Foothold

Planting yourself at the foot of a wall
is the first step to breaking the wall.

Energy Switch

I am potential
before I make a decision.

I switch to energy
after I make it.

Large

Everything needs
walls to exist.

Without barriers,
there can be
no separate "thing."

Who surveys
these borderlines?
Who sets these boundaries?

Some lines are clear.
Some lines are not.

We are larger
than we think.

Burn and Burn

Some burn bright for a long time.
Some burn bright only for a moment.
Some never seem to burn at all.
Some burn and burn just because they can.

Have respect for the first.
Have compassion for the second.
Have patience with the third.
Make friends with the fourth.

Frame

Put a frame around anything,
and it suddenly becomes beautiful.
Or violent. Or painful. Or holy. Or crass.

What is it about boundaries
that confounds us so?

Six Blinders

The clouds of youth.
The fog of battle.
The haze of memory.
The mist of the future.
The smoke of the past.
The drizzle of age.

Colors

We can ignore color.
Or we can celebrate color.
But we can't condemn color.

Stinger

Tao gives a stinger
to the fragile ones
who are easy to crush.

Every world line
has its compensations.

Wisdom seeks balance.
Serenity travels along
the middle way.

Satisfaction

Satisfaction is a moment,
not a state of being.

We travel through them,
one after another,
like a series of tunnels
along a mountain road.

What comes between
is just a moment, too.
No matter how narrow
or steep the road becomes.

Structure and Chaos

Structure begets structure.
Chaos begets chaos.

This is how the universe
stays in balance when no
two pieces are the same.

Tao begets structure.
Tao begets chaos.

This is how Tao creates
the ten thousand things
anew every moment.

First Experience

Memory is reductive.

It creates flash cards
of random events
and flips through them
when we recall one.

But no matter how good,
flash cards can never
resurrect the body
of the first experience.

Body Mind

The body goes in one direction.
The mind goes in another.

What to do?

Let the body go the body's way.
Let the mind go the mind's way.

There is no body, no mind in Tao.

Bridge Work

Building a bridge
does not guarantee
trade and commerce.

Building a bridge
does not guarantee
blooming friendships.

Building a bridge
does not guarantee
dimmed hostilities.

Neither does not
building a bridge.

Prayers

Praising Allah
is a prayer.

Calling on God
is a prayer.

Watching for Tao
is a prayer.

Sitting still
is a prayer.

Looking for wisdom
is a prayer.

Silence
is a prayer.

Frenzy and Drama and Chaos

When I was young,
my mind wanted frenzy
and drama and chaos.

In my middle years,
my life was full of frenzy
and drama and chaos.

In my latest years,
my soul flees from frenzy
and drama and chaos.

Moon Blindness

If we were all blind,
how would we know
about stars and the moon?

What other mysteries
would we explore instead?

What are we missing
even now because
we cannot see?

Eye of Tao

The eye of Tao
looks out
from everything.

But I won't notice
if I don't look.

Gate

Sometimes I am a fence.
Sometimes I am a gate.

Why matters more than which.

More or Less

We want more and more.
We get more and more.
We need more and more.

How much more will it take
before we want less and less?

A-B Test

You are sleepwalking
or you are awake.
Which one?

You are patient
or you are afraid to act.
Pick one.

You know enough
or you don't know enough.
Act on what you know.

You have enough
or you don't have enough.
Answer this one carefully.

You love enough
or you don't love enough.
Easy one.

One by One

When we give something a name,
we make it something just by naming it.

It was already there before our naming,
but it didn't exist for us until we did.

No Hell

There is no hell.
How can there be?

Hell is separation
from the Divine.
But that's impossible.

Hell is a myth
we create either because
our imagination is too small
or our God is.

Species

Trees. Arteries.
Roads. Roots.
Nerves. Rivers. Veins.
Winds. Flowers.
Languages. Religions.
Families. Org charts.

It is the nature of
the ten thousand things
to split into branches,
and branches,
and branches.

It is also the nature of
the ten thousand things
to flow forever into one.

If We Only Knew

When we were a seed,
we imagined ourselves as a shoot.

When we were a shoot,
we imagined ourselves as a bud.

When we were a bud,
we imagined ourselves as a flower.

When we were a flower,
we imagined ourselves as a seed.

Infants

We are always infants.

We always have
so much more to learn.

Leaf Blindness

We see them in spring
when they green out.

Then we stop seeing them
when summer sends us
under the nearest shade.

Then we see them again
in the fall when they
ignite whole forests.

Then we stop seeing them
after they die in winter.

Then suddenly spring
pops them out like rabbits,
and it's as if we're seeing them
for the very first time.

Heat

It doesn't matter
what came before.

It doesn't matter
what will come after.

We're only on fire
now.

Deception of Wisdom

The shifting perspective of age
offers the deception of wisdom.

But years are not the source of insight
and wisdom worth its salt
doesn't come from growing old.

Tango

The surface of the ocean
and the bottom of the sky
are so intimate that
they move as one.

The ocean is still the ocean.
The sky is still the sky.

Where one begins
and the other ends
is anybody's guess.

Celebration

When we show up
to help a friend
celebrate a life change,
we cannot help
but change, too.

To do otherwise
is to fail our friend.

Three Temples

First is the temple of beauty.
Second is the temple of grace.
Third is the temple of sorrow.

The first heals innocence.
It's for everything new.

The second heals doubt.
It's for everything weak.

The third heals greed.
It's for everything lost.