Tag Archives: enlightenment

Shadows

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And in the realm of thought,
fables pool beneath the peaks
like shadows, and the way we see ourselves,
and the way we see others,
seems to be defined by them –
they rest, weighty, on the north sides,
they cover more than half of us

And I imagine
pulling the plug of my perception,
letting the darkness
drain out like water,
I imagine us all redefined  –
what seemed intractable
suddenly shown to never have been here at all,
our innocence newly illumined,
our brightness refreshing us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 2, 2023

Recognition

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Be astonished at what you find
in far-flung reaches of your mind –
more than difference,
what surprises
is recognition

What you were sure of
will surely topple,
and you will have
no will to stop it
as your eyes find
the hidden topic
and substance is revealed

So you’re inducted into the secret,
no mystery to those who seek it,
and when it’s time,
you, too, will speak it –
harmony of Mind.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 5, 2023

On brilliance

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Thinking that I’m so smart
(however justified the evidence appears)
has never gained me anything but pain

Please let me never
do that again –
I’m so sorry
for the stupidity it led me to,
blind as a slab, such broad miscalculations
in the shadow of my ego

Let me rather
attend to the brightness
of everyone else. Let my brilliance be comprised
of seeing them aright
and thus supporting
the dawn of shared enlightenment,
with each of us
contributing our own essential rays.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 11, 2022

Quest

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I venture once again
into the place of silence
where the quest is mine alone,
and much as I might want
to talk about it, it really
has nothing to do with what I think
or what another may advise

It really has nothing to do
with making sense of things,
for I am called to go beyond sense
to where the indelible touch
has left an opening

Having felt it once
I am equipped to notice
every breath of wind across its surface,
I am impelled to meet it
and find the way in.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 27, 2022

Daily

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I’m learning not to pine for
the big enlightenment,
the grand moment
when all illusion is stripped away

Instead I practice gratitude
for each new place
where I can be struck with love,
each small blindness from which
I can be enlightened

For there are so many!
Maybe even enough to last a lifetime  –
daily bursts of waking up
just a little bit,
daily bright joy for my new small glimpses
of infinite Truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 1, 2022

Redeeming Innocence

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I am here to redeem innocence.
Here to bring it out
from the infantile privilege
that has no notion of the cruelty exacted
on others to insure its rosy ease

Here to redeem it from the blind belief
that dutifully obeys, does what it’s told,
and thinks, thereby, to claim the promised joy

I am here to bring innocence through
the layers of separation
from the earth,
from honest work,
from the instinctive universal kinship
concealed by lies for far too long

To place innocence where it belongs,
where we are not guilty
of blindness or manipulation,
of willful ignorance or shallow bliss,
where we are neither duped nor dastardly,
where knowing all the truth has set us free.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 24, 2021

Alignment

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You can feel how
the veil is thinning,
how the images we thought were things
are shown to be refractions,
how what seemed so huge and daunting
fades away like shadows with the dawn

You can feel how
the walls are thinning,
how what we thought were cosmic separations
are like honeycomb, each sweet compartment
sealed off from the next,
but serving the same purpose,
holding the same treasure

And it shows
the power of thought  – how one correction,
if clear, and held with courage,
changes everything  – aligning all the purposes,
recruiting all the catalysts,
toppling regimes that need to cease,
establishing the principle of peace.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 18, 2021

Day Advances

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See how the colors brighten
as fog lifts, as frost melts,
the first reveal the most brilliant
with momentary wetness adding contrast –
one form of beauty
resolving to another,
the mystic mist to radiant clarity,
just like the daily presentation
of all the gifts we’re given,
just like the wondrous path
from earth to heaven.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 23, 2020

Revelation

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Here where we’re all trying
to find the point of clarity
where understanding crests the moment
like rays of dawn

Here where we’re trying
to find that one focus
that burns through all the layers
of middling plausibility
to be the one imperative
defining us

Here we will receive
the incremental wage
that comes from steady effort.
Imperceptibly, our views will clear
until at last we notice
we’re no longer waiting
for that brilliant flash —
we’ll find ourselves here
already gently pooled in light.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 5, 2018

Awakening

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walking1

We have walked in these bodies
unaware of what we are
and what our power is,
and yet, somehow,
we’re not entirely surprised —
We rise into this knowing
like coming home,
recognition welling in our eyes

This is when time fades out
like stars before dawn
and the brightness of each one of us
outshines our former forms,
And the narrow, bumpy trails
we thought of as our lives
recede in the expansive view
of this terrain

The sparks between us
may seem random and erratic,
but as they multiply,
the structure of the web starts to appear,
intricate, enchanting and stupendous,
astonishing and yet profoundly clear —
the life which we are starting to remember,
the endless joy of being here.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 18, 2015

photo by Edward Mulhern