IF . . .

If life is beautiful,

Why is everyone sorrowful.

 

If everyone is not sorrowful,

But happy,

Then why is everyone searching for happiness.

 

Why would a happy man

Search for happiness.

 

If prescriptions worked

Why is everyone still doing them.

 

If churches and temples

And priests and pundits

Provide access to god,

Why is everyone

Still searching for god.

 

Everyone is doing everything.

And they are doing it

To get everything.

 

But if doing everything

For years and years and years

Has not gotten them what they are looking for

Why are they still doing it.

 

They may say that they are doing it

Because they haven’t yet gotten it.

But could it be

That they haven’t gotten it

Because the thing they are doing

Does not work.

 

If repetition gives one what he wants,

Why has it not come

Despite so many repetitions.

 

How many more things

Are there to follow

And to practice.

 

Have they all been exhausted yet.

Or are there still more practices to do.

 

If a thing works,

Why hasn’t it worked

Despite decades of doing it.

 

There is no sense

In attempting to force yourself to believe

That you have been duped

For your entire life.

 

Because that may be

A difficult thing

For you to stomach.

 

If you are a reasonable person

Why have you not looked at your life

In a reasonable manner.

 

Maybe you are reasonable.

Maybe you are unreasonable.

Neither is evil.

 

If you have intelligence

Why have you not seriously

Thought about the things you have followed

And forced upon yourself

In this life.

 

How much intelligence does it take

To know that a thing hasn’t worked.

 

Maybe you are intelligent.

Maybe you are not.

Neither is shameful.

 

Should you stop

Doing what you are doing.

 

You may

If you wish.

 

But just stopping

Will unlikely do anything different

Than starting.

 

Reasonable,

Logical,

Successful,

And intelligent people

Are duped all their lives.

 

Because the concepts,

Ideals,

Notions,

Prescriptions,

Practices,

Rituals,

Books,

Media,

Guru’s,

Coaches,

Instructors,

Spiritualists,

Self-help-ists

Are too ubiquitous,

Too pervasive,

Too omnipresent

To ignore.

 

One imbibes such things

Without even knowing

That he is imbibing them.

 

They are the only thing

That exist in the world.

 

So he imbibes them.

 

These infections

Seep into his liver,

His spleen,

His bones,

His brain,

His intestines,

His arteries and veins.

 

And he becomes a walking,

Talking,

Automaton and mimicker,

Spouting all that he has imbibed.

 

If he wants what he wants,

But these things have not given it to him,

Why does he continue to do them.

 

If he does not enjoy lies,

Why does he not seek

The Truth.

 

Namaste.