IN ART

When most I please myself, I give the most
To others, having least impulse to boast;
Thus selfishness in art is charity,
Where humbleness and pride reach parity.

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MY EGO IS

The mote I note in other people’s eyes,
The beam I overlook within my own,
That self I magnify and idolize
Which my true heavenly essence would disown.

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COLLABORATION

Here in this sanctuary of the night
I wake and rise, then sit, compose and write,
For only here and now may I draw near
That secret solitude where thoughts appear.

The night is still, my mind grows keenly calm,
The fragrance of the tea I sip’s a balm
Wafting me to a height of consciousness
Where sound and sense and image coalesce.

This spell I enter lasts an hour or two,
A rapture out of which comes something new
Produced by fusing intellect with air,
The stuff of thought inspired, refined, made rare.

I cannot help but feel that self and soul
Collaborate to shape what here is whole.

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MY EGO AND I

My ego is the self I seem to be,
But I’m the rider; ego is my horse,
The one you see. (I’m cloaked in mystery
And represent connection to our Source.)

I cannot go about without my horse,
Which I must train and handle mindfully,
For left alone it’s prone to stray off course,
Yet proper discipline can set it free.

Another paradox is when it’s strong,
My ego has the courage to be meek,
Though when it’s weak it does the gravest wrong,
Believing that it’s separate and unique.

What ego needs to learn before it’s done
Is that essentially we are all One.

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THE MYSTERIOUS SHAKESPEARE

It’s only fitting that Shakespeare remains
Unknown, a man whose ego disappeared
Into his characters, which best explains
Why he, above all bards, is so revered.

Somehow, he early on attained a state
Of consciousness transcending self-regard,
Allowing him to see how human fate
Is ego’s deed, by which we’re made and marred.

We live within illusions of our making,
Spellbound by curses we ourselves have cast,
Though sometimes by our suffering awaking
To freedom and enlightenment at last.

That Shakespeare knew how ego blinds us all
Is all we need to know—and then recall.

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THIS WAY, PERHAPS

Most times my mind is foggy, overcast
With temporal concerns, and nearly blind
To what’s beyond this inner sky: a vast
And spacious consciousness all unconfined.

Such cosmic consciousness now underlies
My secular obsessions and delusions,
And like the morning sun may well arise
To scatter all my foolish night’s confusions.

It may arise spontaneously if I’m
So blessed by grace beyond my own control,
A function not of reason but of rhyme,
Arising not from intellect but soul.

Still, though, I hope to find a surer way
To waken my dim consciousness to day.

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THE STATE OF THE WORLD

My Dear Children,

It’s time I had a talk with all of you, from heart to heart.

As you know, I generally prefer to keep my distance and let you run your own affairs. Now and then in your history, I’ve sent a messenger to one or another of you to clarify what I had in mind when I ignited the spark of life on your precious planet.

I think you must realize, deep in your hearts, that you’ve strayed far off the course I had intended for you as your species evolved, beyond the instinctual directives that guide all other animals, to your present level of intelligent consciousness. Many of you seem to have forgotten what this game is all about: freely finding your own way back home to me, the Light of Love that generated you, and freely choosing to reflect my light within your lives.

Only unto you, of all my Earthly creatures, have I granted the freedom to choose goodness and eschew evil, to live in the circle of light or to turn darkward, away from love—to be winners and not sinners.

However, many of you have forgotten or misunderstood or ignored the glory of this game you’re playing, for when you have learned, by trials and errors of your own, that there’s but one true way to play—the way of love, of care, of kindness and cooperation for the common good—then you will have realized the wondrous purpose of this Cosmos you inhabit, which is to manifest my love.

Thus much I have instructed you before, by those you’ve heralded as saints and sages through the ages. And to your credit, many and many a human being has heard and heeded my perennial summoning to love.

But now, when your native inventiveness has yielded you the perilous power to annihilate all life on Earth, I thought it fit to talk to you directly, each and all, in words you cannot fail to understand.

And so much have I done now. I have reminded you you’re playing a game, an infinite game, not one with winners and losers, such as you’ve invented for yourselves. This is a game of hide and seek, and finding is its goal. It is a game of growing and glowing, becoming brighter as you go, while darker is an option to avoid.

And yet you’ve grown much darker lately, dangerously so, and that is why I am addressing you just now. Your freedom is your own; I’ll not deprive you of it and spoil our glorious game. I do not ask you blindly to believe in what I’m saying, but simply to consult what’s seeded in your heart, for there I’ve planted what you need to map your course and help each other find your way back home—to me.

Know too that when you walk the Way of Love, you are already home, since heaven’s kingdom rests within your heart.

—Al A. Luya

1 April 2008

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