If you can find your mind when all about you
Are looking for theirs, and hurting you,
If you can see Truth when others are blind,
But feel compassion for their blindness too;
If you can breathe, and not be tired by breathing,
Or be misunderstood, and let it be that way,
Or being stirred, not give way to stirring,
And find union between hunter and prey:
If you can transcend – and not wear this on your face;
If you can think – and observe yourself in thought;
If you can meet suffering with full embrace
And thank the Divine for that it has taught;
If you can bear to face your dream of life crumble
Twisted by fear into crimes of the heart,
Or see impermanence whilst feeling humble,
And begin once again with science and art:
If you can make one heap of all parts in control
And walk away with your self at no cost,
And live in the silence of a reborn Soul
And let others believe your Soul may be lost;
If you can turn your intent to humankind
To serve it in spite of humanity’s wrong,
And trust in belief that spirit will remind
Those who are lost to seek and hold on!
If you can see old friends whilst they see old you
Or walk your path, beside those who run
If neither joy nor pain disturb you
If you share Love without spoiling the fun
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds of silent hum
Yours is this Earth, and everything beyond it
And – which is more – you’ll be awakened, and One!
