Working in our Sleep

It is at work

that we are asleep.

At work on

the ‘to do’ list,

never-ending.

Work harder.

Work more.

No time for play,

We are working in our sleep.

For it is in play,

in joy and laughter

that we awaken,

that we en-ligh-ten.

It is as we play

that our heart opens

to others, with others.

Osho, bless you

For Naruda’s story

of the old man endlessly

working, meditating, fasting.

How long he asks Neruda,

until I’m enlightened?

And a young man,

under the same tree

playing music and dancing.

Neruda asks

timelines for both

and reports back.

The old man is bitterly

angry at 3 more lifetimes,

The young one laughing,

says, only as many

as leaves on this tree?

Easy – think of all

the trees on the planet,

and for me,

only the leaves of this one.

And in that instant,

enlightenment came to him.

It is as we work

that we are asleep.

It is as we play

that we awaken

that we en-light-en.

Lizette Estelle Stiehr

March 30, 2011

Story from Osho’s Tarot, the Greed card