You can tell by his collarless shirt and tidy slacks
that he’s not one of those ashram charlatans
offering their toejam in sacred jars for pilgrims
who don’t have time to queue to kiss his feet.
He’s a simple man with a simple message
about the here and now and the best ways to get there.
You really could just do it on your own, after reading
one of his books of course, and while it helps
to hear the words spoken from a realised presence,
there’s something about that YouTube bit rate
that doesn’t do his voice justice – as if the frequency
of pure transition is lost in all that digital noise.
Luckily, the horse’s mouth is just a plane ride away,
near some highly rated dining and some partner hotels,
it’s all part of this package here. Oh, I know, the Buddha
once held up a lotus flower as an illustration of his teaching
but he’s not around to hold one up for us now –
and I’m sure it’s wasn’t any old lotus, you know,
you wouldn’t want to just pluck up the wrong one.
Times are tight, you say? We have some credit
options. No? Well, you know what I said about
the YouTube bit rate and digital noise, well,
we don’t seem to run into the same problems on Zoom.
Their bit rate is much more conducive to the simple
graspable truths of the present moment, even if your
broadband isn’t as fast as a flash of samadhi,
and it costs barely a day’s wages to take part
after a long shift has almost sunk your poor soul
into the muddy eddies of samsara. He doesn’t even
like the word Guru, call him by his first name,
the one he chose after realisation, not that other one,
our teacher is a simple man with a simple message.
and all that noise about his love for expensive cars
has been blown out of proportion, he just appreciates
precision. You could say that he’s selling you
what you already have but it’s pure, unfiltered,
it’ll liberate you in an instant, well, unless
you’re simply too tainted to hear it, then don’t worry
there’ll be another convention next year, far
more pure and precise than the last time,
it’s worth saving up for a lifetime you know,
for such close and intimate access to the power of Now.