Two Couplets by: Eric Hoffman
I have to ask Infinity
How to manifest in Time,
For I have a personality
But it sure doesn’t feel like mine.
Spontaneously arisen and
Mysteriously ready-made,
I ride the wave of a separate-self sense
For the sake of this evolutionary parade.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I am I
But I am not mine
I am only here
Cuz God had too much free time
Now I am the one
With all of the time
To become a light
Through which God can shine
Knowledge before thought
Is what’s found
When nothing is sought
Wisdom
and…
In order to have clarity,
One must clarify.
This can be done by asking
Who am I?
Once this precious question
Has been discovered,
There is only one more
Thing to be done:
Ask it over and over
Until the many
Merge into One.
By: Eric Hoffman
Is collapse really coming?
Are we running out of the resources
That keep our civilization running?
How will we live
When gasoline is no longer pumping,
When the machines we depend on we can no longer keep humming?
What will life look like
When there is no more value to paper money,
When the tragic irony of modern life no longer seems so funny?
How will we eat
Without depending on the superstructure of agri-business,
When we cannot create chemicals to try to neutralize our environmental mess?
What will we do
When we can no longer rely on a computer,
When we are unable to be a 50-miles-per-day commuter?
How will we stay warm
When the furnace pilot lights go out,
When we are at the mercy of a prolonged and indefinite natural gas drought?
How will we stay cool
When we cannot fire up an air conditioner,
When the pollution they emit makes the ozone layer even thinner?
Will the human species evolve to meet the challenges of the coming era?
Can we create a new lifestyle from the remains of the approaching terror?
It seems certain that the hardships ahead will be severe’
But the courageous and cooperative can help the human race persevere.
With every passing moment the titanic crisis we’ve created draws nearer’
So let us get our acts together before that fatal time is finally here.
By: Eric Hoffman
Already naked
But still trying to hide,
I fearfully perpetuate
A living suicide.
Running away
But really running in place,
I assume false identities
Instead of facing my
Original Face.
Never satisfied
And continually searching
For something better,
I could waste my time seeking
‘One more’ forever.
These are the inborn tendencies
That I must work to overcome,
And when I am finally fully authentic
The first part of my job will be done.
Then I will really be able to create the future
And for all of the right reasons
At all times
In all places
Regardless of changes in weather
Or the turning of the
Seasons.
By: Eric Hoffman
You can make the inquiry
‘Who am I?’
But if you look for an answer
You might be left
High and dry.
Why?
For the simple reason that
Only the question is conceptual,
Whereas the answer is experiential.
When you finally intuit that your nature
And that of the Universe
Are the very same,
You will shockingly discover
That the answer to
The primordial question
Can only be God’s name.
By: Eric Hoffman
There are traditions of wise men,
But the wisdom they embody is ahistorical.
These wise men speak literally about the Divine,
But non-seekers assume their statements to be metaphorical.
Only our heart of hearts
Could believe a sage’s proclamations to be true:
That we can dissolve into the perfection God’s grace,
And become a vehicle in the world
For His love to shine through.
By: Eric Hoffman
Everyone is on a spiritual path,
Sometimes knowingly, and sometimes not,
For way back when,
When emptiness became form,
It began a developmental journey that would not be stopped.
But there can come a time in an individual’s life
When he becomes conscious of this fact,
And when he gains this understanding
He realizes that there is no possibility of going back.
He sees that he must continue on the trail of the spirit,
And that he must expertly navigate its slippery slope,
For if he is not careful
He could slip off the thin ledge of equanimity,
And topple into the deep and dangerous
Canyons of fear and hope.
By: Eric Hoffman
By: Eric Hoffman 9/8/06
Couldn’t care more,
Couldn’t care less,
These seem to be
The paradoxical dispositions
Of the World-Process.
At least there is a paradox
From the angle I see it.
In the future it may be otherwise,
But for now, so be it.
From what I have been told,
There is a formless,
Timeless realm
Where only more and more emptiness unfolds.
A place where there is
No this
And
No that,
A place where there is
Nowhere at all
For mind to put its hat.
A place where there is
No distinction
And
No manifestation,
Only
Pure awareness
And
Causeless elation.
Someday I might find myself
In that place
That is no place at all;
And
How incredible it will be,
To stare into
Vast,
Empty infinity,
Way beyond you and me,
And see as far as the I can see!
“The new poem utilizes several Andrew Cohen -isms:
—>ecstatic compulsion, evolutionary tension, Ego, Authentic Self, Ground of Being.
These words were flying through my mind, so I used them in the poem. I’ve pasted the poem below. Dig it:”
Torchbearer of the Absolute
By: Eric Hoffman
Big Bang,
Emerging from the Ground of Being,
Has produced all worlds,
Both seen and unseen.
Unfolding as light, energy and matter,
Followed by life and consciousness,
Creation has found beautiful ways to
Express its eternally divine essence.
Something new emerged
With the birth of man,
For this is when the dual forces of
Authenticity and contraction began.
The Authentic Self,
Always positive,
Is the conscious, creative aspect of evolution.
Whereas
Ego,
The expression of cosmic inertia,
Is a force of narrow-minded, selfish convolution.
Ever-powerful,
Self-illuminating
And
Totally without fear,
The Authentic Self sometimes feels far away,
But is always nearer than near.
Man experiences the demand to be authentic
As evolutionary tension,
Inspiring him to create new forms
Instead of complacently reaping his
Karmic pension.
Refusing to accept
The compassionate command of such magnitude,
Ego maintains its existence by
Denying self-developmental latitude.
Viewing authentic, ecstatic compulsion
As repulsive,
Ego perpetually acts in ways
That are inelastically compulsive.
Humanity,
The torchbearer of the Absolute,
Has been given a challenge
Of immeasurable proportion:
To recognize our capacity as conscious creatures
And to express our true nature
Without distortion.
Man lives right at the cusp of what is possible,
Free to believe that
“It is not my problem,”
Or to assume an attitude of feeling
Kosmically responsible.
by: Eric Hoffman
Big Mind is Big
And utterly without border,
Whereas in in the Relative World
Creation and Destruction are the order.
However,
In the place where the Ultimate and the Relative converge,
There is an opportunity for man’s penetrating insight to emerge.
To penetrate Big Mind,
Man exerts strength and rests in relaxation.
To penetrate the Relative World,
Man unleashes the power of discrimination.
In Big Mind,
Nothing happening is the norm.
But in the Relative World,
There is a constant, spontaneous arising of form.
If a man truly sees Big Mind,
He will see nothing, clearly.
And if he truly sees the Relative World,
He will see that oil has peaked, or nearly.
Great is a man who can see the two worlds with clarity,
For he who has developed Peak Mind is indeed a rarity.
PS:
-How miraculous it is that nothing has emerged into something, and yet has remained
nothing all along!
-How phenomenal is the human being, who can find that place in himself where
nothingness and somethingness endure forever!
-How weird it is that souls deviated from their heart of hearts and decided to have
a dance with form, only to undergo the process of dancing all the way home!
-How crazy it is that there are an infinite number of finite things, whose nature
under analysis appears to be more like “no-things” thinging!
-How excellent it is that both theism and non-theism are metaphors for the ultimate
Ism that is beyond schism!
-How unbelievable is the awakening of an individual, where the eruption of laughter
and tears are the natural expression of a heart freed of existential tension!
-How excellent are friends who will help you without you even knowing that you are
being helped!