Top Down

To
think
that the top
of the mountain
is somehow better than
the skirt of the mountain or
that the skirt of the mountain
is somehow better than
the river valley below
is to think with
blinders
on.

Do and Not Do

Do and not do.

The first is about
doing something.

The second is about
letting go of the doing.

The first is about
taking action.

The second is about
trusting the Way.

Barred

I bar you from my house.
I fence you from my yard.
I bully you from my street.
I blackball you from my club.
I block you from my church.
I deport you from my country.

And every time I cast you out,
my life shrinks even smaller.

Same Thing

Buds appear on branches
even before winter is half gone.

What wakes them into being?

Insights rise inside me
even before I open my eyes.

What wakes me into seeing?

Where There Is Light

Where there is light,
there is a way to light.

Where there is light,
there are seekers of light.

Where there is darkness,
there is a way to depth.

Where there is darkness,
there are seekers of wisdom.

Always New

The new is always with us,
but where it will arise next
is anybody's guess.

To catch it while it's still new
depends not on where we look
but on how we look.

No Time

There is this moment,
and there is the moment
I remember in this moment.

Which one is real?
This moment or
the remembered one?

One possesses the body.
The other possesses the mind.
But what possesses the spirit?

The flow of eternity: no time.

Another Door Closing

The sun goes down every evening
because the earth spins in its orbit.

A sunset is nothing more than this,
and yet watching the sun go down
can lift some spirits and terrify others.

Another door closing.

Vessels

Where is Tao in the seed
that grows into a forest?

Where is God in the silence
that draws me deeper in?

When are the ten thousand things
not vessels for the Divine?

Sharpened

Family will always be
one of the grinding stones
that shape and sharpen us.

Forgiveness is the water
that cools each new edge.

Fear of Death

I used to be afraid of death.
That's when I was afraid of hell.

I don't believe in hell anymore,
so I don't fear death so much now.

Dying maybe. Saying good bye, yes.
But death itself? Not anymore.

That's what seeking Tao has taught me.

Hide-and-Seek

Seeing God
in the faces
of everyone
I meet is
even harder
than seeing
God in me.

It's like playing
hide-and-seek
with the Divine.