“The sight occupies the seer, transforms seer into sight.”
—Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Life Magazine, November 1990)
Seeing Is Being
Seeing outside the Self
Forgetting the Inner Light
The Seer becomes the Sight
Transforming Day to Night
Living Night for Day
The Seer can’t find The Way
Mistaking Sight for Seer
Becoming what’s on the Mirror
Forsaking what’s truly Dear
When Self is finally Clear
We Remember How we’re Here
It’s the One Becoming the Three
The Way To See Is To Be
Since Seer Sight and Seeing
Are All Three Ways of Being
And Being Is Being Being Being*
© Ken Chawkin
————————————–
*From a Q & A session:
Course participant: Maharishi, What is Being?
Maharishi: (laughs) Being? Being is Being Being Being.
Then Maharishi and everyone laugh.
I read that poem at a World Peace Assembly in Maharishi University’s Golden Dome in the early 90’s. It was followed by The Enlightened Heart, a poem by Ken Chawkin.
Also relevant: Maharishi describes the nature of inner life: bondage and liberation, and gaining bliss consciousness through Transcendental Meditation.
Tags: Enlightenment, identification, ignorance, liberation, suffering, Vedanta
The Uncarved Blog 
September 7, 2014 at 11:37 pm |
[…] I read it a few years later on a World Peace Assembly in the Golden Dome along with another poem, Seeing Is Being. It took a lot of courage to ask to read my poems in front of a few hundred people. It was a […]
LikeLike
December 3, 2014 at 7:00 pm |
[…] poems I wrote, Seeing Is Being, and Being In Nature, share a similar sentiment, but not quite as eloquently as these masters! Two […]
LikeLike
November 12, 2015 at 3:13 pm |
[…] And this related poem: Seeing Is Being. […]
LikeLike
November 12, 2015 at 3:15 pm |
[…] And this related poem: Seeing Is Being. […]
LikeLike
December 4, 2017 at 2:04 pm |
[…] Dr. Mehmet Oz explains how we can overcome risk factors for heart disease with meditation Seeing Is Being […]
LikeLike
March 7, 2018 at 12:34 am |
[…] Here is a poem I wrote on this subject in the early 90’s: Seeing Is Being. […]
LikeLike
October 27, 2018 at 4:27 pm |
[…] From my own experiences as a meditator and a poet, Merton’s poem reminds me of the magic that can happen between an observer and an aspect of nature, as in my encounter with lotus pads, and the poetic commentary that followed, reflecting upon that intimate experience in Sometimes Poetry Happens, where the three—the seer, the seen, and the poetic process—are one, and that oneness is ultimately pure wakefulness, pure being, as expressed in a later poem, Seeing Is Being. […]
LikeLike
August 31, 2019 at 8:28 pm |
[…] “The sight occupies the seer, transforms seer into sight.” I combined both notions in my poem, Seeing Is Being. Maharishi also gave a clear explanation of this difference in perception, of bondage and […]
LikeLike