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.