Come out of your churches
I would talk with you
Come out of your synagogues
I will ask you something
Come out of your mosques
I will tell you something
Leave your saffron robes
That we may stand naked
Come out of your secret societies
Show yourselves now
Come out of your offices
That I might speak freely
Relax your families
Sit apart from your education
Pause in your traditions
Cast away your reckonings
Look beyond your flags
Forget your promises
Here on the plain ground
For the moment being
Allow me to prompt
Your imaginations
For Sophia's sake
Look about you
Notice each other
With clear eyes
And clean hearts
Each an individual expression
You are tied to no one
Not husband to wife
Not mother to child
Not student to teacher
Not employee to company
Not human to god
Only you
Only me
Only them
Only here
Only now
Look at your timepieces
Note that the indicators
Travel in a circle
Can we not remember this
Without wearing reminders on our arms?
Look at the women
Are they not beautiful
Miracles of nature?
Look at the men
They arouse the pride
Which dwells inside you
Look at the children
Are they not fragile
Flowers before the fruit?
No one made you
No one is watching
No one sits in judgement
No one shall punish you
It is the same for the others
Consider this before you stir
Some are strong
Some are frail
Some are clever
Some are dull
How will you deal with them?
How will they treat you?
What shall bind you together?
What will pull you apart?
You already have these questions
In common with the others
Will you form tribes?
Will you build nations?
Will you go with your generation?
With your sex?
With your colour?
With them who share your language?
All may do as they wish
Will you be a leader?
Will you follow another?
Will you go alone?
Before you rise to walk
Ask yourselves
What do you want?
What do you need?
Who do you want to be with?
Who do you need to be with?
Why do you want them?
Why do you need them?
Ask yourselves
What shall be the glue
To bind us together?
Nothing has been provided
We shall have to make our own
Before you arise to walk
Look over the crowd
At the world you share
A multitude of life forms
Abundance of necessities
Awaiting your discovery
Anticipating your footsteps
You may go where you wish
It is very beautiful
It is very large
How should you proceed?
Now!
Families sit together
In a circle
I ask you children
If you obey your parents
Only to avoid punishment
Is that honourable or commendable?
I ask you parents
If your children obey
Only to avoid punishment
Is that reason to be proud of them?
I ask you spouses
Can a public ceremony
Make it easier to hide
Vows that are broken?
I ask you wives
If you are faithful
Only to avoid shame
Is that honourable or commendable?
I ask you wives
If you husbands are faithful
Only to avoid scorn
Is that reason to be proud of them?
If your husbands
Were not attracted to women
How could they have found you?
If they now kill this attraction
Does that not jeopardize your relationship?
I ask you teachers
If your student echoes your teachings
To gain your approval
Is that reason to be proud of him?
I ask you students
If your teacher disapproves of your ideas
Is it honourable to discard them?
I ask you society members
Can your fraternity
Be propped on shameful initiations
And still be attractive to real men?
Hear me Christians!
Look upon a newborn
Look upon a murderous rapist
Explain to me
How can the former
Be stained with sin?
How can the latter
Be born again?
Answer me Jews!
How sexual mutilation
And food taboos
Are spiritual requirements?
I ask you Muslims
How can a man
Justify his domination
Over all women
By surrendering himself to a book?
I ask you Buddhists!
Is the practice of non-attachment
In order to avoid suffering
Honourable or commendable?
Is not the avoidance of pain
The root of mental illness?
I ask the spokesmen
Of the ancient voices
Is their antiquity
A guarantee of their wisdom?
I implore you
Suspend immaculate conception
Let the golden child to walk
Without requiring flowers to spring up
From his footsteps
Don't banish the prophets
To sharpen distant swords
Don't nail the wise to trees
Don't make them drink hemlock
Don't immolate the genius
Let them be what they are
Listen to their ideas
Or not
It is your will
You needn't be afraid
Of men who shout
Or men who whisper
You must be careful
Of all men and women
I ask the poor man
Is it not easier for you
To be virtuous
Than the wealthy man
Who has access to every temptation?
I ask the rich man
Can you be sure of the purity
Of your relationships?
I tell you Kings and Queens,
Emperors and Empresses
Take off your crowns
No god grants your right
To rule over others
Only your family
And your wealth
Make this possible
Was it not always thus?
I ask you citizens of democracies
Are 49% under the will of 51%
A satisfied group?
I ask you citizens of republics
Is the democracy into which you decay
Worth the blood sacrificed for your birth?
I ask you communists
Did you forget
To design your brilliant solution
For use by ordinary humans?
I ask you citizens of empires
What were you before
You took by force
The abundance of others
Less technological?
I ask you soldiers
If you wore no uniform
And you had no comrades
Could you kill to protect
Your own family?
Who seized your grandfather's farm?
I ask you Satanists
Are not your followers
Reverse Christians
Nourished by the same fable?
I ask you immigrants
Would you have crossed oceans
If you were happy at home?
How can a foreign land
Give you the right to steal?
Is not your behaviour
The same as the tyrants you fled?
I ask you city dweller
How can you feel superior
To a primitive man with his own hut
When you pay monthly
To live in another man's hut?
I ask the Occidental
Why have you slaked
Your intellectual thirst
With alcohol since the beginning?
I ask the Oriental parent
Where in all of nature
Is there an animal
Bound to feed its parents?
The brood that you produce
As insurance for yourself
Taxes the rice bin
I ask the North American parent
Where in all nature
Is there a mammal
Which abandons its offspring?
The children whom you abandon
Guarantee the survival
Of the human predators
Which plague your cities
I ask slaves
Who captured you
And sold you
To your master?
I ask your master
Who prepares your food?
And sings your children to sleep?
I have bent your ears
As you have allowed
Disperse and go where you wish
Go back to your churches
Go back to your mosques
Go back to your synagogues
Go back to your pentagrams
Aware now, that you men and women
Are the gods and the devils
That you fear and obey
Go back to your schools
And look for a teacher
Go back to your companies
And follow the money
Go back to your secret societies
If the meetings were made public
Would that diminish the membership?
Return to your families
And give them your honesty
Behave honourably towards them
If you expect the same
What? Are you missing your fetters?
Try this:
Imagine the most noble you
Put this version of yourself on a cloud
Where your notion of god once was
Look down upon yourself with compassion
Pray to yourself
Answer your prayers
Reward yourself
Punish yourself
Allow all other people to do this
Maybe we'll grow out of it
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