Shielded

Inner peace shields nothing.
Love offers no protection at all.

Inner peace requires no shield.
Compassion stills the need for fear.

Not One Step

To go higher.
To go deeper.
To go farther.
To go broader.

Not one step
is required.

Where Most Live

To believe
or not to believe.

Both take courage.

One tests freedom.
The other tests security.

Most live in between.

Stay or Go

I look down an old road.
No telling what lies at the end.

If I'm not willing to help others,
I might as well stay home.

Where Balance Occurs

The center isn't
necessarily in the middle.

It's at that point
where balance occurs.

Persistence

Serenity is fleeting.
Gratitude continues.

Joy comes and goes.
Wisdom remains.

Happiness fades. 
Compassion lasts.

What Never Began

Time ends.
Space ends.
The universe ends. 
The ten thousand things end.

What ends
begins again.

What doesn't end
never began.

Legacy Seeds

Legacies are the seeds
the past plants in the present
to bloom in the future.

Some seeds die in the ground.
Some grow into choking weeds.
Some grow into gardens.

How hard it is to know
which seeds I'm planting.

My Part

My responsibility
is to live my part
of the tree of life,
because the tree of life
sustains us all.

Its roots go deeper
than anything I know.

Which Tired?

When I am tired
at the end of a day,
which tired am I?

Am I tired because
I pressed against
the current of Tao?

Or am I tired because
I swam strong
in the current of Tao?

One is exhausting.
One is exhilarating.

Always More

There is always more
than meets the eye.
This is where
light comes from.

There is always more
than meets the heart.
This is where
darkness comes from.

The First Mystery

Even when I listen,
I don't always hear.

Even when I look,
I don't always see.

This is the first
mystery of God.