The Beautiful is the teacher
Of the Philosophical.
Apprehending beauty
Is the dawn of understanding.
Expressing beauty
Is the awakening of knowledge
Living as its instrument
Is our pilgrimage to wisdom.
What is Love?
Love is indefinable
But it needs to be explained
Lest we begin to define it
In terms of our bittersweet experiences;
In terms of what it never was–
An artefact of our desires.
Love,
Even if it were a thing
Would not be the thing in itself
But the spirit that lends itself
To a constitution and
Makes perceptible a harmony.
It’s the melody in a song
It’s the fragrance that emanates
From a flower and then
Fills up the air that surrounds it.
It is the intensity within emotion
That is distinct from the emotion itself.
Our very being is love.
And to the extent we are free
From the hunger and thirst of the heart;
From the endless wanting of the mind–
To that extent we are able
To express our love.
To Think Deeply
To think deeply
Is to question
The known.
It is to wonder
About the origins of our faith
And of faith’s true meaning.
It is to learn…
Not so that the learning
Becomes our new way,
But so that
One can recenter
On the path one is already on.
To think deeply
Is to express life’s experiences-
Good or bad- aesthetically.
To think deeply
Is to put thought to work
And action in deference to wisdom.
Who Are You?
In a sea of people
You are a wave.
In a country of hopes
You are an expectation.
In a family with needs
You are a sustainer
In an institution of faith
You are belief.
In a group of equals
You are a voice.
Amongst ‘forever friends’
You are comfort and company.
In an industry and the economy
You are a resource.
In passing time
You are a memory.
In changing reality
You are a constant.
In being and becoming
You are but a witness.
Not in the Resumé
For every hour
That one has lived…
Enjoyed… endured…
There has been
The eventual triumph
Of reason, relationships and resolve.
What greater proof of one’s abilities
Than their having lived
Without losing love and hope…
And having sustained their families
Their passions, their disciplines…
Their faith.
Reconciliation
How do we reconcile
The dichotomies of our lives?
–Faith and cynicism
–Hope and despair
–Love and disgust
–Pure being and conditioned thinking…
Doomed as we are
To be vulgar in choosing…
Irrespective
Of what choices we make.
…Or should we just live in limbo?
Eternally unfulfilled…
Except in the art we create
The stories we tell
The poetry we write
And the philosophies we propose.
Grace
That which allows
For both, ecstasy and sorrow
With a steady breath…
That which upholds dignity
And yet endures disgrace
Without bemoaning the loss of face
And without the haste to change…
That which has known both-
Deep affection and bitter estrangement
And knows that both
Are light and shadow
Co-existing in love’s eternal light.
“That” is not an imposition of will
It’s not an austerity
Nor a firm resolve…
“That” is an all-encompassing
All embracing
Grace.
Home
What you return to is home.
It’s not just the familiarity
Of things and routines…
It is their specific melody.
It’s not just the people
Who fill it with warmth and cheer,
It’s the belongingness
Within relationships.
Home is where you feel most at rest.
A home is made
Little by little,
Moment by moment,
Prayer by prayer…
With silent resolve
But more than that,
With faith–
That our home is our temple…
It’s where our devotion lives.
Fashioning
In the interstices
Of our daily activities
Exists silence.
A just-is-ness
A pause. An emptiness
That is not an end or a limitation
But a dissolution
Of senseless activity…
A soft, but firm reminder
That freedom, potentiality and truth
Lie within the weave
Of thought and action
But are not bound by them.
Fashioning (ourselves)
Is a spiritual action
That understands
The value and potential
Of the states of nothing-ness,
Just-is-ness, being-ness…
And the role they play
In our becoming.
The Real Tragedy
You’re out of sync…
In disharmony with life
When you begin
To see it as ‘yours’.
Your expectations grow
Ambition takes over
Your hopes and prayers
Get oriented towards control…
Life and its circumstances
Must favour you.
Accomplishment becomes your purpose
Love becomes an acquisition
You feel entitled to privilege
And wealth becomes the hub
Around which these revolve.
That which is abundant-
Life- forever giving
Becomes something you perversely
Try to steal for yourself.
When you fail to see the truth
You cling to law, ethics and codes of conduct.
Your education too
Gets appropriated.
It becomes subservient to mediocrity
It remains satisfied in meeting
Systemic objectives.
You graduate in degrees of ignorance
Forever in pursuit
Of the illusory.
Racing through your days
To the finish line.
But then comes a dawn
When accomplishment feels like failure
All acquisitions become soul-destroying
You’re unceremoniously stripped off
Your sense of entitlement.
The notions around which
Your life was anchored
Get swept away
By the currents of time.
Nothing lasts…
Except life.
The tragedy is not death
The tragedy is life not understood.
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 