Flowers bloom
They express so much joy!
But do they do so
Out of their own doing?
They just are…
Receptive… responsive… changeable…
Expressive of that
Which enlivens them.
One need not do to be
Doing is only needed
To sustain the existence
Of that which is not.
One must never fail to be…
Receptive…responsive…changeable…
For in simply being
All gets done.
Leave behind and let go of past events.
Leave behind your memories of shame or defeat.
Leave behind all the bitterness.
Leave behind the pain of disrespect.
Leave behind others’ opinions.
Leave behind your failures.
Also leave behind your successes.
Leave behind your conditioning.
Leave behind all that is over.
Lighten the load. Drop the sack.
Look ahead. Stop turning back.
Be grateful for yet another chance
To start over…to be renewed.
Consciously die to the old.
In order to rediscover your gold.
Recreate your life. Pick yourself up.
There’s a reason why you’re still here.
Leave behind what’s gone. Start with what’s near.
Is evil
The absence of good?
Is good
The absence of evil?
When darkness falls
And the light disappears
Must we think of light as a lie;
As a feel-good fairytale?
Must we say it is afraid or weak?
For it allows darkness to conquer it
It’s destined to disappear– and so,
Does its impermanence make it a questionable principle?
Without darkness
We would not know light.
Without light
We would have no hope.
Just like light and darkness
Define each other,
So do good and evil
Clarify each other.
Co-existence is the eternal principle.
We are to the extent we are not.
Non-being is the shadow of being
By which we know that we bear the cross of our existence.
Your shadow tells you that you exist;
Your shadow is not another;
You cannot fight it or destroy it
Without destroying yourself.
We cannot destroy evil
Without destroying the good.
Goodness is right there
Where evil lives.
If there was to be
A hierarchy of values
Simplicity would be
The highest of all.
For in simple thoughts
And through simple actions
One can be thoughtful,
Economical and intentional
In their smallest gestures.
Simplicity takes immense courage.
It makes one resolute.
For to fall into temptation is easy
And then to pretend that these temptations
Are necessary– is a limitation
Of consciousness.
Simplicity opens up ways
It becomes an instrument of providence.
It surmounts problems easily
And allows you to exist
In a vast expanse of possibilities.
Nothing is a threat.
Nothing can destabilize you
For you stand on the most stable of grounds.
Love flows out of you naturally
For the barriers to love
Have not been created.
You simply had no need
For them in your life.
You’re able to accept life
On its terms and yet
Not be changed by it.
You’re able to surrender
And yet not give up trying.
You’re able to live in the midst of differences
With appreciation and not indifference.
You belong to no one
Because you belong to all.
And this need not be uttered…
For to utter something
Is to make it a lie.
It is to doom it to sure death.
It is to make a profound truth
An edifice… to push it out of your heart
And expose it to the delusions of your mind.
Simplicity, in essence, is silence.
It is to be
Without being concerned
About how to be.
Why do our passions trap us?
Why do they never live up
To their promise of liberation?
We see passion as the force
And the path for the work we do
And yet such work is inevitably dead-ended.
The real work we need to do
Is to forge a path to understanding.
For it is understanding that liberates us.
Our passions are the vehicle on which
We ride through the labyrinth of life.
We mistake them for our way.
We traverse through dense darkness
Every day, to arrive at a fresh dawn.
Time is memory; time is also promise.
But not everything we’ve learned
Is remembered. Much is forgotten
And along the way a lot is lost.
The day stands like a weight
That must be carried;
Its annoyances– endured.
Soon the promise of an ending
Becomes more comforting
Than the promise of a beginning.
Your intelligence suggests to you
That time must be more than just
The duration between excitement and dismay.
That its office cannot just be
To mark event and non-event.
Time is life.
It’s what silently watches
As you live your ideas
And then get disillusioned by them.
Ideas that once gripped you
Over time, lose their grip.
You’ve outlived your passion.
You now stand facing an abyss
What must you do?
Must you hold on to that which once held you?
Or should you let it go?
What do you stand to lose?
What will you be without your reason to be?
Do not choose definition and identity
When growth into a higher dimension beckons.
Allow your passion to dissolve into dispassion.
I remember the times when I was young
I could barely wait to grow and explore…
Life held so much promise…
I wanted to know love
I wanted to be versed in the language of beauty
I had ambitions…
And I knew in my heart
That learning the many dimensions of life
Would be one great adventure…
How true was the intuition of my heart…
And yet how unprepared it was
For all that was to unfold…
The heartbreaks, the disappointments, the challenges…
The ups—invariably cut down to size by the downs…
The black and the white that eventually
Always turned into grey.
Nothing, in life, it seemed
Would come easy…
Yet paradoxically,
The difficulties were rarely external.
As one grew, one realized
That dreams abide in our imagination
And living in the lap of time
Involves delays, limitations,
Constraints and conflicts…
The favourable is only an event away
From turning unfavourable…
Romance within the morass of existence too,
Looks different. It rarely is
Picture perfect.
Youth did grow and explore…
In and through its entanglements
With life it discovered–
Patience and determination
Acceptance and love
Resilience and faith.
It attuned itself to life’s rhythms–
Letting go and cherishing
Leaving behind and moving forward
Losing and gaining.
There’s no better teacher for youth
Than life itself.
While youth is blessed with potential
It is only through the spiritual powers
Of courage, compassion, faith and love
That such potential comes to live.
Youth is eternal
After every actualization of potential
One stands once again facing
The promise of new frontiers
The promise of something yet undiscovered.
At the heart of a vision
Is a good that is great.
It’s universal in its hope…
Large and all-encompassing in its fold…
Needed for the times to come.
However, achieving a vision
Is not as simple as wishing for it.
It requires work.
Its work is of inspiring change,
Enlightening… illuminating…
Fighting lazy assumptions,
Defeating doubt, breaking down barriers…
Challenging the status quo…
Questioning, learning, educating…
Fighting battles- some small, some big
But never losing sight
Of that which is worth fighting for.
A vision must be so great
It absorbs all that is small in us…
Our anxieties, our insecurities, our differences…
It must yield capability,
Competence and resilience.
It must ride on its own promise
While knowing well that
Life is inherently a kaleidoscope of contradictions
And that sometimes,
In order to move on
One must accept a temporary compromise.
A vision is corrective.
By design, it will guide you
It will clarify your understanding
And uplift your experiences to wisdom.
It will ensure that you too,
Are transformed
By the power of your own vision.
As you progress in its light
You will leave behind
Your self-interest, your ego, your pride…
Your darkness…
You will be protected in your solitude
(Even if you find yourself devoid of company)
And be freed of the shackles
Your times had bound you to.
Knowledge in itself
Is not enough
However,
One must have the wisdom
To see that.
Words have become slippery
They’re no longer able to
Firmly hold on to their meanings
Truth has no language…
No construction…
Words with their promiscuous meanings
Can no longer convey the truth.
The understanding
That one therefore needs
Is a non-verbal kind.
One that observes in silence
And can therefore see (but can no longer convey)
How our words
Have become an aberration of truth.
We’re all connected
Prior to our being
Organized by society
As family…as friends…
As lovers… as ex-es…
As enemies…. as rivals.
We’re not just connected to each other
But to all forms of life…
The mineral… the liquid…
the air… the space…
We’re in them
They’re in us
We’re a composite
Of so many existences
And a residue of so many lives
Yet our thought stands as a wall
Leaving us unable to see, hear and feel
Anything other than itself.
My separation is a delusion;
My individuality is a scam.
I contain nothing
Other than another
I am no one
If I’m not all of you.
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 