Wherever You Are

There is no community
if we can't trust one another.

There is no trusting
if we don't know one another.

There is no knowing
if we avoid one another.

Come out, come out,
wherever you are...

Never a Given

Beauty can flower
from the ground of evil
just as easily as it can
from the ground of good.

Fear can swarm
over a good nation
just as easily as it can
over a desperate land.

The outcome
is never a given.

The results
speak for themselves.

Good News Bad News

Good news casts a shadow.
Bad news comes edged in light.

Shadows offer us depth.
Light shows us the way out.

The Space Between

You have your own truth.
You know what it is.
You don't need anyone else
to tell you what it should be.

Then you meet someone else.
He has his own truth.
It doesn't look like yours.
Now you have a choice.

Do you keep to your truth?
Or do you take up his?
Or does the truth move
into the space between?

Relentless

The most
dangerous force
in life is fear.

The most
relentless force
in life is love.

Mastered

No matter how powerful we are,
every one of us has a master.

When I learn to master myself,
I have a master I can live with.

Six Paths

The path of silence.
The path of denial.
The path of curiosity.
The path of wisdom.
The path of folly.
The path of no path.

The first leads inside itself.
The second leads to ignorance.
The third leads to diligence.
The fourth leads to sorrow.
The fifth leads to wisdom.
The sixth leads to joy.

Tao Guide

When I live in the past,
memory guides my life.

When I live in the future,
expectations guide my life.

When I live in this moment,
Tao guides my life.

How Forgiveness Begins

My forgiveness of others
begins when I forgive
myself for not being whole.

My forgiveness of my brokenness
begins when I forgive myself
for the person I was at birth.

My forgiveness of my birth
begins when I forgive God
for making me imperfect.

My forgiveness of God
for my many flaws begins when
I remember who I really am.

What a Tree Can Do

The root anchors the trunk.
The trunk supports the branch.
The branch raises the leaf.

A tree grows when each part
does its part for the common good.
Inequality isn't part of the equation.

What a tree can do, we can do.

Muddy

The river of life
is a muddy one.

But there are
deep springs
where the water
runs clear.

Reaching the Path

The path is clear.
How to reach the path is not.

First and Last

The first will be last.
The last will be first.

Of course.

Where there is
no first and last,
first and last are
one and the same.

First the Egg

The egg is fertilized,
then it starts to split.

First into two cells.
Then into four cells.
Then into eight and on.

If life begins at conception,
then our first act in life
is to break ourselves in two.

An omen of what's to come.

From the Inside

Whatever a tree knows,
it knows it from the inside.

We're afraid to believe
we could be that lucky.

All Are Necessary

If the rain falls on
the just and the unjust,
what am I to make
of a God that feeds evil?

Not all darkness is dark.
Not all light is pure.
God feeds all because
all are necessary.

Two Paths

The religious path
leads to many Gods.

The spiritual path
leads to the same God.

Spies

Yin hides in broad daylight.
Yang lurks in the dead of night.

They each balance the other
like spies in an enemy's camp.

Belief Systems

If my beliefs are based
on someone else's counsel,
someone else's expectations,
someone else's fears,
then I'm trying to live
someone else's life.

If my beliefs are based
on my own observations,
my own experiences,
my own trust in Tao,
then I'm willing to try
to live my own life.

Good Idea

What I see as evil
depends on what
I think of as good.

But where do I
get my ideas of
what is good?

Best to look at
all sides before
I decide on that.

All Others

Where there is only one right answer,
there can be only one right mind.

All others are crazy and dangerous.

Why Flowers

It's easy to see
our differences.

It's harder to see
we're all the same.

This is why
the universe
invented flowers.

To teach us to see
what is not easy to see.

Shadow Lines

The lines
that keep me
from exploring
my darker self
are like the lines
that keep me
from exploring
my better self.

Nothing
but shadows.

Only If

We become
who we
already are,
but only if
we want to.

Fix It

Nature
doesn't need
us to fix it.

It'll rebalance itself
after we're gone.

Nature
doesn't need
us to fix anything.

We do.

Conduits of Tao

The first door to open
is the willingness to believe.

The second door to open
is the willingness to see.

The third door to open
is the willingness to do.

We are all conduits of Tao,
willing or not.

Frightened

The only way I know
to overcome my fears
is to open my heart
and care about those
who frighten me.

When Life Begins

Life begins not with birth,
but with awareness.

Faith as a Weapon

In times of fear,
faith becomes a weapon.

But used as a weapon,
faith is useless against fear.

Only faith based on love
will defeat fear.

Wu Wei

Work that flows
isn't really work.

This is doing
without doing.

Play that flows
isn't only play.

This is action
without acting.

Intuition that flows
isn't just intuition.

This is knowing
without knowing how.