What Is Beneath

Chipping Away

Sitting separate from the sculptor   in the center of this ever changing world,

You pose so elegantly, so stoically  and proudly  in your many layers of clay.

For a moment you  stand so tall, beaming  as this perfect image that you made

But find yourself gulping and blushing  when  the fingers of time begin to chip away

 

at your perfect,  protective armour , all the clay coatings that you identify as you

and you curse and swat away  the circumstantial prying digits that you blame

for picking so mercilessly at the fragile tender coverings and causing so much pain.

Sadly, the more that gets chipped away, the more you feel the  burning weight of shame.

 

What a defective piece of ornament, you figure, you must now appear  to be;

how broken and ugly you  have become  for having so many cracks and gaping holes.

Strategically you strive, then, to change the weather and strengthen  the protection that you wear,

not noticing  that what is being exposed  beneath each ugly chip,   is a perfect statue made of  gold.

 

© Dale-Lyn, July, 2020

Wow!  That imperfect piece of poetry came from listening to another lovely dharma talk from Tara Brach today on shame...one of my favorite topics ( Well I did write a book about it lol and it will get published someday even if it is by myself).  I love the story about the golden Buddha and this is the first time I see how it relates to the exposure of our true nature. 

 

I spend a lot of my time looking at and writing about  this  idea that we are covered in layers of protective armour , seeing ourselves as that armour ...identifying with it so much we will do anything to protect our protection...blaming others and life when it begins to chip away at it, so afraid of being less than and diminished because of that flawed outer self...experiencing  shame for its flaws...not realizing what lay within the armour... is so much more valuable and precious...so much more of who we truly are!

 

Hmmm!  Thanks Tara Brach, wherever you are,  for reminding me and inspiring me.

All is well!

 

Tara Brach (July1, 2020) Shame, Healing, and Transformation, with Tara Brach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlFbtbivOLw