Thoughts Arise

It’s like emerging into the eye of a storm; a sudden calm after the deafening roar. I walk seemingly dazed, my eyes staring into the distance, focused on nothing in particular. People stream past me in a haze as my feet carry me forward without the need for direction. I feel a high that cannot be described in terms of happiness or pleasure. It is an euphoric clarity of thought, a complete cleansing of desire. It is not a trance; I am fully conscious, rooted firmly to this world. I am no yogi; to me the cleansing of desire comes only after its fulfillment. An indulgence that invokes things in me that are incomparably purer than the superficial existence of normal life. Its aftertaste is bittersweet, but still as welcome as the sharp feeling of pain in fingers recovering from the numbness of cold. I finally find myself in that state; ready to accept the truth that I've been avoiding; the nature of life. That this is it, this is all there is to it.

I am a lake, many fathoms deep. My shores lie beyond what eyes can see. I am a man on a boat; its bow marking the extent of my world. I remember nothing of before, yet it is too cruel to imagine that this is all my existence has ever been. I yearn to escape my wooden boundaries. I am a lake, many fathoms deep. I lie placid, my surface untouched. I peer down into the waters on which I float. I see a man inside! No; it is my perturbed mind toying with me; it is but my own reflection. I try to reach out and touch his hand; the man shatters into ripples. Was he just an illusion or was he truly me; a shallow reflection on the surface of something more profound. I am a lake, many fathoms deep. A ripple runs through me.