Being

Is there ever
Can there ever be
Sentience —
Without pain

Being, without sentience
Is only ever conceptual —
Rock, chair, stars
Are not beings
Have no being
In and of, themselves

They are granted, projected upon
Conceptual being
Existent-ness
By sentient beings
Without whom
They go unperceived
Unexistent

Sentience — being —
The capacity to experience
Change —
Be affected, pushed against
Pulled toward
While sensing — through senses —
Is pain

Vocalisations
Animals or humans
Are the first expression
Of being affected —
Chirping of a bird
Or newborn’s cry

Language —
Is simultaneously
An expression of pain
And the mechanism
Of relief of pain

Stronger, the claim of language
To relive pain —
Even if it be through pain —
Sacrifice, self harm, self flagellation
Renunciation

The stronger
The claim’s attraction
Be it philosophy, religion
Product in supermarket
Or a book

The philosopher or physician
Who only diagnoses
Without offering relief
Is a pessimist

With relief —
Even if relief is self destruction
He is a prophet
Guru, a teacher —

Every sentient being
Knows
Unconsciously
That being — is pain
Is compelled
To follow —
What relieves
What promises relief

To consciously — see
The existence of pain
The promise of relief
Is the first step
Toward self knowledge
The only step —

To see
The predicament
Of sentience
That being, is —

To see analgesia
The product —
Service
Underlying all others
Religions, spirituality
Pharmaceuticals
Media

Pension funds
Holidays
Relationships
Charities
Hospices

All practices — are practices —
To relieve
Being —
From being

To make it not-be
An abstraction
A rock