Precis

 

Of a kind with all things living,

Man is of both

The flesh that sustains him and

The spirit that animates him.

Setting man apart and

Making him fully human, is

His awareness that

This is the case – that

He is both flesh and spirit

By birthright.

Deep in their hearts,

All men hear my whisperings, and

As clearly and as loudly

As one hears my voice,

To that extent is he

Ruled by spirit and

To that extent does

His desire for me

Determine the path of his life.

Alive to the flesh but

Dead to the spirit,

They that deny me

Are no less my children.

Estranged through the

Conditions and experiences –

The dispositions – of their lives,

Their spirits remain undefiled,

Returning, as do all,

To me in the end.

--- *** ---

Hearing me from a distance,

My devotee comes to me by addition;

Believing me outside himself,

My devotee gives me a name, and

In naming me, pushes me away.

In the suffering of his isolation,

My devotee offers me his prayers and

Living a life pleasing to me

Secures his place in my eternity.

Hearing me not from a distance but

From within his own heart,

The renunciant is aware that

He IS not –

That Self is of the flesh and

Has no true being.

All that his mind thinks and

All that his hands create are

For this moment only and, like Self,

Have no true being.

Aware that I can be seen in this life

Only by subtraction,

The renunciant uproots Self and

Shuns all things temporal.

Detached from the world of the flesh and

The burdens of both heart and mind,

The renunciant grows

In love and in Charity, in

Undifferentiated and eternal

Spirit only.

--- *** ---

Hearing but denying my voice,

Hearing my voice but softly, or

Hearing my voice as a deafening roar,

All men walk the paths

Determined by their dispositions.

All men – non-believers, devotees, renunciants –

All men alike return, in the end,

To whence they came,

Their bodies returning to earth, and

Their spirits returning to me,

Untouched,

Unchanged,

Unblemished.

Perfect.