SNOWMAN SAMADHI

I stand on the rock of who I am, knowing I am solid 

in my position by the strong shadow I cast for all to see.

I project that shadow onto the rocks around me

as the light of rising truth moves through my days.

I ask the Great Spirit to help me find peace in my soul.

The answer comes – your soul is always at peace,

all that is required is to know and remove what you hide from yourself,

the persistent passions blocking your way in knowing this peace.

This answer leaves me with cold comfort

for the thing that gives me pleasure is the thing that gives me pain,

the thing that gives me meaning is the thing that gives me torment,

the thing so a part of me, of my nature, is the thing I must let go of.

I find there is good reason to hide such inner turmoil and strife.

But good reasons are the excuses of this world, 

a world of frigid fire and burning ice,

a world not made for fervent idealized states 

of imagined fulfillment and glory.

The Spirit’s answer is clear 

as the deepening sky spread out above me.

Every day the light of truth passes over me,

reminding me of the things I hide from myself.

I awake to find the rock and I are two separate things.

In fact, I stand on something that is not me.

The rock and I both have a shadow

but that does not make us equal or the same.

I do not stand on the rock of who I am.

I stand on the rock of something else, wholly other,

something dense and heavy enough to squash me.

I must not attach to the rock of who I am

for who I am is not who I have come to believe in.

The sun cautions me, I am not like the rocks.

My cares and troubles, my pleasures and pain

and all the meaning I project through my shadow,

everything one day will soon be gone.

The moving pattern of the daily light ever reminds me, 

I am only here a short while. 

The light of warming truth cannot be denied.

In time it will melt away what I think is me.

I will pass from the rock of who I presume I am

like snow becoming grateful tears, 

swiftly evaporating into skies clear of form,

an anointed place where the Great Spirit 

will welcome me home,

home to the peace in my soul.