Only in Your Mind: Not-Quite Poems from the Not-So-Linear Awakening Path

By Todd Lent Damore

This is a book of contradictions. A collection of poetic prose and prosaic poems. Its creation has not been linear. Which is fitting, because it is about the Awakening Path, which is neither linear, nor paved with lotus petals. But most of us who have come to this path began from a place of such discomfort that even a road strewn with thumbtacks and stinging nettles seems preferable to remaining at home. These not-quite poems outline the peaks and valleys of the path, in a semi-autobiographical (largely fictionalized) way. Such beach-reading-suitable topics such as depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, psychosis, and psychedelic peak experiences are intermingled with societal grousing and direct pointing to the illusions that fabricate our sense of identity, and our world as we conceptualize it.It's not really a Dharma book, but it's not not a Dharma book. It's neither a poetry book, nor not a poetry book. (Some of the words even rhyme!) It exists in a superposition of ambiguous possibility¿ at least until you read it. Then instantly, you will make it into something. Follow your gut, at least for as long as it feels safe. That's the core message in it. Don't label, don't assume. Do what feels right, as long as you aren't acting out of old traumatic habits that could use a loving touch to be healed, and can then be left behind on the lonely shore of fragility and self-definition. Go on, enjoy your life. Take a twilight stroll. Let your body swing and shake and writhe like you were possessed by Terpsichore's less talented sister, even when the only music you can hear is courtesy of chirping crickets and distant traffic. Poke your nose deep into an orchid. You probably won't smell anything, but it's nice to see the familiar from a closer, fresher perspective. (It's always been right here, even closer than your invisible face.) In the end, a life fresh and contrivance-free is the only thing that will break us out of our exhausted, apathetic trance of insignificant daily minutia. However you need to get there is just fine¿

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DPTDZW4D
• ISBN13: 9798991677905
• Release Date: December 2024
• Publisher: FetterWork LLC
• Length: 459 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"