Repose - Fred LaMotte

...your body and mind
are only very small creatures swimming in the vast
un-created waters of your Self,
who was awake in its own radiance
before the worlds were made.

Indeed, your Self shines through your body.
Your Self shines through your mind.
Your Self shines through the Moon and Sun.
Your Self pervades the stars and the space beyond
the stars.

The body grows old and dies.
The mind dissolves each moment.
But the Self is a continuum that neither comes nor goes,
neither sleeps nor awakens,
changeless and eternal
to every being, more intimate than "I" to "Am."
The Self does not think, feel, or perceive,
but witnesses the thought, feelings and perceptions
that arise and subside in the depths of your stillness,
like clouds in the blue sky.
Motionless yet moving all creation,
silent yet inspiring all harmony,
the Self is beyond birth and death,
beyond happiness and sorrow,
beyond light and darkness.
The Self is pure bliss.
Therefore repose
in the infinitesimal bindhu
at the core of your heart
between the out-breath and in-breath.
There you will enter the dwelling
of the eternal Self
who outshines the universe.
In that space you have no enemy, no fear, no blame,
neither past nor future,
for in that space the earth is created afresh with each inhalation.
Whether you name the Self
Bodhichitta, Christ Consciousness, Shiva, or Guru
makes no difference at all.
What matters is just resting here
as you gaze into the eyes of The Beloved,
even when The Beloved takes the form of a stranger
or an enemy.

This gaze is the victory.
This gaze is the healing.
This gaze is peace.
And to see through the eyes of the heart
is to see your Self in every Thou.
Now, friend, it is time
to stop looking for that place
and start looking from that place.
Truly, the Self is pure bliss.

Fred LaMotte