In God Makes the Rivers to Flow; An Anthology of the World’s Sacred Poetry & Prose, Eknath Easwaran includes a selection from the Kena Upanishad entitled “That Invisible One.”  I’ve written the following poem-like reflections inspired by this selection.

Truth of My Being

The teacher replies: “The Self is the ear of the ear.

the eye of the eye, the mind of the mind,

The word of words, and the life of life.

Rising above the senses and the mind

And renouncing separate existence,

The wise realize the deathless Self.”

—The Kena Upanishad

That which makes it possible for the ear to hear,

the eye to see, the mind to think.

That which makes is possible to speak and write,

to experience life.

That which dwells in the gap between

known and unknown.

That which we experience within our everyday lives,

but is most truly experienced by rising above them.

That which our mind cannot comprehend,

but cannot function without.

That which breathes our lungs.

That which words cannot express.

That which is beyond sight, beyond sound.

That which is us, is not us, is not not us.

That which is felt, is not felt, is not not felt.

That which is the beginning, is not the beginning,

is not not the beginning, exists without beginning,

but is that from which everything has its beginning.

That which will not end when everything else comes to an end.

That which cannot not exist.

That which is existence and cannot be separated from anything that exists.

That which is our comforter.

That which is our hope.

That which we put our faith in, without which there would be no faith.

That which sings our song.

That which unites us.

That which is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient.

That which is knowledge and bliss.

That which goes by many names.

That which encourages us to control the mind.

That which sets us free from our lust and greed.

That which gives us strength.

That which receives our devotion.

That which grants us wisdom.

That which the sages call the Self.

That which I call the truth of my being.