You yourself

You yourself must find the way.
No one can do it for you,
No one can describe it to you,
No one can show it to you.
You yourself must find the way.

You yourself must hear the word.
No one can hear it to you,
No one can tell it to you,
No one can explain it to you.
You yourself must hear the word.

You have a task that you must find,
You have tasks which you must do.
You have your own proper work,
Which no one else can do for you,
Or find for you, but you yourself.

You have a burden that you must carry,
No one else can carry it for you,
No one else can relieve you of your burden.
You yourself must bear your burden,
You are your own burden:  carry it.

You must be true to your truest self,
Not to the whims and wishes of passing self.
You must be true to yourself at your best--
The good that you have been, and better,
The better that you shall be, and best.

Do not place your trust in passing human beings,
Do not place your trust in institutions.
Do not place your trust in laws, or in books.
Place in your trust in that which alone endures,
As each and all else is passing away.

You have now to become what you truly are,
To let go of what you might have been,
To let go of dreams of what you may be.
You have now to become who you truly are,
Beneath the transitory pulls and dreams.

Now is the time to be awake,
Now is the time to be alive.
Those who dwell in the past,
And those who dwell in the future,
Are all passing away.

The one who loves is true to the beloved,
The one who loves is one with the beloved.
Truly to love costs oneself everything,
Truly to love transforms you into You,
And all else passes away.

—Wm. P McKane
    26 May 2019