washes the thicket of likes and dislikes,

extinguishes the forest fire of desire,

dissolves the vast ocean of notions.

I sit upright, eyes gently closed.

I externalize the secret invaders,

retain only love and care.

I let go of frozen needs,

allow caregivers simply to be.

I clear the hardened plaque of the heart

with the stent of contemplation.

Now, the flow of life is smooth.

As though I have a life,

as though I am a wife,

as though I bear children,

as though I love and cling,

as though I go to work,

as though I clear the murk.

The richness of inner life

is counted in moments of silence.

I grow in meditation

to be one who needs the least.

I paint the chambers of the heart orange,

strive for the six-pack of the Vedānta gym,

graduate from ritual to mantra,

transcend from form to formless.

Also served in the buffet is kaṣāya,

a thick, viscous, not-so-tasty sludge:

the unconscious with unresolved

pains, tears, and fears.

I activate Soft Sākṣī Mode (SSM),

re-parent the inner children,

witness them dispassionately,

watch them compassionately.

The vegan diet of nididhyāsanam

refuses projection at the individual level,

eliminates ignorance at the collective level,

Īśvarizes the whole universe, near and dear.

It resolves the inner duality with mantra—

for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The feast ends with dessert:

the rich pūrṇa of the modak.

The one sweetness manifests as many,

yet emerges as the nourished inner self—

appreciative, compassionate, contented,

non-complaining, non-judgmental,

unattached, unlimited, boundless joy.

The All-You-Can-Eat Buffet of Silence.

I am sat, existence.

I am cit, awareness.

I am ānanda, boundless joy.

Fulfilled, needing nothing more.

Om Namah Śivāya!