XXIII

Enlightenment’s dawn has kissed your brow, yet the journey continues on familiar ground. You return to daily life here and now

with a secret treasure within you found. The market, the street, the workplace, the home- all appear the same, yet with glory crowned.

For behind every face, you see the dome of the eternal light that you touched in trance. In each stranger, a friend; no longer alone.

Your vision penetrates the surface dance: beyond the shifting personalities that appear, you perceive the same One life in every glance.

How gentle your heart becomes, free of fear. The practice you honed, you keep it still, but now it is effortless, natural, clear.

Dying each day is as simple as will- like breathing out at night and in at dawn. You flow through the cycle with masterful skill.

No longer wrestling with doubt withdrawn, you let go and awaken with equal ease. The discipline is now joy foregone.

Each sunset brings peace, each dawn a release; you live in rhythm with cosmic heartbeat. What once was effort is now sweet surcease.

Others sense something in you complete- a calm assurance, a luminescent grace. They come to you for counsel in defeat

or solace in sorrow etched on their face. You listen with compassion deep as the sea, for you know every pain will yield to this pace

of death and rebirth. You might gently decree to them the wisdom of yielding and rising. Some understand and join this path with glee.

Yet you wear your enlightenment without advertising; humble, as a farmer tends fields at dawn. In the small tasks of life you find surprising

beauty. Washing dishes, you feel the bond of water’s cycle; planting seeds, you sing of life from decay in the soil beyond.

The journey inward has changed everything, but outwardly you move through the world the same- chopping wood, carrying water, hearing birds fling

their melodies at dusk; only now you claim no separation from these simple truths. You live fully present, devoid of shame

or worry. You have become as sleuths of spirit-finding the divine in the mundane. Each day’s ritual now a fountain of youth,

renewing your wonder again and again. In returning to earth with heaven in heart, you embody the teaching in form humane.

Your life itself has become sacred art- an illustration to others by just being. You are the message, not separate apart.

Midst the ordinary, you stand agreeing with all that is, at peace and whole, dying and living daily, truly seeing.