A Woman’s Waking

I think women and men
"Wake up" 
From different types
Of pilgrimages
All the teachers, the gurus
The prophets 
Are men for men

The rituals, the books
A labyrinth of pointings
Are needed
To untie the knots
Of the well established "me"
Of a socialized male

Women, are less indoctrinated
With a false self
Less entitled
No God, president, guru
Or ruler made in her image
Less heros to immulate
Less striving to be "more"
We already sit near the center
Of the labyrinth 
Feeling, sensing
Listening to
Her heartbeat

Yet, driven by a longing
To move closer to love
And away from the suffering
That we all feel when away
From our heart-home
I walked that labyrinth
From the inside out
Following his teachings
Instead of my heart
And they took me 
Farther from home
Adding and subtracting
Stuff from my thinking mind
Keeping it busy

But I missed the pulse
Of Her

My new Zen no-self 
Longed for the love of Rumi
My empty mind
Longed for the heart
The linear path
Morphed into a vertical path
And I burrowed deep
Into the loamy darkness
Of my soul
I woke up at the center
Of the labyrinth
No traveling
No studying 
No mansplaining needed
I was home

Looking back
I see that I had to 
Drape myself in identity
To recognize the freedom
Of being naked
To follow a man's footsteps
To find my separate truth
To busy the mind
With dualistic thoughts
To see the oneness
That was with me since birth

Self melts into no-self
Melts into everything
A thousand times a day

I am home. 
Again.

bjbeyers

Art: Lisa Aisato