In God Makes the Rivers to Flow; An Anthology of the World’s Sacred Poetry & Prose, Eknath Easwaran includes a selection from William Law entitled “The Deepest Part of Thy Soul.”  I’ve written the following poem-like reflections inspired by this selection.

Our True Self

 
Though God be everywhere present,
            yet He is only present to thee
            in the deepest and most central part of thy soul.
—William Law
 

It is our Divine Self that recognizes divinity,

our True Self,

our Christ Self,

the self that leaps to greet the divine like a puppy greets its master,

or a child her mother,

or a geyser leaps to greet the sky.

It is this self we see when we look deeply into our own eyes in the mirror,

or the eyes of another which are our mirror.

It is this self who we cannot become

but who becomes us.

It is this self who we cannot be separated from.

It is this self who hides behind the mask

of the small self

wanting only what it already knows,

creating from what has been

and not from what can be.

It is the True Self that cannot tell a lie,

that cannot be damaged,

that cannot do harm.

It is the True Self who knows

the truths that would set us free

if we would open ourselves to that knowledge and freedom.

It is this self that knows who it is, who I Am,

rather than the false selves the small self tries on for size.

It is this self that knows to whom it belongs.

It is this self that serves the highest good.

We align to this self when we claim

the life that we long for,

the brave life that calls us from within,

when we picture that life as ours

before it has ever begun.

We align to this self when we choose to feel

as if we have done what is ours to do

before the work is truly done.

We align to this self when we tune to our hearts

like a violin tuning its string to the perfect pitch.

This self seeks to express as the highest and best,

as compassion, as love, as peace, as joy,

as gratitude, as strength, as order.

This self seeks to serve a meal

or sing a song

or pay a stranger’s past-due bill.

This self seeks to hold all children in her arms,

to kiss the sick,

to wrap the homeless in a smile.

This self hugs trees and saves whales.

This self brings warring factions to the negotiating table.

This self holds hands with any hand, with every hand.

This self says, “I Am,” and this self understands

the presence of God from which we can never part,

no matter how far we walk in the dark.