Escape into Chris – Entry 12
Sketch by Chris Al-Aswad
January 2008 – Normal, IL
We can learn by
living in reality
by dispelling illusions
And illusions are desires
forget desires –
Just be – live in the moment
of what you are doing
Otherwise we cheat ourselves
We trade in counterfeit
We never understand truth
We never understand goodness
We ourselves are false
We can only do one thing
to get out of this cycle
of birth and death
And that is to discern what is
true from what is untrue
Real from what is unreal
So for me, greatness
cannot be attained by simply
desiring it.
Awash in the dreamy world of
illusions and ideals
that does not get you to the
thing itself
that does not get you to
greatness
that does not get you to
love.
Greatness must desire you
Love must desire you
Only by renouncing these illusions
by refusing to perpetuate them
By living, in reality.
Reality has its own desires
Reality has its own will
its own push, its own momentum
We have to be aware of
the way things are
before we can transcend them
otherwise we will only have falseness
to adorn ourselves with.
How hard it is to “be in the moment.” I think we need to practice this again and again so that it comes naturally to us, so that we are not pulled away by all the distractions surrounding us. Chris was constantly in search of a way to do this….to be in reality; to be in the here and now, but sometimes it was too boring, uninteresting, mundane and even scary, as it is for many of us, so escape was often the answer.