Leaving These Palace Gates

I won’t keep you within these palace gates.
You are free to go.
You say a love
compels you below,
back to Earth.

How, child, do you know
you will remember your resolve,
remember all this, remember Me?
Birth does not guarantee
you will follow through
or even receptivity
to those not so benighted
as you may turn out to be.

I won’t keep you within these palace gates.
You feel all those still suffering,
still struggling and in need,
and yes, follow, child,
follow love’s lead.

And be aware: the realm realms below
can drive you mad, make you coarse,
befoul your seeing, lead you astray
from your original course.
For every fortunate, freakish fish
that escapes the fisherman’s net
thousands flap helplessly, are caught,
thousands sent off to the mouths
of conditioning, contamination, rot.

This love like a gong
resounds your resolve. All is blessed
in spite of all; all’s for the best.
Love sees the luminous palace, steeped in this;
a healthy one sees health, bliss sees bliss,
a husband or wife in the honeymoon.

I won’t keep you within the palace gates.
You carry the sun and moon
and infinitely more. Be aware
that what seems most natural, like air,
maybe your earthly parents, your own mind,
may compound the mud of forgetfulness,
may be enemies to which you grow resigned.

This love like a gong
resounds your resolve. All is blessed
in spite of all; all’s for the best.
Be aware, child, before you go,
though conviction boil as passionate blood,
you may come to live on Earth
despondent, sinking deeper in the mud,
catching no whiff of these blessings one and all,
as if this love had never existed at all.

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