MIND BEFORE MATTER
 

for Larry Dossey

As long as I’m alive, I’ve consciousness,
Yet when I die, my mind becomes inert;
Alive I can both flourish and progress,
But dead I am no different than the dirt.

So what is mind and how does it arise,
And when I die, where does it disappear?
Or have we simply failed to realize
That mind, that consciousness, is always here?

Indeed, there’s nothing other than One Mind:
That out of Universal Consciousness
All latent objectivity’s defined,
A motive no dead matter can express.

     One Mind abides throughout the universe,
     Whence all things first emerge, thence reimmerse.

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