Nations & Truth

Nations
No matter how powerful
Dare not speak the whole truth
Are too feeble to heft a conscience
And too frail to halt internal decay.
05.31.12

Power & Art

While the arts
Regenerate their joys
With each passing generation
Power and wealth, being self-serving
Expire with time and endanger our simple joys.
05.30.12

Fed & Hungry

Parading the well fed
Before the hungry
Offends dignity.
05.29.12

Laws & Reflexes

Reflex laws
Hurridly enacted
In reaction to happenings
Have long-term adverse effects
That exceed the good they can ever do.
05.28.12

Faces & Roles

Some spend money with pain
And we call them stingy;
Some spend it with joy
And we call them generous;
And some spend it with caution
And we call them frugal;
Curiously, these three faces of humanity
Enact their parts regardless of wealth or power.
05.27.12

Masses & Honesty

Whosoever addresses the masses
Especially leaders, politicians, & media mongers
Sacrifices honesty and purity for the sake of applause.
05.26.12

Countries & Death

Unlike people
Countries begin to die
Only after they reach their zenith;
From henceforth, they die a slow death
Languishing on, without ever dying completely.
05.25.12

Progress & Regress

When one cannot progress
One will regress
For naught remains the same.
05.24.12

Like & Dislike

To try to like something
About someone you dislike
Leads to inner growth
Through humility.
05.23.12

Youth & Age

Youth is energetic, eager to play
It loves laughter, speed, risks, and nurtures passions;
Age is tired, eager to rest
It lives slowly, craves security, and tempers passions.
To find your age, count your laughs and risks
And measure your speed and passions.
05.22.12

Criticism & Praise

Enlightenment
Is kindled by criticism
And snuffed by praise.
05.21.12

Nature & Differences

Anytime we think that we are different
We really are thinking that others are different
From our own frame of reference,
Forgetting that mother nature
Is the arch matriarch of all differences 
And sanctions no one’s frame of reference
Over another’s.
05.20.12

Countries & Cages

Countries are Homo sapiens cages;
They interfere with natural human migrations
But remain pervious to all the other living creatures
Who freely permeate coveted national boarders
Without passports or identification papers.
If we were to cage animals similarly
We would be accused of cruelty.
05.19.12

Law & Obeisance

One can ascertain 
The primitiveness or enlightenment
Of an individual, a group, or a people
By measuring the unsupervised obeisance
With which they observe the laws of the land.
05.18.12

Luve & Luxury

Nowadays
To have a loving family
Is the most enviable luxury.
05.17.12

Awakening & Energy

There are three prerequisites
To waking up with alacritous energy:
Physical health, mental health
And passions.
05.16.12

Digestion & Reaction

Digestion is necessary
For an appropriate reaction;
When you hear disturbing news
If you take time to digest them well
You will end up reacting more effectively.
05.15.12

Love & Truth

The best four tests of love's sincerity
Are wealth, power, lust, and beauty;
Subtract these four from love
And what's left is true love.
05.14.12

Pain & Attitude

What hurts when things turn awry
Is the negative mood, which consumes us
And which can be reversed with revitalized perceptions
In spite of real or imagined adverse consequences;
Insisting on as good mood is the winning attitude.
05.13.12

Thoughts & Errors

Believing our own thoughts
Without the scrutiny of evidence
Is responsible for most of our errors.
05.12.1.2

Justice & Injustice

If you are ever ambushed by injustice
Open your mind and you shall find
Injustice thriving in every realm
Where the idea of justice
Is still held sacred.
05.11.12

Malevolence & Love

It is hard to love your fellow man
If you cannot derive from malevolence
A sympathetic understanding of others.
05.10.12

Judging & Understanding

You learn more
When you try to understand
Someone's actions and emotions
Than if you judge them at face value
Without trying to understand their cause.
05.09.12

Dying & Sacrifice

The ultimate sacrifice
Is not dying for something;
It's living for it in spite of the pain.
05.08.12

Wrong & Wright

I worry when I think
That I might be wrong
But I worry more when I believe
That I am right.
05.07.12

Illusions & Disillusions

Most hopes
Begin as illusions
And end up as disillusions
05.06.12

Worship & Heaven

Worship
Is heaven’s bouquet
Of awe, love, fear, and hope.
05.05.12

Dreams & Homes

Robbing one’s dreams
Hurts more than robbing one’s home.
05.04.12

Deprivation & External

Eight deprivation states render us vulnerable & irrational:
Hunger, despair, loneliness, poverty
Aging, anger, hate, and lust;
The other three states, which render us vulnerable
But are not tentacles of the octopus of deprivation
Because they enter us from without
Are disease, intoxication, and love.
05.03.12

Enlightenment & Cruelty

A good measure of enlightenment
Is its absolute rejection of cruelty
At any cost and for any reason.
05.02.12