Choices
You never asked to
give, nor I to take.
These, our forced cattle
branding at birth.
The advantage was mine.
Wrapped in silken, milky skin,
blur of a glowing world,
my everything.
Next to your crib they planted
a dagger — your destiny
forever affixed to that surgeon’s
edge, never your own.
Cries from my mouth hushed
by the nipple, yours by
syringe, a cold mother
leaving you naked.
Now a grown man, I take
the wheel and drive to your
cell, your home, the land
around your neck.
— © Rick Baldwin
Sandal Dust
You are the fourth nail
dull, twisted and corroded
piercing the watery heart
pushing through the spine
splintering the wood
delivering the poison like
a Golgotha adder
dancing on the stone and
kicking the crown
Your rituals are performed in
robes dragging the ground
The work of your hands betray
you like a whore bride
The children starve while
you eat the lamb
and lie with the calf
I never knew you.
— © Rick Baldwin
The Pursuit of Warmth
He pushed the
bent, iron poker
into the coals
the way a man
pushes his words into
a conversation he
knows nothing about.
Mindlessly scooting
the scorching chunks
against each other
like Minnesota Fats at
some volcanic
billiards table.
She placed the
last cigarette
in her lips and lit it
with a strike of
his glare.
Her fingers scraped
the remaining
bite of honey biscuit
breakfast from the
saucer and set it
on her tongue.
“There’s chicken in the
fridge from last night.
I’ll be late again.”
She grabbed her purse
as a cable car passenger
pulls the emergency cord
when going one stop
over.
He clutched the
poker like a
handbrake.
The house smelled
of stale smoke
and country ham
just as he imagined his
grandmother’s kitchen
would have smelled
had she lived past
twenty nine.
“Too damn early,”
he thought.
Fireworks splattered
the air when the poker
smashed into the
smoldering stick.
The front door
slammed and his spit
sizzled as it hit
the ash.
— © Rick Baldwin
The Things We Do
The scant, gray room
Where you forced me to live
Me, like a fox
Silken, amber fur
With hungry teeth
I imagined escaping you
That cool, spring morning
In our Swiss train station
Your heels knocking in echo
And I afraid of the machinery
You asked, “Why do we do
The things we do?”
I kissed your nose
Like tasting a hen
I gave my ticket to a boy
He boarded without bags
My gloves felt too tight
Black, like your hair
And smelling of blood
— © Rick Baldwin
Searching for Consciousness, Jesus and My Apple Pencil
Where is Consciousness? Where is Spirit? Where is my Apple Pencil? (Hint: “Right in front of your face, dumbass.”)
Lots of things are right in front of our face and we can’t seem to find them. Spirit? Consciousness? Where the heck are they? In this video, I explore a new way to think of these essential life essences. Try it if you want.
A Piece of Me
There is a risk when using religious terms such as “The Father” or “The Christ” when thinking of or referring to God. It encourages one to imagine God as being simply a part of the whole “me.” “There is ‘me’ and then there is that part of ‘me’ I experience as God, which I call “Christ” or “The Father within.” This makes “me” the main character and “Christ” a secondary character inside of “me.” The reality is, there is only omnipresent God and this pretend character I know of as “me,” an individual expression of omnipresent God.
The Name That Unlocks
The human life is a life of duality. It is what makes us distinctly human. Our spiritual history of “tasting the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” establishes us firmly within that foundation of a life of mental opposites. While it is most likely impossible to escape the dual life, we can, through spiritual vision and intuition, rise above it to sense true Oneness. That is our essential nature after all, and it is only available for us to experience through transcending the human mind and experiencing the spiritual.
Personally, I find the name “God” problematic. Not only is it a “loaded” name (everyone has their own image of their own God and how do you know who means what or what means who??), but it also works to firmly establish us in dual experience. One only needs a name for something to distinguish it from something else and how can there ever be God and something else? If God is infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, there can literally be no “something else.”
Nonetheless, as human beings, it seems we can utilize our dualistic thought as a bridge to Oneness. In fact, outside of pure inspiration or intuition, it is the only method we have of experiencing that Oneness. In other words, it is indeed possible for thought to lead us to the point of no thought. Or the ego leading us to the moment of ego death. I have personally found that meditating on the word “God” can sometimes take me to an experience of Being beyond the word God. In that case, the name has proved to be a useful pointer.
Sometimes I discover that a particular name for the same “Being” will enhance my own understanding/experience of that Being, more so than another word. For instance, here is a list of words and names I consider to be synonymous:
God
Life
Consciousness
Awareness
Being
Is-ness
Energy
Truth
Tao
Knowing
Experiencing
Christ
Now
I Am
Infinite Invisible
There are other names that can belong on this list and you may have some of your own. Jesus was fond of using “Father” but that isn’t quite ambiguous enough for me so I’ve never been able to use it much. Still, it might work for you. The point is, when thinking about Truth and Being, sometimes it will actually give a greater meaning to what you are meditating on if you switch one name for another. For example, a person who is not particularly religious may find the statement “I am one with God” problematic. However, that person may respond quite well to the statement “I am one with Life” or even “I am one with Energy.” Same meaning, but just by exchanging the name, we might open our individual consciousness more to Truth.
I suggest keeping a “mental storage folder” of synonymous names you can try out when you are having a difficulty connecting with a specific thought about “Being” or “Reality.” You may discover a different combination may be the very key to unlock the door to your understanding.
Morning Coffee Ramble Part 2 – The NOW – Nonduality – Metaphysics
This is a sequel to my last metaphysical ramble video. I had some new insights about the NOW and thought I would share. DO NOT watch this video unless you watch the previous video. It’ll mess you up forever and I don’t want to be responsible for that. You’ve been warned, dude.
If you find this in any way interesting check out my podcast, Apocaleptic. It isn’t really like this but you still might enjoy it.
Morning Coffee Ramble with Rick: Past, Future, the NOW and the Nature of Experience
If you love, crazy, incoherent ramblings, man, this video is for you!
It’s 7am. I’m having coffee. I’ve been pondering these ideas about the past and future, the NOW and the nature of existence and experience. It’s stuff I’ve been thinking about and I wanted to make a recording of it and I’m putting it here. All filmed at an extremely unflattering angle. I’m not sure if it will make sense to anyone but me.
Let me know.
The Peace of Christmas
In the Silence of Being, our true nature is revealed. That Silence is the substance of all appearances; all that can be seen, heard, felt and perceived. In that Silence contains no labels, descriptions or concepts and in it, you are not the names you call yourself or the thoughts you think about yourself. Like the Silence itself, you are boundless, limitless, ageless, timeless.
To celebrate a solitary birth at Christmas time is to completely miss the point. The Christmas season points more to discovery than birth. That which we discover may seem to be born within us but, in reality, its nature is eternal. It has never been born and can never die. It has always been with us, indeed, always been us. We cannot be separated from it because it is the substance of our very being. This is the true message of Christmas.
At this Christmas season, the greatest gift we can give ourselves is the reminder that peace is not something we must wait for, Peace is who we are right now, The greatest gift we can give others is the realization this is the truth about them as well. Over and over, the symbols of Christmas point to the joy of discovering our true nature of Peace. May each of us fully awaken to this truth.