At What Age?

At what age do we stop letting our children win the foot race and start running our best to push them to run their best?

At what age do we let go of the strings we've pulled since they were infants in our arms?

At what age do we step back and let them fail?

At what age do we let go of our ideas of what they should do and be?

At what age do we stop caring about what others think of them?

At what age do we stop worrying about what we think they reveal about us?

Just how old do we have to be?

The Shelf-Life of Happiness

Happiness has a shorter shelf-life than pain.

Over time, pleasant memories fade
into a solitary image -- a snapshot in the yard
with a water hose in the middle of summer.

Painful memories push deeper as they grow older,
like the long, heavy roots of an old tree.
They are bearing the heavier load.

Chopping Off Heads

Why do I chop off someone's head and jam it on a pike (metaphorically, of course) when I know deep inside that I'm raising my hand against myself whenever I raise it against another?

Why is it so hard to feel connected to others in certain situations? Why is it so hard to see our oneness? Why is it so hard to see that we are so much more than we think we are?

The Questions You Cannot Answer

Waiting for an answer when you already know the answer is the same as asking a question you cannot answer.

Three Paths

We each follow
three paths in our lifetime.

The first is the path
of our parents and ancestors.
This is the way things were.

The second is the path
of our friends and peers.
This is the way things are.

The third path is the path
of our children and grandchildren.
This is the way we want things to be.

Winter Solstice

On the shortest day of the year,
the sun sits motionless on the lip of winter.
A new season begins as another year ends.
The universe continues its unfolding
like an endless bolt of cloth.
To ask why is useless, but
it's still a worthwhile meditation
on such a long, clear night.

A Beach of Sand

A beach of sand.
A mountain of boulders.
An ocean of rain.
A lifetime of moments.
The Tao of ten thousand things.

Forgiveness and Apology

Forgiveness is something I do in response to someone else's behavior.

Apology is something I do in response to my own behavior.

They are mirror images of one another -- forgiveness and apology. They teach us both about ourselves and about others.

Which Is Harder?

Which is harder to take,
the first step of a journey or the last?

Which is harder to believe,
the first sentence of a book or the last?

Which is harder to surrender,
the first faith given or the last faith found?

A Piece of Wood Floating

A piece of wood floating down a stream
follows the current around rocks and over
rapids and shoals and past gravel bars.
It has no mind of where it is going.
It has no will to chart a different course.
It simply floats along effortlessly
on a watery surface always changing.
It bangs into boulders sometimes.
It drags and scrapes over tiny, hard stones.
It drifts across the warm, still body
of a long pool in the middle of the day.
After miles and miles of streams
and rivers and ocean tides, it lands
on a far shore, worn smooth to the touch
and bleached a pure bone white.

On Being Human

The human condition is such a strange experience -- to be swept along in this surging river of sight and sound and taste and smell and touch.

Our interior landscapes can be even richer and more turbulent than the physical ones we inhabit. If we tried to take in everything contained in just one moment, the flood would surely drown us.

That's why we have consciousness. Consciousness is one of the ways we limit the universe so it doesn't overwhelm us. Consciousness only lets in as much as we can handle.

Time is another way we keep from being overwhelmed. Time is like peering through a narrow window.

The best mystery for me, though, is that we're here at all. What an intense thing it is simply to be.

Going Extinct

We are impermanent. As a species, we will become extinct some day. The last of us will die, and there will be no more human beings.

All that we ever were will pass away into temporal dust, and the universe will continue its unfolding as if we had never existed at all.

Impermanence is the natural way of all of the ten thousand things. There is a season for everything, as the writer of Ecclesiastes promises.

This is our season. The best we can do is to experience it fully.

The Split in the Woods

I follow a path into the woods.
The path gets narrower, overgrown.
The woods grow darker the father I go.

Then suddenly, the path splits.
One to the left. One to the right.
I look at the two paths and where
they each seem to be heading.
I think about where I am in the world
and calculate where each path
might eventually take me.

Then I look down each one
as far as I can see,
and then I make a choice.

Then I ask myself,
did I just make a choice?
Or did the choice just make me?

Unanswered Question

What does it take to live in the ocean?
It takes being part of the ocean.

What does it take to live under a mountain?
It takes being part of the mountain.

What does it take to live on the moon?
It takes being part of the moon.

What does it take to live in the Tao?

Why Go to So Much Trouble?

A wall is harder to build than a house.
A sword is harder to sharpen than a scalpel.
A fence is harder to repair than a friendship.

So why do we go to so much extra trouble?

The Boundaries of the Ten Thousand Things

We push the boundaries of the universe whenever we try to see the edge of it.

We multiply the ten thousand things whenever we try to see the smallest thing.

For this reason, there is no edge, no smallest thing for us. There will always be more.

It is as if we bring the universe into being just by looking for it.

Five Mountains

One mountain is for climbing.
It is the one in front of you.

One mountain is for distance.
It is the one you are standing on.

One mountain is for silence.
It is the one you are deep within.

One mountain is for questioning.
It is the one you will never reach.

One mountain is for rest.
It is the one you know like the back of your hand.

The Work of Circles

A circle can be the boundary of what it contains.
Or it can be the barrier to what remains outside.
Or it can be the open space where edges meet.

Time Tricks

Time plays an interesting trick on us as we travel through it from one edge of our life to the other.

It pretends to pass faster as we get older.

If we pay attention to each moment, though, we discover that time passes slower and slower as we get closer to being fully present in the moment -- this moment right here.

Now.

Dreaming or Awake?

When I wake up in the middle of the night,
am I awake or am I dreaming I'm awake?

When I fall asleep in the middle of the day,
am I sleeping or am I dreaming I'm asleep?

When I dream I'm awake, which am I?
Dreaming or awake?

I Have Already

I have already made all of the mistakes I will ever make.
I have already walked all of the miles I will ever walk.
I have already seen all of the mysteries I will ever see.
It is the passing of time that makes it seem otherwise.

When I Do Not Know

When I do not know what to do,
the hardest thing to do is nothing.

When I do not know where to go,
Sitting still becomes an act of passion.

When I do not know what to say,
waiting for an answer becomes my task.

Birthday Present

Growing older in body.
Growing older in bed.

Growing older in mind.
Growing older in stupidity.

Growing older in spirit.
Growing older in wisdom.

Growing older in selfishness.
Growing older in innocence.

Growing older in divinity.
Growing older inside my own skin.

Seen from a distance,
growing older looks awful.

But it's not.

Stargazing

We can see the birth of stars.
We can see the death of stars.
We can see stars in different stages of their lives.

But we cannot watch a star blaze into being,
grow up through star adolescence into
star adulthood and on into star old age
and death. Our own lifespans do not allow it.

So it is by speculation that we know
what we know about the lives of stars.
How many other things in our own lives
do we know what we know by speculation?

And what is speculation but another form of faith?

The Spider Spins a Web

A spider was spinning her web one day when a fly came to call. "What a lovely pattern," said the fly. "May I take a closer look?"

"Of course, my dear," said the spider. "But be careful where you step, for I haven't quite finished, and some of the strands are still wet and weak."

The fly buzzed round and round the delicate design and finally lighted on one corner. "My feet seem to be stuck," he said as he struggled to fly away again.

"So I see," said the spider. "Perhaps you'd like to stay for dinner, then."

"Do I have a choice?" answered the fly.

"You did," said the spider, "until you decided to land."

If You Are Hungry

If you are hungry and I give you something to eat, I feed us both.
If you are sick and I comfort you, I comfort us both.
If you are naked and I clothe you, I clothe us both.

If you are thirsty and I deny you water, I deny us both.
If you are weak and I strike you, I strike us both.
If you are cold and I strip you, I strip us both.

Your deficits offer me a chance to help us both.
If I don't take it, we both feel the loss,
but mine is the deeper pain.

Neighbor, Enemy, Friend

My neighbor can be my enemy,
or my neighbor can be my friend.
If my enemy can be my neighbor
and my neighbor can be my friend,
can my enemy be my friend?

Enlarging the Tribe

We are a tribal species. We build walls, set borders, and mark boundaries to set us apart from those who are not like us.

Sometimes we do this because we are afraid of those we do not understand.

Sometimes we do it because we must protect ourselves from those who would overrun us.

Sometimes we do it because we don't like how others live their lives or cook their food or raise their children or worship their god or make their music.

Sometimes we do it because we want things to go our way.

Sometimes we do it because we are addicted to the familiar.

Whatever the reason, though, it's important to remember that our true tribe is larger than we could ever imagine.

Nothing Lasts Forever

Nothing lasts forever
because there is no forever.
There is only the present.

The eternal now.

Be Still

Be still in your body,
and you will find rest.

Be still in your mind,
and you will find peace.

Be still in your spirit,
and you will find silence.

Silencing the Birds

If I clap my hands near a tree full of noisy starlings, they will fall silent.

But what noise can I make to silence the chirping in the tree of my mind?

A Tangled Knot

I am a knot of perceptions moving through a small sliver of time and a small sliver of space.

There's so little of me that it's almost as if I'm not here at all, but to me, it's everything -- to me, that is.

But what is "me"?

The older I become, the more mysterious I find "me" to be. The knot grows ever more tangled and intricate.

The more I know, the less I understand.

The Longer Journey

I can walk back and forth
to my neighbor's house
day after day after day and see
something new every time I go.

I can also travel around the world
and never really notice anything
and in the end come back home
empty-headed.

Which is the longer journey?

Consecrating the Temple

When the temple is made by hands, it is consecrated with blood.

When the temple is made by the mind, it is consecrated with guilt.

When the temple is made by the spirit, it is consecrated with humanity.

Four Things

Four things bind us together.

The birth of a child.
A common enemy.
The setting sun.
The fear of being alone.

Four things separate us.

Belief in only one way.
Infallible scriptures.
The fear of dying.
God's exploration of discreteness.

Gifts of Growing Older

What is wisdom?
The answer to the question before the question arises.

What is insight?
The discovery of a truth inside that is also mirrored outside.

What is vision?
The recognition of one's path as it becomes one's path.

Pilgrimage

Every step we take is a pilgrimage -- because every step we take is a step along the journey we make every day across our own holy ground.

High Math

Numbers have made it possible for us to construct -- literally -- the modern world we live in. Arithmetic. Calculus. Mathematics in general. Without these, we would still be living in caves -- and there are too many of us to go back to that.

Without math, we don't even know how many of us there are.

But math is just a symbol system we use for seeing the world a certain way. Language is the same thing -- a tool we use to see and "understand" the world a certain way.

The deepest "world," though, is the one that cannot be reached through numbers and words.

One Thousand Steps

One thousand steps make you tired.
One hundred steps make you exhausted.
Ten steps make you nigh unto death.
One step makes the next one possible.
No steps make the journey complete.

The Nomadic Life of Money

Money has no home of its own. It travels a nomadic life from pocket to pocket. This is as it should be.

In a healthy land, money flows back and forth from those who need to those who have. The needs and the haves change, too. Some days, I need. Some days, I have. When I need something, money flows from me to those who have it. When others need what I have, money flows from them to me.

In a sick land, money stops flowing. Its nomadic wandering ends. It hardens into numbers on balance sheets designed to secure the future.

The future is not about security, though, and life is not about money.

We create the future right here in the present, moment by moment by moment.

We become the true nomads -- nomads of time.

Center of the Universe

The concept of infinity
allows anything to be
the pivot of the universe.

How does it feel
to be the center point?

Turning Point

A turning point
at the right moment
is a blessing.

A turning point
at the wrong moment
is a tragedy.

A turning point
at any other moment
is probably not.

Why Go to the Trouble?

Why sew a coat
if you don't want
anyone to wear it?

Why plant an orchard
if you don't want
anyone to eat from it?

Why build a house
if you don't want
anyone to live in it?

Why seek the truth
if you don't want
anyone to have it?

What We Do

What we do
in this life matters.

It matters at
that point where
our separateness begins.

It matters how
we treat others.

It matters because
we are there, too,
inside their skin with them,
even when neither of us
realizes it.

What Separateness Brings

Separateness brings fear.
Fear brings suffering.
Suffering brings guilt.
Guilt brings pain.
Pain brings wisdom.

The Pointing Finger

By pointing to one thing
as a way to understand
something else, we can
help others understand.

On the other hand,
when we turn one thing
into a symbol
for something else,
we lay the groundwork
for misdirection.

Best to remember
the symbol is not the thing.
The pointing finger
is not the moon.

The Snake and the Mouse

The snake said to the mouse one morning in the corner of the field, "You have eaten well, my friend. You're quite a tasty morsel."

"Gout," answered the mouse. "It's a misery to live so high."

"Then let me dispose of your misery for you, sir," said the snake.

"Oh, but I would be gone with it, and you would inherit a terrible pain in your tail. I'm not worth the trouble," the mouse replied as he slowly turned and waddled away.

The snake flicked his tongue and followed not far behind.

When the Teacher Is Ready

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

This is true.

It is also true that when the teacher is ready, the student will appear.

A good guide is the secret to good teaching.

Newborn

As we discover who we are,
our perspective changes.

As our perspective changes,
we are born into a new reality.

As a newborn in a new reality,
we explore our new world.

We discover more of who we are,
and our perspective changes again.

In this way, we are resurrected
countless times before we die.

Spending Time Alone

Spending time alone
lets you see how much
you like yourself.

Or how little.

Best to become
the person you want
to be with.