Best Light

The journey out of darkness
is also a journey into darkness.

To know our own ignorance
is our best hope for light.

Dark Wealth

To have too much earthly wealth
is the burden of too much fear.

This is why the rich ones who have
no light need our forgiveness.

Quiet Clearing

Inside and out, we each live
in a thicket of voices.

When the din becomes too much,
we make a clearing for silence.

Silence is the only place where
we can hear what's being said.

Impossible

It's easy
to box up
my religion
and put it
in a closet.

Boxing up
my spiritual life,
on the other hand,
has become
impossible.

Our Tiny Corner

Humans will never be able
to destroy all life on the planet.
The universe is too fecund.

Even our tiny corner of it.

All I Miss

A mite rides
atop an elephant.

The mite is all I see.
The elephant is all I miss.

We are immersed in Tao
and never even notice we're wet.

We're too thirsty for more
of whatever we think we're missing.

Shadow Drawing

We each leave a shadow behind
when we die. A thin, faint line.
Part of an endless drawing Tao
is making of the ten thousand things.

Billions

When a billion in the bank
still isn't enough to drive one
to do whatever he can to help
those who are hurting,
then money should come
to mean nothing at all.

Not every poor man
deserves his poverty.
Not every rich man
deserves his wealth.

Art Walk

We carry art
around with us
everywhere we go,
deep inside.

When art looks out
through our eyes,
we see art
all around us,
and we realize
it's been hiding
in plain sight
all along.

Like Tao.

Finding the Door

Ask, and you'll receive.
Seek, and you'll find.
Knock, and the door will open.

It isn't the asking.
It isn't the receiving.

But if I don't seek after I ask,
how will I find the door?

Forever Before Us

We live on
the front edge of night.

But this moment is lit,
and the future never stops
arriving as the present.

The darkness remains
forever before us.

Stretch

I can look up or
I can keep my eyes
fastened on the road.

Trees stretch skyward.
The road stretches to the horizon.

When I look up,
I stretch with the trees.

When I look ahead,
I stretch with the road.

To Touch Us

Time carves us.
Tao shapes us.

What we become
depends on
what we allow
to touch us.

Lunatic

The moon appears out of nothing.
It grows brighter every night.
It slides back into silence.
It becomes new again.

Month after month.

I appear out of nothing.
I grow brighter every night.
I slide back into silence.
I become new again.

Year after year.

No Where Else

Fences are the warp and woof
of our communal life together.

They protect us from each other.
They hold us in and contain us.
They keep us thinking we're different.

And we are.
But only where fences matter.

No where else.

Rio Tao

We are rivers flowing
into the ocean of Tao.

We are clouds flowing
across the sky of Tao.

We are herds flowing
over the land of Tao.

Tao flowing through Tao.

Missing the Kingdom

To wait a lifetime to gain
the kingdom of heaven
is to waste a lifetime of not living
in the kingdom of heaven right now.

The Beginning of Community

Community begins
when we create
a lighted place
between us.

A space big enough
for each of us to step into.

Open the Roof

Friends lowered a sick man
down through a hole
in the roof of the house
where Jesus was teaching.

As the story goes,
Jesus healed the man,
who then stood up,
picked up his bed,
and walked out.

When I need healing,
it's good to have friends
who will open a roof for me.

Opening a roof is sometimes
the only healing we need.

Beyond It

Unless there
are shadows,
there is no light.

Night and day.
Yin and yang.
Male and female.
Hard and soft.
Cold and hot.

There is not one
without the other.

Easy to know this.
Much harder to see
beyond it.

River of This Moment

Every moment
is its own thing.

Eternity is nothing but
the river of this moment.

Division

Differences
don't divide us.

Our egos do.

No Roof

Nothing separates
heaven and earth --
no matter what
kind of roof we build
to protect us from it.

Dark Inside

There is light everywhere.
More than enough for our needs.

But the darkness we carry inside
makes it hard to see this.

Empty

I have no senses
that can take it in
or read it in the air
or prove it to myself.

I have no name
I can use to name it.

It's invisible,
but when I look,
I see it.

It's silent,
but when I listen,
I hear it.

How can emptiness
remain so full?

Fear of Self

No road is too long.
No path is too narrow.
No journey is too hard.

It is only our fear for self
that makes us think so.

Skins

The skin of the ego
is thin and tough.

The skin of the heart
is thinner and tougher.

Clouded

Storms darken the land,
then blow on through. 

A clouded mind needs
a different wind to clear.

Workers

To labor with your hands
is a blessing.

To labor with your mind
is a gift.

To labor with your heart
is a strength.

To labor with just your money
is a misery.

Escape Route

Hillsides hold rivers on course
even as the rivers wear them away.

Tree limbs stretch higher every year
even as their roots dig deeper underground.

What holds us in place
creates the way of our escape.