In Reality Transparency

Commentary on Poem 5 of Dawn If I were to say of myself that I am a God I would be lying knowingly. But if I were to say of myself that I am God The Truth of its Existence would be spoken Transparent in the rhythm of speech. In this poem, I follow an internal dialogue with two elements of the non-dual ontology that I accept as my own: one I owe to the Upanishad, the other to a luminous Sufi, Bistami. "Asatoma, Sat gamaya" ("From the unreal, lead me to the Real") I say with the Upanishad. The "lie" is not just a moral falsehood that leads others to err in relation to states of things, but a game of reactive will and an expression, even in the shadow of ignorance and inertia, of the force of love. The first two verses, "If I were to say of myself that I am a God / I would be lying knowingly," connect directly with the yearning of the Rishi who chanted "Asatoma, Sat gamaya." It is a yearning for Reality that, while accepting the limitation...