Into the Ashes

In the Heart of Things

Unless we seek beyond our soul
we cannot be the poet,
the day-laborer
that is in us all.
Our rhythm should be of life
in the very presence if things
in the very action of change
in the heart of things:
beyond knowledge of existence
beyond the time of timelessness:
that external universe
not to be feared as in the way we fear
our lives.

In this sequel to In The Heart of Things, Llewellen is back in Miami, his hometown, at ground zero, feeling his "inner self becoming cluttered with the illusion of enlightenment. . ." In Baltimore, Llewellen's life had been radically changed by the ideas of Jansen, a Zen practitioner who undertook to help him penetrate into the heart of things. He thought he understood Jansen's message, but in trying to practice it, he finds that he is unintentionally hurting the friends he is trying to help. Somehow, he must find out what it was in Jansen's message that he missed.