The Place Where Ten Become One

The Place Where Ten Become One

We were not gathered for comfort or peace,

But to expose the grip of the will to receive.

A force was required, not one man alone,

For the evil resists where it’s privately owned.

So we agreed—without contract or name—

That the goal stands above loss and gain.

And from that consent, a power was born:

To fight oneself, where the true war is sworn.

Each one included in all the rest,

No hero survives this particular test.

For the strength of the many lives only where

I dissolve my claim to being “more” or “aware.”

Annulment is not a lowering of head,

But choosing the friends’ merits instead.

The moment I rise above even one,

I sever the thread—we are no longer one.

In every ten, a whole stature stands:

Head, body, heels, and unseen hands.

And blessed is not the one who ascends,

But the one who feels lowest among his friends.

For abundance flows through the place most null,

Where the self is emptied, not spiritualized full.

Not wisdom, not fire, not knowledge refined—

But the heel that consents to be last in line.

So what do we speak when we gather as friends?

Not failures, not states, not how the week bends.

We speak of the Creator—His greatness alone,

For annulment grows where His height is known.

And yet even that greatness we must surpass,

For above reason is where adhesion lasts.

We believe He is good, benevolent, true,

Even when reason objects, confused and askew.

From the friends I must borrow this faith,

This love that survives contradiction and weight.

Not from myself—there is nothing to take—

Only from hearts that for the goal ache.

And when the eye sees a flaw in the ten,

Know the evil has entered again.

Above reason I rise, not blind but aware,

That correction is found in how I compare.

If I see myself higher, I’ve nothing to gain,

No vessel, no lack, no place for His Name.

But if I see them as greater than me,

Then adhesion becomes a real possibility.

So let this day begin with one quiet vow:

Not to fix, not to judge, not to know how.

Only to annul, to cling, to receive

The friends as the place where the Creator is revealed.