There is no Need 

There’s no need to surround yourself with luxury

to treat yourself to the best of everything

metallic fridges and designer bags  

the colours of the season, the car of the year

to show others that you're special.

You don’t need daily doses of good news

to lift your mood when you feel glum.

You don't need compliments or presents

or flirtatious smiles across the room

to keep you happy with yourself 

or hourly fixes of pleasure 

to set your brain cells jingling.

There’s no need to cover up the silence

with the chatter of radio and TVs.

There’s no need to fill the empty space

with jobs that don't need doing

or words that have no meaning

or tasks that have no purpose

except to fill the empty space.

You only need to meet yourself

to let the discord within you fade away  

and find the stillness underneath

the place where you're already whole  

where there is no need to seek or strive

because there is no need.

The Core

It can take a whole lifetime to become yourself —

years of feeling adrift and alone

acting a role you were never meant to play

stammering in a language you weren’t meant to speak

wearing clothes that don’t fit

trying to pass yourself off as normal

but always feeling clumsy and unnatural

like a stranger pretending to be at home

knowing that everyone can sense your strangeness

and resents you because they know you don’t belong.

But slowly, through years of exploration

you see landmarks that you somehow recognize

hear vague whispers that seem to make sense

strangely familiar words, as if you had spoken them yourself

and ideas that resonate deep down, as if you already knew them.

And slowly, your confidence grows 

and you walk faster, sensing the right direction 

feeling the magnetic pull of home.

And now you begin to excavate,

to peel away the layers of conditioning

to shed the skins of your flimsy, false self

to discard those habits and desires which you absorbed

until you reach the solid rock beneath

the shining molten core of you.

And now there’s no more uncertainty —

your path is clear, your course is fixed.

This bedrock of your being is so firm and stable

that there’s no need for acceptance 

no fear of exclusion or ridicule.

Everything you do is right and true

deep and whole with authenticity.

But don’t stop. This is only the halfway point —

maybe even just the beginning.

Once you’ve reached the core,

keep exploring, but more subtly

keep excavating, but more delicately

and you’ll keep unearthing new layers, finding new depths

until you reach the point which is no point

where the core dissolves

and the solid rock melts like ice

and the self loses its boundary

and expands to encompass the whole.

A self even stronger and more true

because it’s no self at all.

A self you had to find

so that you could lose it.