the traditional means for experiencing serenity,
is to find it in nature's, or create it as your own
physical refuge and haven, perhaps as a home.
This is not what i seek, even though
i do want to create my own serene place
in the woods somewhere near where i serve.
But that is not! what i'm after
when i speak of understanding
and living serenity.
I want a serenity
that is not dependent
on surroundings, a serenity
that i can assume
in the midst of turmoil,
or inactivity. I want an inner serenity
that is as full and as powerful
as rapture and ecstacy.
I want the serenity
of a dam which contains
an immense resevoir of power,
but only lets it out gently,
harnessing it, and releasing it
in spurts of tender brilliance
matched to whoever is nearby.
The serenity
of unquestionable strength and security.
While thoughts and feelings are flooding me
like a river threatening to leave its banks
and tear through the countryside on rampage
to making fertile soil the ocean's bottom,
i want to just raise my walls and sprout out
aqueducts that take it
only to where there's a desire
to use it constructively.
For me the Tao seems to speak in this direction
So i suspect that i might use it to find where
the Baha'i Writings support the same concepts
and expose the upper rationales for its practice.
***
Someone told me that the Tao is too weak!
That it is watered down and tasteless
Not like the meaty entrees
to which they are accustomed
but i say:
Nay! It's not! and Far From It!
The Tao is a feast in a pill
Boiled down, concentrated
into a tiny lozenge,
just add water
and it swells
to fill
whatever table
it rests upon.
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