Sunday, December 29, 2013

The Book You Had Always Wanted to Write

Edward Burne-Jones - Arthur in Avalon
There comes a time when you realize that you are the book you had always wanted to write.

That doesn't mean it's a masterpiece, necessarily; just that it is the one you so desperately needed to write. The one that had been pounding on the walls of your own ignorance for so long, pleading to be free. The one that shook the bars of its cage, crying out that it had learned its lessons, and that further incarceration would serve no purposeful end. Yes, that book. The book of your life.

It is in circulation now. Available from the Library of Babel (which is adjacent to the Palace of Mirrors). This book is organized into sections and chapters. It is illustrated, it is footnoted, and perhaps most important, it is indexed and cross-referenced. Oh yes, and self-published, of course.

And this book-that-you-are randomly opens to pages that somehow speak rare truths to the hidden moments. Leafing through the dog-eared, marked-up pages of this book, held as it in your psyche, you realize that it has two great themes.

One of these two great themes is the healing power of love, but there's a plot twist; it's not the love that others' offer that heals you, it is your love of them and of this life itself that heals you - from the inside out. The other great theme is clarity of mind. What do I mean by clarity of mind? Can you remain motionless, inside a house on fire, as the flames consume all that is not truly you. That's what meditation really is. What do I mean by clarity of mind? If you knew that everything and everyone you ever loved would be turned inside out in front of you, would you still choose to love? Yes?

Well, this is how such books come to be. Written in blood, on pages of desire. Bound with breath, and stitched with conscience. Yes, this book. The book of your life.

-- Richard Power

My new (ninth) book User's Guide to Human Incarnation, The Yoga of Primal Reality is available now from Amazon.com.