Saturday, January 16, 2010

The elephant in the room


There's an elephant in the room
We know there is

Too solid to miss
Yet missed anyways

This one doesn't trumpet
Does not need to make noise

It doesn't even move
It is very still

It isn't grey or brown
It has no color

We try to feel its shape
but it has no boundary

We walk about the room
holding our hands out

It is everywhere we touch,
this strange elephant

So we get a clever idea
We try to push it away

We push and we push
Then a curious thing happens

The elephant allows the pushing
It offers no fight!

So we feel kind of silly
But it doesn't stop there

The elephant surrounds
every hand that is pushing

Wait - the elephant is
every hand that is pushing

It is every hand
that's pushing itself away!

It is so so vast
It is the room itself

No - the building, the road
the earth, the sky
the universe, outer space ...
everything everywhere....

This elephant is not vast
It is vastness itself

Boy we are sure
this is no ordinary elephant

Heck we can see
this is no elephant at all!

What is it, what is it
we frantically ask

This 'thing' that is here
but cannot be named

This thing that is solid
but cannot be touched?

And then the final touch
The absolute masterstroke

This' thing' is not separate
from the me who is asking

This 'thing' is myself
asking itself what I am!!

This 'thing' is I
I am this 'thing'! :)

The vastness can come
in limited form too

The elephant in the room
that non-elephant 'thing'
is an elephant too
after all!

Truth, you know,
is stranger than fiction :)

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