About The Individual

Individual is sovereign
On the grounds that
His inner experience is sealed
Unavailable to any other
Whatever may be done
To the individual

And on the grounds — though it can be made
Deniable to him —
That he can end his life

What does this sovereignty
Give the individual
What does sovereignty consist of
What are its constituents

Form — the individual — and
Awareness
Without either — there’s no individual
No sealing of inner experience
No question of self-destruction

Does the sovereignty then lie
In the individual — form
Or awareness
Which of these begets the other
Bestows upon the other
Sovereignty

There can be only two possibilities
Awareness bestows its sovereignty
Its indestructibility
Upon form

Or

There is no bestowing
Awareness without form
Form without awareness
Is incomprehensible

If the first — then individual — form
Gets nothing out of his sovereignty
For individual is dust

And — in that case — awareness too
Gets nothing out of its sovereignty
Out of bestowing it upon form
If it has to keep creating forms, to ensure
That its sovereignty sustains
And without form — its sovereignty
Goes unnoticed —
To itself it may presume sovereignty
But without witness — without form —
The sovereignty of awareness is empty

Even in bestowing its indestructible
Sovereignty upon form, in form
Awareness is helpless — because without bestowal
Its sovereignty remains unheld
Even by itself

And if —
There is no bestowing
As awareness without form and form
Without awareness is incomprehensible
Then sovereignty
For form or awareness
Remains worthless

No side can benefit from it
No side can lay a claim on it
No side owns it, or can exercise it

Individual sovereignty then
Based on the ground that his experience
Is sealed

Is worthless to form — individual
And to awareness, consciousness — sealed within
Or floating without form

Recognition of awareness — as a principle
Independent of form
Or as
Constituent of form — inseparable from form
Is worthless
To form — for it is dust
And to awareness, for it is either already form
Or awareness requires no recognition from form

The worth of worth is worthless
Of recognition, of recognition of sovereignty
Of its absence, of unity or of separation
From the point of view of either —
Form or awareness
Or both, as inseparable
The worth of any worth
Is worthless — is worthlessness

And all that remains
Is this — this happening
This coincidence of form and awareness
Happening
This expression, comprehension,
Awareness and form cohabiting
Happening

Is all that remains
And it cannot not remain
The conception, imagination
Of this happening — not happening
Is impossible

Whatever it is named — this happening —
It’s not worth anything
For form, for awareness, for either or for both
There’s no benefit
No reward, no purpose, no motive
No meaning — for form
Or for awareness, or for both at once

Its not-happening is the one impossibility

And simultaneously — inexorably —
For consciousness to not be
For individual consciousness
To not be — is impossible

Sovereignty undeniable
And worthless