Prosperity & Dishonesty

Whoever profits through dishonesty
Loses big in life
And whoever loses through honesty
Prospers in life;
The immediate win is the proverbial trap
Of the impatient minds
And all dishonest minds are impatient.
01.01.15

Time & Perception

New years
Soon to become old
Bring in new things
Soon to become old
But the only thing
That is ever-present
Which defines time
Is our perception.
12.31.14

Complexity & Dysfunction

The more complex a bodily organ is
The more complicated and frequent are its dysfunctions;
The brain is our human body's most complex organ
Its dysfunctions, frequent and consequential
Are denied, marginalized, and ignored
At an enormous cost to society.
12.30.14

Laws & Enlightenment

History has revealed to us 
That as long as human nature governs
Without the censorship of inner enlightenment
Corruption cannot be conquered in spite of strict laws;
The enlightened don’t require supervision to obey the law
The unenlightened disobey regardless of consequences
Only enlightenment can save humanity from itself.
12.29.14

Reason & Season

When traditions turn economical
We pay good money for the season
And lip service for the reason.
12.28.14

Appearance & Substance

When the snow
Paints the world white
And everything seems bright
In spite of the biting, bitter cold
It enhances our instinctive notion
That appearance supplants substance.
12.27.14

Family & Love

Family love is a well-tended garden;
It supports the most beautiful plants
And grows the most wholesome fruits.
12.26.14

Re-death & Rebirth

Every thing alive
Came from dead matter;
Every life is a resurrection;
Every death, a recyclement;
All rebirth and re-death
Come in one cycle.
12.25.14

Consciousness & Thoughts

We are our consciousness
Our consciousness is our thoughts
And our thoughts are the winds of our minds
Which blow and storm out of our control;
We are all prisoners of our thoughts
Until we learn to harness them
To our mental sails.
12.24.14

Truth & Falsehood

Truth should never be afraid of falsehood;
Instead, falsehood should be afraid of truth
And if truth does not cower, it always prevails.
It is our duty to fight the indignity of falsehood
Lest it should overcome the truths we stand for.
12.23.14

Love & Life

Love is peaceful
Hate is dangerous
Cheating is harmful
Aggression is self-destructive
And sloth is detrimental;
Our best chance
At a good life
Is to cling
To love.
12.22.14

Artfullness & Cruelty

The primitive compete in cruelty
And the enlightened, in art;
Every thing cruel is primitive
And every thing artful is civilized;
One can assess a people's enlightenment
By hefting their artfulness against their cruelty.
12.20.14

Best & Only

When we insist
That no one can best us
Or that we are the only truth
What we are essentially doing
Is shunning enlightenment.
12.19.14

Reason & Emotion

When reason
Is subdued by emotion
Conflicts flourish;
When emotion
Is subdued by reason
Conflicts resolve.
12.18.14

Age & Loss

As we prosper and age
Losing friends and loved ones
Reminds us of how ephemeral we are;
We should not be surprised by loss
Because everything we’ve gained
We will ultimately lose.
12.17.14

Concern & Enlightenment

Concern for others is of five types:
Concern for those we love
Concern for those we like
Concern for those we know
Concern for those we don’t know
And concern for those we dislike or hate;
The lowest levels of enlightenment require
That we have concern for those we love or like or know
And the highest levels require that we have concern
For those we don’t know or dislike or hate.
12.16.14

Ignorance & Corruption

Corruption and ignorance are formidable foes;
They are epidemic among the unenlightened
And resist eradication by law enforcement;
Their only true remedy is enlightenment
Which is nearly impossible to achieve
When minds are resistant.
12.15.14

Love & Worth

We should never take love for granted;
To recognize its worth only after losing it
Is to squander spirit and live unaware.
12.14.14

Traditions & Beliefs

Traditions and beliefs
Frame the identity of a society
Format its individuals’ communal personalities
And program its annual festivities;
Without traditions and beliefs
Societies disintegrate.
12.13.14

Love & Fear

Behind every love
Lurks a seed of fear,
The fear of loss;
We must feed love
And starve fear
Lest it spoil
Love’s sublimity.
12.12.14

Miracles & Ordinary

Miracles turn ordinary
When they occur often;
We fly, go into space
Sequence genomes
Transplant organs
Fission atoms
Etc. and yet
Two hundred years earlier
All of these and more
Would have been
Miracles.
12.11.14

Music & Justice

The reason music
Touches our souls
Is because it cares not
Who is enjoying it;
It sings and is fair
To everyone.
12.10.14

Worry & Outcome

Worry is a fierce, destructive force
Which rarely improves outcomes;
Pursuing worthwhile ends
Is a wiser way to live.
12.09.14

Pleasure & Joy

Thrills age
Pleasures end
Happiness is ephemeral
But joy lives on inside our souls
As long as we nurture it with love.
12.08.14

Love & Hate

Love is inescapable
It is the nectar of spirit
Which is the nourisher of life;
Those who cannot find love
Fill their spiritual vacuum
With the love of hate.
12.07.14

LIving & Minds

If we think better, we will live better
For wherever we may be, and
Whatever the conditions
We live in our minds.
12.06.14

Time & LIstening

One should not begin
A conversation with a lonely soul
If one does not have the time
It takes to drain the abscess
The time it takes to listen.
12.05.14

Anger & Expression

We should not express our thoughts
Until after the anger storm passes;
Speaking while the storm rages
May provoke a heavier storm.
12.04.14

People & Goodness

If we do not try
To change who people are
We will understand them better;
If we try to change them, they will defeat us;
If we insist on believing that all people are good
We will set ourselves up to be taken advantage of.
12.03.14

Work & Art

Without the arts
Life is mundane work
With arts, it is sublime joy;
For a full life, both are necessary.
12.01.14

Defeat & Surrender

We are definitely defeated
Only when we lose our will to keep trying;
Defeat wins only when minds surrender.
12.01.14