Learning can give nothing but anxiety
To one who considers himself ignorant.
And learning is wasted on one
Who believes he already knows
Learning is not an acquisition.
It’s a quality of being-
Present. Attentive. Deferential.
Surrendered to the Truth.
Learning is intelligence in action
Not the intellect in inertia.
Learning, in essence
Is an act of deep love.
“Who are you?”
The question is an unsettling one…
The answer to it
Depends on context…
Without a context,
Who am I?
A great question is one
That dislocates certainty
And puts it on a quest.
Small fears but great connivances
Scores kept
Scores settled
Projects won
The designation acquired
And the pride served…
Work for many- great as it may be
Is but a means to an end;
It’s an end that is sadly often trivial…
Simply because it is self-serving
And not a means to deliver
The grand promise of the work itself.
The Leader
Is simply a person who recognizes
The true value of work
Its nature and its way.
Work is more than just a means
To profit- personal or corporate.
At its heart, it’s a contribution
Of that which is most worthy in you
The leader simply shows others
The merit in the reasons for which
Selfless work must be undertaken.
There is occasionally
An hour
That is eventful…
A pivoting moment
Where you stand
Divinely reminded
Of what is worth
Living for
And what is the worth
In losing.
To a seeker
No occurrence is vain.
Everything colludes
To provide you
With new meaning
Fresh insight
Or an accepting wisdom
Where the vision that clearly sees
Differences and distinctions
Begins to blur.
Watch this moment
Absorb its essence
Feel your emotion
But do not emotionalize
The moment.
Humanity is not a particular
Flavor, after all
It requires no recipe.
It’s a quest… To be human
Is to search for promise.
Even though
I tended to my plants
With unfailing care
They still withered
And died
Too soon.
Nevertheless
New life sprouted quickly and
Once again life bloomed.
Death, I learned
Is not the end of life
But its release.
So, mourn not my end
For what will end
Was never life.
A wise soul once said:
“You’re never more alive
Than when you’re dead.”
A crisis threatens you
With loss…
A loss of meaning and purpose;
Or with a loss of resources
And reserves.
A crisis reminds you
That life comes with no guarantees
That to live means to incur debt
That must be repaid
To all that sustains, nourishes and protects you.
A crisis teaches you
To live with deference
To wait and to be grateful
To effectively transact the business of life
By refusing to bank on it.
A crisis inaugurates
Your liberation
From the smallness of certainties
To a realm of possibility
A crisis is a time to live consciously.
A crisis conveys you
From the narrow alleys of fear
To the vast open skies of promise
You renew your relationship
With trust and faith.
A crisis is integral
To the design of humanity.
It reminds us that to simply be
One need not be accomplished
Just alive and inspired.
Things are as ordinary
Or extraordinary
As our faith makes them.
Man without faith
Is a corpse-
Dead to all that
Is alive around him.
He’s unable to see
Beauty, truth and possibility…
And the providence
That is packaged in the smallest gesture.
What conveys our actions?
Wherefrom our words arrive?
What is the origin of our thoughts?
On whose estate is our inner life being lived?
(It should be our own).
We may move about aimlessly…
But thanklessly and without promise-
Now that is to be rudderless.
Your faith is the ground on which you stand
It is the basis of your being
The purpose by which you live.
Why do you wish
For things to be different…
Better…?
Effort. Accomplishment. Success-
What if you’ve got it
All wrong?
Dissatisfaction, it is said,
Drives progress; it advances us…
But towards what?
The trajectory of progress
Is not a line, it’s a circle.
You come back to where you started.
You wonder…
What was the point
Of your heroism, your battles?
Whom were you fighting?
Why does your victory
Feel like a defeat?
The world has nothing to offer
Your strategies, your goals
Are aimed at the illusory.
The world will neither make
Nor protect you.
It is you who will come to shape it.
To feel diminished by the world
Is to be ignorant
Of your own vastness.
It is to have carried with you
A false knowledge
Based on your ignorance.
Break away from the shackles of thought
And see that your seeing
And know that your knowing
Is that which gives
Contour, purpose and spin
To the world that inhabits you.
To break
Is to collapse
It is to be shattered in pieces;
To be wounded by your own anger.
All external battles
Are fought internally
Leaving you to question
Was it really worth it?
Will this thing within me
Now wounded, now broken
Survive?
Or will it die?
The change that is to come
Is antithetical to what is
Continuity is not life’s virtue
Defiance is.
Death is not
The end of life
But the end
Of what is no longer life.
Bid adieu
To what is not
And say hello
To what is.
Life is not a charming story
Of escapisms
Life is an openness
To being, feeling and dying.
Bury the dead
Nurture the living
Move on. Move forward.
What has survived, must be lived.
Light cannot be contained
It can only fill up a space
Recognize that you are
The Light;
Not the reflection
Know that
Your sense of ‘I’
Is only relative to your perception
Of the ‘other’
Both are objects
Illumined by the
Light of your consciousness.
Do not hold on to sorrow
Let go of expectations
Know that your needs
Are being met
Stop depriving yourself
Through want
Don’t occupy a position
In order to serve your shadow.
Leave. Bring your light
To other spaces
Travel further knowing that
Your destination is a brighter light
Not darkness.
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 