En-Lightening, by Tash Shadman

And as I want for
Words to come,
Ideas to flow,
Pain to go,
I suffer my judgment of what is so.

And as I will for
Me to mend,
Feeling to flee,
Them to see,
I suffer my judgment of what be.

And as I worry
I might lose,
They might leave,
Things might rot,
I suffer my judgment of what is not.

And as I wish I
Didn’t want,
Didn’t will,
Didn’t worry,
Didn’t wish,
I suffer my judgment of what is.

And then
An opening arises.

And as I witness
What I think,
What I dream up,
What I dread,
I suffer not, but smile instead.

For I can see,
That all these thoughts
Are not me,
Are not real;
They’re thoughts I learned,
Not a big deal.
And so I suffer not, but heal.

And as I return
To the now,
To the silence,
To the knowing that all experience
Can be amusing and adored,
I return to myself,
And I suffer no more.

This poem was originally posted on Tash Shadman's website.

Seed Questions for Reflection

How do you relate to the poem’s notion of seeing a separation between you and your thoughts? Can you share a personal story of healing through being able to separate yourself from your thoughts? What helps you be a witness to your thoughts and dreams?

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Add Your Reflection

27 Past Reflections

noha~tarek

Oct 29, 2023

It is very difficult to separate myself from my thoughts! But sometimes it happens! I suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder. Sometimes, instead of being engaged in the obsessive thoughts, I find myself looking above them, as if I'm a god observing me & my thoughts below. But again, this is very rare...

Barbara S

Oct 24, 2023

Silence

David B

Oct 24, 2023

Lovely, Tash, Thank you.

Tash Shadman Jul 16, 2025

A year after posting my poem, and I've just read this response. Thank you matey. I wonder if you might enjoy Hold the Noise - it's more recent - you can find it on my website, which is my first and last name for com (the site prohibits me from sharing links)
Love,
Tash Shadman

Victoria

Oct 24, 2023

This poem was a great gift to me today.........I was way too caught up in my thoughts, wants and judgments......smiled when I came to the end and was able to let go. Thank you!

Tash Shadman Jul 16, 2025

A year after posting my poem, and I've just read this response. Thank you lovely. I wonder if you might enjoy Hold the Noise - it's a more recent poem - you can find it on my website, which is my first and last name for com (the site prohibits me from sharing links)
Love,
Tash Shadman

Sandip Sheta

Oct 24, 2023

We are addicted to our thoughts. We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking.

David B Oct 24, 2023

Right, but it's not the me that changes anything. It's stepping out of the me, and then it changes automatically.

Francis dacosta

Oct 24, 2023

reality minus expectations and narratives equals equanimity. easy to say harder to do without continous effort.

siegFried🔥🔥🔥 Oct 24, 2023

Dear Francis, ....the one who likes to „think“ in interrelatednesses.....
Thanks for this hint so that my „ordinary“ mind prepares himself/itself to get ready to transmute for my HEARTmind....in a way your suggested formular of EQUANIMITY has become the „red carpet“ for mySELF to access this state of BEing very intentionally.

REALITY - EXPECTATION - NARRATIVES = EQUANIMITY

WOW. How do I like this? ;-))

Thanks for that.
All my relations siegFried🔥🔥🔥

David B Oct 24, 2023

On that effort, what is efforting? Is the mind trying to control itself? Is the ego using our spiritual practices as another way to control? Yoga tells us the key is samadhi, going beyond the mind into our true nature. And we don't get there with effort. Rather we get there by letting go. Allowing things to be as they are, as the poem so aptly describes.

Rachel Hill

Oct 23, 2023

I love this it is so “me” and I found it a simple way to describe the separation which I really with understanding!! Thank you 🙏 and I look forward to more like this x

Tash Shadman Jul 16, 2025

A year after posting this poem, and I've just read this response, haha. Thanks Rachel. I wonder if you might enjoy Hold the Noise - it's a more recent poem - you can find it on my website, which is my first and last name for com (the site prohibits me from sharing links)
Love,
Tash Shadman

Pankaj

Oct 23, 2023

What a wonderfully articulated invitation to BE in the present! Not get caught up in DOING the cravings and aversions in thoughts, speech, or actions.

I feel inspired to sit and practice being the witness right now . . .

Jagdish P Dave

Oct 20, 2023

The last stanza of En-Lightening written by Tash Shadman is engihetning to me. This is what the author writes: As I return to the now, to the silence, to the knowing that all experience can be amusing and knowing that all experince can be amazing and adored, I return to myself, and I suffer no more. This the final step as I am walking on the path of knowing who I am, my Real Self. This is the last step in my self-discovering and self-realizing pilgrimage. What a joy! It's an awe experince, an experince of wonderment, and an experience for adorement, and an experience of fullness. The boundary that I create by my self-serving behaviors, the bounday created by focusing on me alone at the cost of others well-being. When I become aware of my self-ceated boundary , the wall I have created between me and otherrs , I feel liberated and the words come out of my mouth: Freedom at last! When I love people in my life unconditioally, when I welcome them with my open hearts, when I display my u... View full comment

David Doane

Oct 19, 2023

Based on my understanding of the teaching of wisdom teachers, I believe thoughts are ephemeral experiences in my eternal real self, and are separate from my real self. My real self is whole; thoughts that real self is whole, and that I or ego self can heal and become whole help diminish the grip of I so that I does heal and become more whole. I can witness my thoughts and dreams because they are not me and are another experience within me. What helps me be a witness to my thoughts and dreams is knowing that they are experiences within me and knowing that I can learn from my witnessing.

Sigurd

Oct 19, 2023

These are words to remind the reader of the timeless state of living-in-the-now, with surrender to intense experience, of pain or pleasure (dukha or sukha). Thoughts of "I don't want" or "I want" dampened before they catch the thinking mind in corrals of reflection on the desire that is present.

siegFried🔥🔥🔥 Oct 24, 2023

Dear Sigurd,....one who is dealing with the power of thoughts, feelings and deeds....already when they are still in the „stage before“ awareness....
How juicy....
Thanks
all my relations siegFried🔥🔥🔥

stream

Oct 19, 2023

I found this poem stilted, amateurish. So those are thoughts. Those thoughts are only one aspect of me. My poetry critic. I have experience healing by accepting all of me even my judgments. In fact, I enjoy my judgments and can see how I formed them well enough to know that there is another level of reality where I can love not only myself but every one and everything else in a way that is beyond judgmental thoughts. Being a witness to my dreams is easy because I recognize my dreams as being a deeper form of symbolic communication that I can learn more about who I am from.

BarbaraS.

Oct 19, 2023

What a beautiful poem on living in this moment!

Prasad

Oct 18, 2023

I find that either I am my thoughts and feelings or I am the observer. When I am my thoughts and feelings, I feel the pain of Israelis and Palestinians, republicans and democrats depending on whom I am talking to. I empathize, sympathize and sometimes I get lost in my feelings and thoughts and get traumatized and stuck as well. When I am able to witness, I am able to find balance, nurturing and warmth and find compassion spreading to me and the other at the same time.

siegFried🔥🔥🔥 Oct 24, 2023

Dear Prasad, thanks for sharing and contributing/investing into a profound - if not one of most profund - insights, getting ready for breakthoughs:
„.....When I am able to witness .....“ (....I am able to find balance, nurturing and warmth and find compassion spreading to me and the other at the same time......

in the purity of itSELF and keep mySELF within that (...even no balance, ...nurturing....warmth....compassion....spreading nothing.....)
my guess is, I will be there in the NOW, only....and be with it......
I am chciking out how this will go...
THANKS.
all my relations siegFried🔥🔥🔥