Significance & Joy

We are of two temperaments;
Those who wish to leave their traces behind
And that gives significance to their lives and works
And those who have no such cares or desires
And live just for life and in the present moment.
12.20.11

Security & Insults

Hypersensitivity
Mushrooms out of insecurity;
Insult the insecure
And a mushroom cloud arises;
Insult the secure
And they do not notice.
12.19.11

Permanence & Delusions

All of life
And all its processes
Though always temporary
Are often regarded as permanent—
A perilous, slippery slope
Which conjures delusions
And promotes conflicts.
12.18.11

Happiness & Self

Those who look for happiness
Beyond themselves
Seldom find it.
12.17.11

Enemies & Wars

Powerful nations
Find great heroism and glory
In waging wars against external enemies;
Whereas wars against internal enemies, such as
Poverty, mental illness, illiteracy, waste, excesses, etc.
Are waged halfheartedly and are never won.
12.16.11

Greatness & Age

One of the reasons why
Great nations decline with time
Is because their governments
Grow demented with age.
12.15.11

Good & Bad

We are wired to generalize from details
Before proper examination of patterns;
Because of this inveterate tendency
To pass summary judgments in our minds
We summarily classify people as good or bad
When, in sooth, we all are good and bad
And only the proportions vary among us.
12.14.11

Details & Peace

The number of details
A mind has to process
Is inversely proportional
To the state of inner peace;
Peace comes with simplicity
And turmoil, with complexity.
12.13.11

Belief & Danger

The most dangerous race upon planet earth
Is the human race
And the most dangerous attributes of the human race
Are inculcated beliefs
And the most dangerous beliefs are those held as truths
Without evidence or examination or regard for others.
12.12.11

Romanticism & Reality

One of the most poignant examples
That demonstrates our inherent romanticism
Is our tendency to provide naïvely simple explanations
For our most profound and complicated emotional problems.
12.11.11

Information & Judgment

Informing one’s self by reading
Where one has no experience or judgment
Is a major source of wasteful and costly mistakes.
12.10.11

Might & Ethics

Mighty nations
Do not become powerful
Utilizing kindness and compassion;
That is why they’re all inherently unethical.
12.09.11

Enemy & Hate

The word enemy
Is a euphemism for hate
And sanctions inhumane behavior.
12.08.11

City & Cemetery

Seen from the air on a foggy day
A city resembles a crowded cemetery.
12.07.11

Virtues & Vices

A made-up mind is dangerous;
It exaggerates the virtues of its ideas
And is blind to their adversities and hazards.
12.06.11

Ceremonials & Beliefs

Were it not for ceremonials and rituals
Which keep alive the history of a people
None of us would have grown up shackled
With so many handed-down, ancestral beliefs.
12.05.11

Love & Perception

We can only love
What we can perceive
With our thoughts or senses;
What remains un-perceived
Remains unloved.
12.04.11

Beauty & Passion

Beauty
Carries no passions within itself
But it engenders passions in those who perceive it.
12.03.11

Enlightenment & Pleasure

Enlightenment
Releases our pleasures
From the body’s penitentiary
Into the free expanses of our intellect.
12.02.11

Loyalty & Place

If one dedicates
One’s loyalties
To where one grew up
Or to where one is living
Then one has missed his calling
To be equally loyal to all humanity.
12.01.11