Dis-grace and Sunlight

A poem, a prayer, and a cruel invitation offered with love

You who say nothing,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who smirk in the face of suffering,
you dis-grace yourselves

You who smirk in the face of honesty and bravery,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who refuse the accurate words,
you dis-grace yourselves

You who spread lies despite abundant evidence of the truth,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who teach wisdom, but fear the sword-like precision of wisdom,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who eventually learn, but never acknowledge those you have previously harmed,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who bend for the money,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who mistake domination for power,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who wave the banner of solidarity just to be seen,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who are oppressed, but revel in assuming the role of the oppressor,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who refuse to interrogate your assumptions and beliefs,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who reject your own clear seeing for fear of loss,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who forge spiritual teachings into armor,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who choose safety and comfort over allowing yourself to be moved,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You whose compassion is merely studied gestures and words,
you dis-grace yourselves

You who continuously swallow the poison of superiority,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who treat everyone as a competitor,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who pursue the destruction of beauty,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who don’t ask questions for fear the answers will transform you,
you dis-grace yourselves.

You who long for intimacy, but tolerate only the familiarity of dominion,
you dis-grace yourselves.

Grace is the great intimacy and the great devotion revealing the primordial worship of all beings and things.

Dis-gracing ourselves, we abandon communion. We turn away from whatever we call God.

Times of cataclysmic cruelty and destructions call us to superior clarity, honesty, and the demolishing of the limitations of the heart.

Ignoring and scorning others, we become objects of self-scorn, even if only as unacknowledged uneasiness.

Refusing the evidence of circumstances and the great doubt that leads to revelation, we live in perpetual, anxious uncertainty about ourselves and the path.

Have mercy on yourself and meet the fierce cruelty of this moment with the equally fierce resolve to receive its wisdom, whatever the cost.

The sun is the scion of the light of wisdom.

The sun is called cruel because it illuminates with unsparing brilliance.

Let’s use this time to bravely turn toward whatever suns grace us with their cruel light.

with infinite love,
Shambhavi

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