The Valley Walks Alone

There is a valley to cross
From a mountain of experience
Perception
And feeling
Where green promises calm
Yet with each step
The gradual death of your former self
Reveals anger in the parchment of the desert
The walk into nothingness
Stripped of all learning
In a maddening realization
That you cannot go back

You cannot start anew
With hope
And inspiration
From endless possibility
Instead you must reject earthly things
And the dream walking of delusion
And the bondage
By vines of material pursuits wrapped around your ego

The desired state
To speak and walk
In a way unaffected by the past
Begins at the brink of rage
As frustration with limitation
And human deficiency
Consumes your mind
A state of liberation
Becomes one of rejection
Of everything you know
And love
For nothing
You have touched
Can remain as it was

As you turn to see the mountain of your former life
It has vanished
All that is left is the hurt you are causing to others
Who feel your rejection
In your search for peace
Who feel pain
In your search for freedom
Who feel lost
In your search for direction

As they are drawn to you
You are repelled
Their weaknesses are made known to you
And you become resentful of their presence
For they represent the symptom
Of human folly
And meaninglessness

Like a decision to touch the bottom
You have gone too far
You cannot return
There is nothing to do but continue
Until you have become useless to all
Except your own mind
It is the one thing that remains
And it is crying
Crying for nourishment
And love
For it knows of nothing else
Except the desire
To be a pure spirit
In the state of birth
Where a familiar feeling emerges
Pain
Except this time
You are the mother
And the father
And the son

Which spirit remains to take the place of your former life?

Now is the time
The search ends
And the living begins