Maps

Maps and Beyond - Journeying from Here to Here

a poem by Ellen Davis

Maps

Ahhh, this experience

as me, we, all;

self, soul, essence,

vibrates into expression

bridging time with eternity,

the dual with the nondual;

a probability potentiating lila

breathing as multiplicity;

as infinite diversity;

a boundless emergent

birthing languages,

maps to re member

invitations within each appearance

as that which is prior to the finite

comes to know itself

through all conditions

unconditionally

~

In Eternity:

~

You see a map?

The traces of our footprints

traveled along mysteries' path;

a map to mystery

where what is known

is trust in now,

in our breath,

letting ourselves as kaleidoscope

be breathed into life;

letting ourselves as eternity

be breathed into time.

You see a map?

The future calling us

to where we have yet to travel

yet have been all along;

where we see that

we have been letting

ourselves as time

breathe ourselves into eternity.

You see a map?

The past calling us

to retrace our steps

again and again

with a new light,

a new awareness,

where past meets future

giving birth to now,

where now gives birth

to past and future;

to eternity

and the awareness of what

has always already been.

These words may appear simple

when viewed where

origin and destination are one;

complex, where they cannot be

found within each other.

Yet, where non-relative awareness

breathes into the relative

form embodies the formless and

time and materiality

take on a new substance.

~

In time:

~

The map is my heart as it becomes ours;

our heart as it becomes mine.

It is love reaching for itself

through myriad appearances.

The map is your soul's song quickening my breath;

my soul's song expanding my heart.

The map is your presence beckoning me towards you;

your absence moving me away.

The map is following beauty’s inspiration,

revealing that within which sees it.

The map is form communing with formless;

formless remembering itself in form.

The map is black and white inspiring us towards gray;

gray inspiring us towards black and white.

The map is my heart beat as it entrains with others’;

our heart beats as they find their own rhythms.

The map is following your footprints

showing me where beauty has passed;

and walking as beautifully as I can

in case you follow mine.

The map is seeing the beloved

behind every pair of eyes;

and finding what

from behind my eyes

sees the beloved in others.

The map is unity embracing diversity;

diversity remembering its unity.

The map is our joy leading us to where we are …

~

The map can be wherever we look to find it.

If it is how we translate understanding and cognition,

it can be found within everything.

It is a blueprint of truth hidden (or exposed) within every illusion.

It is this moment perceived as it informs the next

or what happens when we look backwards

and create a guide from what we find.

It is the music as it inspires our movement.

It is your call inspiring my response.

It is love as it breathes life ....

~~~

A Story of Suffering Illumined:

We see the Play that danced us here:

A language forming map maker ecstatically forgetting itself

then lost in the particularities of its own productions

Each step a placation of insecurities with the unknown

Exsanguinating its evidence

Sucking breath from our bone

A munificence of imagination

Formulating disguised reifications

Burrowing their deep in our soil

Each containing the DNA of their origination

Clues, a to ‘n fro back ‘n forth,

A funhouse mirror of the architect

Circling the tails of our own constructions

Carving roads on the topography of life’s soul

What maps are calling to be unearthed now?

The map of ever deeper listening

With compassion

to our breath,

our bodies,

our souls

The map where destiny is the heart;

the heart that knows its oneness with all;

where we listen to each other

as other faces of ourselves;

to all of life

as diverse faces of God

The map that kisses our tenderness

creating cultures

of intimacy

that bear witness

hold each other

in our grief and with our loss;

in our soulful celebration;

that create space …

even for unorthodox vision

The map that points us from and to the sacred

where the heart brings us to our knees

in awe and deep surrender to its mysteries –

where the known and unknown

disappear their distinctions

Unearth the map of Integrity

and it’s fierce ally Truth!

The map of unlearning

that shines light on

pre-conceptions

and the beliefs

that lead from and to

fear and tension,

division,

lack of self-trust

The map of our wise elders,

textured by time and experience

sourced by eternity;

of our indigenous leaders

hearts beating

one with our planet

The map of our ancestors’ voices

through our grandchildren’s

grandchildren’s bodies

in connection with our body the earth

for what it takes to thrive

Unearth the map of noticing

the consilience of our health and humanity’s survival

with the living systems and organs of our earth

and the systems of our ways

of being and working together

The map of stillness

as it leads to inspiration;

movement as it leads to stillness

The map of listening to the impulse

the gut

the pause

the Creative Will,

The map of listening

to what notices this listening

The map of embrace

of welcome

of Yes to now

of what knows no fear

that would create a division

or other … wise

The map from and to what recognizes these

Unearth the map that deeply asks

“Who am I?”

That flexibly shifts

our starting point

from the me

to the We

to the All

without losing sight of any;

where we can hear and speak

a new language arising between us;

the map of interbeing

that illuminates

the narrow and isolated fields

of our habitual anthropocentrism

where we can know

our inextricable connection,

our interdependence with all of life

The map showing us our relationship

with the earth, its elements,

and all living creatures

with its sun, moon and stars

as they shine upon

the ravages of blind expediency

trancelike gluttonous consumption

dancing their way into melting glaciers

polluted rivers and streams

erosion and degradation of its soil

Deforestation

Unearth the wisdom teachings

of water, earth, air and fire

their dance and play

with each other …

within us …

how they are moved and touched by us

The map of the four leggeds

winged, finned and creepy crawlers

and what they can teach us

as friends and neighbors

who along with the

generous plant kingdom

coral reefs

and sagacious trees

help to sustain us all here

Unearth the caverns of compassion

that are there waiting

underneath the maps of our fears

and sorrow-filled tears

The map to what we find

when awareness wakes up to itself

unveiling the illusions of separation

that live in our bodies as trauma

in our hearts as fear and shut-down

and breed the ignorance behind

our social unrest and criminal justice system;

that perpetuate absence …

the absence

of critical thinking, and

creative and emotional intelligence

that is lived and taught

in our cultures

Unearth the map that tickles play

laughter,

dreams and imagination;

that inspires

vision, invention,

and the courage

to question and let

outgrown monuments die

for re-vision and re-invention

Unearth the map to what we find

when looking from our hearts

at the less advantaged,

and what we can learn

from the differently abled

The map that enlivens our wonder,

encourages living our questions,

trusting our heart-felt answers

yet never parking in rigid belief.

The map that takes on illness and death as teachers;

that can tease a part our denial

from what we sense

of the truth of immortality

Unearth the map that shows us that our outer environment

is a reflection of our inner environment

and vice versa …

and neither …

where distinctions

of outer and inner

blur into laughter

You want to find an interesting map,

a map that leads to unexpected treasures?

Look towards where you would want to turn away

Look at the last place you think it would be

Look for the medicine inside the wound;

To where your heartbreak leads you

Look for the story and conditions

of the perpetrator behind the perpetrator;

the victimizer of the victimizer,

the judge that sentenced you,

that taught you

to sentence yourself

and others.

Look not at the crime makers

nor racists as cause

but the totality of conditions

networks of connections

and disconnections

that constellate them,

label them

further isolate them from life,

scarring them and ourselves

creating cartographies of confabulation

metastasized belief

that continue to perpetuate the same reality

Look compassionately

at how we have made

ignorance, falsehood

and their proponents

into our delusions

by dividing against them,

fighting them,

trying to oust them

as if they are real.

Let the delusions unravel

by resting as the light that shines upon them

Look at the cultures that punish us for losing our way

rather than support us to find and live it.

Look inside the impulse for revenge

Look at the systems and structures

we have built;

their disconnection

from the ecologies

of our hearts, spirits, bodies,

from our beloved body the earth

Find the ground in groundlessness

Feel the aliveness of disorientation

Let yourself grow roots in the cracks that you fear falling in

Let yourself become compost

for an old now and a new beginning

Create an altar for the shadows that you don’t yet see;

Light a candle in your heart

welcoming insight and a place

for what you have been blind to

orphaned or exiled

to come home

A suggestion from one who has traveled:

For those that reach high,

find a map

where each step of your journey

holds the elements

of your dreamed for destination;

where each teacher,

and at the very least

your inner teacher

embody those aspirations.

Otherwise,

the map will lead you

on a longer winding road;

a road where “the map is not the territory”

In fact,

throw out your map with destination

and live like a wild one

with ear close to the earth,

wu-wei wings spanning

your soma spirit sky

soul heart on fire

waiting for the music of life’s call

to invite the next moment

of your choreography!

© Ellen Davis, 2003 - revised in 2021

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first image by (c) Ellen Davis, 2022 - photographed with an iPhone 12 pro
second image by (c) Ellen Davis, 2020 - photographed with an iPhone 6