ENLIGHTENMENT

When I was a child
I used to be afraid of the dark....
Monsters lurked in the dark.
I realise now, of course, they were all in my misused imagination,
As they are for all of us,
No matter how old we get in years.
My monsters weren't real.

Now, I know that you are different --
Your monsters are real.
I mean that sincerely -- they are real -- to you.
No matter how real your monsters are, however,
They don't exist anywhere else but in your mind.
That's why only you can see them as you do.

Even when power-mongers like politicians and bishops
Successfully create monsters they can get some agreement on --
Like "terrorism", "boat people", "judgement day", "satan", "weapons of mass destruction",
And anyone who isn't one of "us" --
Our individual experience of an agreed "monster"
Is uniquely different.
And if you were sitting in front of me right now,
I could prove that to you, in your experience, inside 30 seconds.
In any audience of 5,000 people,
There are 5,000 uniquely different experiences happening
Of the same event.

A monster is an Idea
That needs darkness to survive.
Politicians and bishops are successful
To the degree with which they are able
To manipulate the truth
And keep us in the dark.
Haven't you noticed how manically secretive they are
About all of what they actually do, and how they do it?
They're desperate to control the form and amount of inform-ation we can get our hands on.

That's why I'm such a big fan of Awareness,
And of enlightening
Myself and my world.
An enlightened person is a "loose canon";
He cannot be controlled.

In the light,
Monsters just ........... evaporate,
And their master-minds are out of a job.