Far away

by Luc Sala
born Dec.13, 1949
Leiden, The Netherlands

22:20 pm

fd 04luc Firedance 2004

Who got the fire in

Who made the dance begin

Who was that liar

Who stole the fire

It was Prometheus

And he’s in all of us

Who dared the mighty Zeus

And gave us fire to use

Who was that Titan

Who traited Gods for Man

It was Prometheus

And he’s in all of us

2003/5

by Luc Sala '95-2004

My poetry in Dutch: Nederlandse gedichten

The following thoughts came to me, travelling all over the world and of course inspired by my friends.

Crying I don't need another prison reminding me of my failures but if we can break down the prisons inside a new day happened just now	Friends Who am I but my friends in me Who are they but the Friend in me. Then what about my enemy? Who is he? Who is she? in me?
Orange Sun Summer Do you feel the universe flex its muscle Do you listen to the skies? Ten Thousand Seals died Cattle perish in Mongolia Rain on Ayer's Rock Crops in Rumania gone Afghanistan suffers extreme drought Hunger for millions in India Do you listen? Do you feel the power grids stressing Nobody seems to notice The newsreader doesn't blink, his prompter roll on Nasdaq rules micro-payment is the new hype the New Economy is the snake oil Bits rule, e-love hypnotizes Internet only gives what you ask for no grace, no mercy And nobody looks up heeds the suns warning sees the dark shadows of time for this or the next cycle twothousand-twelve lurks is this the last call? orange sun summer soccer rules hooligans instead of witches the magic still works however the color is gone we lost heaven wins orange sun summer (about the hot summer of 2000)	Wisdom is not knowing How can it be found in the world How can it not be found in the world How can it be given How can it be received as it is Knowing wants to be free a connection in the soul no separation no knowers, no known just stillness not of the mind but of the heart of hearts the stone one, inscribed by the Gods we meet in others For wisdom is not knowing not knowing is love feeling the truth I am only different as I have not yet learnt to be the same Mannheim 94
Rejection Outside Out of love Out of control Out of self Maybe in touch with the other so deeply imprinted a chance to meet the Dark One who is me too	Incantation to the moon Come out in the light own your darkness own your anger own your sadness own your joy own your reflections show me your soul then speak and be my truth come live and be my love alive, forever young a life, forever new
Doubt Fighting the holy fight loving the holy love tripping the holy trip How can we doubt that there is direction that our guidance is guided that our struggle is worth it even when doubting the holy doubt sinning the holy sin and living the unholy life
Love at arm’s length For those who don't know For those that don't feel For those who are not Them I can love unconditionally	Stillness Is there a place to go, a time to be, a God to see in us Is there a song to sing, a heart to feel, a child to heal in us Being still to listen to the world in us We can hear the echos of the soul, the heart, the child, the song, the God in us
Mount Tamalpais Between me and the mountain only God knows how much I need him The mountain is but another mirror of the same longing equally unable to express itself but in the being, praising out loud, silently. Between me and the mountain only God to enjoy	Wounded Heart God, when I feel different when I feel better when I feel wiser just know that then I need your grace So remind me, that the grass grows and the sun shines and my wounded heart fights dirty
Chief Maybe You like the Indian chief in me his strength, wisdom, posture However, the real task of a chief is to carry, to lead in not leading to be of service so who is it you are longing for inside you are the chief I am just holding the mirror so you can see the thousand faces of yourself in me	Long Trips When the car becomes a cell a moving prison or a monastery we have but two choices a trance hibernation warm and safe feeling at home or being in the moment alert and engaging feeling in the world both can lead to insight and liberate the soul to do its service work on the mind and sometimes on the body
Icy Roads It's not the ice that worries me it's the un-complacency the sudden danger the unexpected bends the surprising changes like moving snow, the sun in my face a frightening intrusion into my trance
	Pride Planning life is like planning love not a game I am even supposed to master Being played is all there is following the cues as far as I can hear them Grace is to see joy and pride and bliss in that.
Missing the point What a stupid thing to do To contract a love to find the counterpart to our mind's needs to our machine's games to our body's programming not waiting for Heaven's cues What a stupid way to go but do we have a choice we better love the soul look for the flame within But then, the machine is all we have most of the time.
	Aim In stating the goals of life one can make endless list about dreams of happiness and the pursuit of wisdom In the end one is only left with humbleness and the being in soul Nothing exceeds living in the shadow of God's love.
A House Cleaning up, clearing out, burning sage For what, this messy rage A house is not a home until we rest our case. Our soul is not our own until we stop the chase A home is a metaphor, not for the soul, but its uncovering, the finding of the self.
	Change Growing is more and less than change Accept and see and feel the comfort of perfection in the evolving process, taking away the stubling blocks by accepting what is matching our real needs making the enemy inside our dearest friend
Love Life is more than love, but is then love less than life? My answer is that the one cannot be without the other, and both are part of the celestial unity. What was under the stars not a timebound itch of the soul As it was, it is. The now expanded friendship felt as destiny The Friend in us awakened. You, me, there is no goodbye, just the happiness and gratefulness of the now.
	Finding O, God, how far do I have to go to grasp the closeness of your heart in mine How deep do I have to probe and search to feel the perfection of your body in mine How hard do I have to beat the drums before I hear your music in my ears Yet you are in the going, searching and drumming so your grace is with me
Choice To have or to be To make or buy To create or accept To invent or open up to To shift or be shifted The choice seems ours Magus or mystic Earth or heaven Man or angel Who are we to guess the face of God.
	Love's Route The steps on love's ladder don't feel too smooth there is no way of telling how far I have come It isn't even sure whether it goes up to heaven or down to hell I stumble on Will someone please take me by the hand and pretend, even for a short while to know the next step.
Fall The clouds, so full with rain play joyfull with the sun their game of light is not for me but for itself and thus for all of us I watch and feel the tyranny of change so far away, so utterly beyond. Those clouds are maybe just the hands of God his game of light for them and thus for all of me The blue sky is in all of us These clouds of separation are they so different?
	Direction Is there direction or do we just follow the river of life as it runs its course Can we paddle a little or can we just look back and realise the wake of our boat was inevitable anyway It never goes against the current The lesson is, whatever we do we cannot go against the stream
Humbleness People, ideas, inventions aren't they like the strands of a rope what seems new or bright or special is nothing but another twine surfacing each in turn showing itself The connectedness of the rope gives the meaning The spirit flows in all no less in the ones inside All are essential.
	Silence There are inspirations in the mind fruits of the soul waves of the heart too light to be put in words too heavy to escape but for Him to hear to take back what is His.
To die for the light The secret of life is death it has many names it carries many fears it comes in many forms the sacred one is to surrender to lighten the light in dying for it for the secret of death is life
	Simple Give me the grace of simple happiness where the joy of being does not transcend the beauty of the mountain the smile of the flowers and the gentle breeze where the now of love doesn't outgrow the beat of my heart the reach of my hands and the sweetness of finding You in my company
See The meeting of minds bears in itself the fruits of compassion in accepting the other The meeting of souls is love and passion I have yet to learn the distinction.
	Reality We start out accepting then discover our power are tricked into fooling the world and ourselves enjoying the feeling until grace halts us. And if we care to look back we end in accepting.
Heaven This plane or living now is not only the base This life should be the culmination, When the self comes full circle, recognizes and greets its old friends, the mountain that is a mountain again, the man that is man, the I am that I am, the depths of our soul are but shadows of this beauty showing itself in the moment, now.
	Time is a mortal thing I wander seeking the truth in my soul staggering and falling the miracle is always one step away one inner door only leads to the next one the unfolding directedness becomes manifest when looking back, love only admitted in the rear mirror. Is the path really heaven? I wonder, maybe I live the wrong way around
Driven There is no control over what truly matters reality seems flexible the rocks of life, however are hard to move. All I can do is to see them as stepping stones pushing them forth costs more energy and if they move how can we be sure about the mover?
	Smallness If God is infinite without and within the alef alef and the smallest physical uncertainty who is then the fool separating me from Him the wise in me has to learn to play that fool if I want to be beyond the becoming the transfinite ego
Future Lights What holds us in its hands Is future, past and present at a moments notice our light is gone our flame blown out But even then there is hope we hold it in our hearts we can lighten the light from within	Silken elegance I like your ease your silken elegance your soft moves But I love your smell of sweat your stink of fear your body's anger as they remind me of me and the love I hide by all means but comes out through the cracks Amsterdam June '94
The reality temple I am told by many My body is a temple a house for the soul that deserves to be honoured But then the world is also a temple to be honoured and cared for because it houses my soul like a shell	Visualisation Stress Reaching in for the light scanning the inside of the eye the wanderings of the mind to no avail. There is no great inner theatre no grandioso visions this seems not given to me. I feel locked out limited to eye-sight. However, this makes the world outside my heaven. My destiny is shaping it, walking the straight road no straying off to secret dreams. Reality is my thing reaching out for the light
Umpiles Looking down from their unmoving stands Creatures with long lifes and little space not organized and yet structured empires in themselves, tremendous energies slow in the moving, stable in consciousness touching us in timeless moments Mountains are, and planets, humans not, the soul maybe	Share I feel so far away So out of place So dark Hold your words Hold your invitation just share your cold hands maybe they will warm my soul
Please Don't talk Don't think Don't move just go your way anew now Mannheim june '94	Escape There is no way no sun or moonlit path no daylight pass that leads to the escape of self for the self travels with me then why is it so hard to enjoy the journey as it is in such good Company all the way.
Being Home It is not the hectic love It is the melting of your eyes The easy opening of your soul It's when you share your cold hands. And this that other kind of love that you called God in us forever And so you honor me with you being home	7 temples Our journey takes us to many places And there are many temples The double helix of our DNA Our mothers womb Our body Our house The earth The cosmos and then the secret one, the temple we can build inside, the unseen one, arising from our imagination, our dreams, the one that no-one can take away.
	Little Light When you have the gift to accept the energy of others your path will always be lighted
Life The art of living gracefully is not in being at the right time and the right place because we are. The art of living graceously is not in the trying because it is granted.
	Beijing A city too young to live or feel the heat of hell in cleanliness and rigid order divided up by empty spaces and streams of bikes A city too old to die or lose the love of heaven
Lhasa Holiness beyond words or matter The ones high up and those far down share the one path and embrace the symbol All against repression and in the name of freedom. My question remains: What freedom at what price? Happiness beyond ideology or arms has no need for direction.
	Katmandu Coming down to the blue light from the sacred highs the town is embracing full of generous warmth Emerged from the waters of unconscious knowing, there is no order, just friendly acceptance Here the head and the belly meet in peacefull chaos of the heart This is living the God within in the Golden light of the One who sees
Kosmos When tears of happiness are fighting the smile within the moon of my body pushes the sun around me and the Friend speaks. But then, darkness comes loosing the touch, there is the dry sobbing of my soul, alone in an ocean of separation. Frantically trying to be like the water in the water like the octopus in fluid friendship to my world I am lost in the vast universe Where is the Friend
	Sex and love There is no separation between the two, if one embraces the defenses so close to us so dear to us and yet keeping us away from ourselves. Sometime I can laugh at the difference sometimes I am obssessed by it. I become myself when I can feel it as the eternal breathing of the universe in me.
Zen The sound of the universe is like the clapping of one hand you only have to listen and if you can't hear it, think about what the other hand is doing and try to discern what is not the universe. The paradox dissolves in unity.
	Traffic On the highway of life some are with you for only a short time, maybe till the next exit others are with you for a long stretch. We all move, in the same direction and we all arrive.
Sad Eyes Is there an ocean deeper than your eyes are there shores more beautifull even when the tides of time have left their traces, honoring you for what you have seen
	License to Love Do you need recommendations a list of celebrity appraisals signed endorsements and my measurements or can you just take the risk and accept. There is no certain outcome but if you never play you always loose.
Final Death is when we remember that we're not alone And so is life And love
	Stealth Take my love when I am not looking as giving it is too painfull
Garden People, friends, enemies Flowers in the garden Showing their colors Not the same Not all the time Not all so bright But together a full bouquet Do I care about their roots Do I care where they came from or where they are going
	Little moments A hand, a little music a pause in our seeing a pause in our being only remembered when it is too late to forget about time.
Heaven and Hell in honor of the Cathar faith We are blind to God's love so curse thou Devil for giving us eyes. We are deaf to God's breath so Evil One why give us ears. May the sacrament of union the force in our hand bridge the gap and console and heal us
	Enemies We are all Gods We are all Life but some of us have the honour of hiding it as we need Devils as we need death to see the One
Sword Love is the fire Love is the sword Ironhard and bittersharp Whoever gave the sword needs a clean cut Love is not whatever we want it to be It is beyond the name and without the edge
	The game of no games I hate you and I want you. No easy mellowing a constant struggle your image against my words my lies and your excuses. The game of no games just a lie to play one level deeper. The endless staircase made visible deep patterns emerging. It frightens me, I want to run I can't stand the bedrock breaking trusting to mine the deep. We are in such a need to love ourselves but willing to compromise in loving you I hate you and I want me
Digital Devil That damned computer I want to shoot her Holding my data She took my heart But I can't erase her
	Sam's koan Who let the sun in
The Arabic Chazi A. Algosaibi wrote beautiful poems, he inspired me to: Journey I traveled Is there a place more restful than your heart A destination further than the far stars in your eyes greeting the weary traveller rejected by all harbours seeking a trusting refuge I traveled Followed beauty faces enhanced by art, and always smiling smiles that never did snare happiness. Your face no longer innocent reflects my sadnes, hunger, fear Is there a place more lovely than the endless mind-sky I traveled Met philosphers; spent nights dissecting life reviewing mysteries Yet, for what reason As your mind has tackled the unknown riddles, claimed old wisdom it knows good and evil without the pointing words
	Another poem, inspired by Algosaibi: One and two When I am with you We become what we both know and face the sun, the moon, the light accept and be accepted by glorious grace A miracle of nowness we feel, we live our place to honour God in either form.
Maha Kumb Sangam the battlefield of belonging We walked to wash our souls, to shed our sins, to sense our kinship We came to where the rivers join in sangam, in simple unity rivers of holy water rivers of eternal souls 10 million of us, maybe more in simple devotion the holy dip Doing samgam, being sangam the Ganges as a surprisingly cold door to being at one a simple sacrament flesh and water the crowd feels like one the black naga tongue of the serpent freed by the police polo-game reaching out, at the auspicious moment shivering cold in naked holiness chaos outside, love touched, order inside the Lord's immanence in the coloured crowd the misty red rising sun in the eye of the beggar so simple It touched me like an inescapable truth just creation manifest Brahma's grace and Krishna as my simple charioteer Honda driven Alahabad Kumb Mela India jan 29, 2001

September 11th

Back to feodality!

Shiny flyers in a clear sky
Our proud birds of righteousness
Saintly driven onto the pillars of power
At the heart of the bull market
Where money bred money

Holy smoke, no virtual movie inferno
But real people, real disaster
It lurks in the corners of our mind
Haunts our dreams

Twin towers
Portals to hell
Gates to heaven
The symbol of death
And of renewal
Of war and peace
And of a faint new hope

However
The feudal Lords dance
Around the table of peace
With al Jazeera
As their mouthpiece
Rattling their gear
Throwing their spells
Showing their deaths
An eye for an eye
Proportional killing
Bin for Bin too?

The new Warlords preach
And whisper and lie
Hypnotic procedures
Controlled penetration
Of our minds
Do you need proof or
Are we believers?

We live the new symbolism
Tarot towers
Atomic signposts
The green altar of Mammon
Birds of doom
The white anthrax coke
Big brother Goliath
And bin David on the run

lucsasha04 with Sasha Shulgin

NOT WE

The Hindu wisdom says
Find out what is not self
To uncover the self
Sacrifice and fire is their way
Of talking to the gods
Agni is their gate to heaven

So this question haunts me
Who prayed so loud
Through the twin tower inferno
And to what god

Or was it done
For us?

Who staged this great appeal
This Grandioso bloody ritual
A holy sacrifice
Of human flesh

For us or for God
A call to battle

Awakened when it rained people
Twin towers toppled
Horror and disbelief
The movies in real time

Beyond anger, beyond adrenalin
there grew wonder
Zooming out to the wider picture
I feel called upon

A reminder to see
That good and evil
Are in all

Who thinks we
Do you?
And to what NOT we
You see?

Magic returns, the ceremony has only just started!

The new heroes:

Who thinks we?
Does Bin?
Does Bush?
Do you

Who thinks we?
And how about the NOT WE
Us and them
US and them
The faithful and the infidels

Who thinks we?
We, the world, the wider we
The total we
Who sings that we
Who walks that we

Do you

Do we?

On the Bus
Kesey, Kerouac, Leary, Ginsberg, Grootveld
We made them giants of freedom
Heroes of the new love, symbols of lost paradise
Be here now was Ram’s battle cry
Which brings up the Haight, the Park, the sixties, het Lieverdje and the Bus

Ken ruled, on the bus, off the bus
You were in or out
Today, being on the bus is not about acid,
It’s about the road to Kabul, the road to Baghdad
It’s about standing up against the Bushfire of fear,
Against the phoney war on terror, the new imperialism, the global righteousness
Today, being on the bus means being there
(And I testify to Ram’s change of hearth)
not only in Seattle, Amsterdam, Genoa
but being there for you
No hat, no rainbow colours, no slogans, just a smile will do for fare

Today, you, you rule about being on the bus
The bus of humanity, the bus of greater reality, the bus of inner glory
As we are love
And the faces of truth
Just as Ken and Tim, and Allen were,
We, we are on!
Now

Luc Sala Amsterdam Jan. 4, 2003 Paradiso Ken Kesey memorial

Pebble

Long life, little karma

A small piece of creation

Just a formless stone

No obstruction to the ways of the world

A nameless trail through time and this space

Only known to the One

I travel

Loose and light

Mostly

Unseen

Throw me in the ocean

Of your darkest mind

And I will wash ashore

In a new shade

My destiny and my longing is

To trip you in awareness

But you can also stumble on

To serve some more

You are welcome

Either way

---

Inspired by RD&M’s hottub

And a star from heaven

In the shadow of Mount TAM,

The temple of the sleeping goddess

Where pebbles are slowly born

From the fire into the light

2010:

Garden

Morning, breaking the nightly fast

The flowers awaken

Dew for them, coffee for the rest of us

We share the light, the rising sun

The green, rejected by the trees and plants

Nurtures us, gives us what we miss in the sun’s spectrum

The great game of nature unfolds

Do I care to understand

Or is understanding just another way of escaping

The joy of morning, in the garden

Groups (2010)

I hate groups
The invitation to gauge, the innate urge to judge
I know, it’s just defense, unease, fear, hidden anger
but hey, it’s a challenge too
not to judge
not to look for shortcomings
and enjoy
god’s bouquet and the promise that

we is more than me

And start to belong

Smarter May 2012

Fear has led to anger

But as anger wasn’t accepted either

I became smart, smarter, sensing the faults and shortcomings of all

A false security, that seemed to help me through life

Gave me power, wealth, insights, but cost me a lot.

Envy, hate, not belonging, being outside and finally the body kicked in

Trying to tell me, what I hid under the smartness

In not a nice way, immobilising me with pain at times

The deep message, that feeling and harmony is what my inner child wants

I have yet to embrace fully

2005 Firedance

Dancing around the Fire

I side with the small people, because that's all I can
I side with the small people, because that's what I am
I side with them, as they make the giant steps
that help me move an inch
I side with the small people, as they help me see
that we are but the shadows of our own light
I side with the small people, as they are my family
no service, no condescending help
Just circling and circling
paying our dues
to the fire, to life
in love

The temple of my inner fire
April 2005
O lord, do I need your grace
I stand, in awe and fear
at the entrance of the holy place
I see the altar, feel the sacred
but sense the barriers, right in here
where armour, ego, doubt and hatred
prevent me from a lusty stride
to race towards the holy grail
I stand, only my eyes travel
my body frozen, my soul chained
O lord, help me move one feet
to start a journey of a thousand more
You got me here, I made it to the door
and even if you make me trip over this threshold
then at least I will move forward
Thou art my true love
helping to hold you in my heart
to include the world and all above
even me, the hardest one to love
so, help me kneel,
as being closer to the earth
will help me move towards to the fire
the inner joy and utter rapture
that I see before me
but cannot embrace, yet

www.myster.nl

sala@dealerinfo.nl lucsala@dealerinfo.nl

In het Nederlands/in Dutch: Nederlandse gedichten

My website with articles, books etc.

The Heavenonearth website with an idea and activities to help build this heaven right here, right now.

Websites: www.net.info.nl, www.heavenonearth.nu, www.mobiel-info.nl, www.dealerinfo.nl, www.mindlift.nl, www.cans-rsi.nl

A poem worth reciting and for me a memory of an important mover and shaker, Allen Cohen of San Francisco Chronicle fame.

The Radiant White Dove
A Rap for the Spirit
by Allen Cohen