Tragedy and Outcome

If tragedy
Does not make you bitter
It will make you better.

The Passing

When we pass a car on the highway
We don’t look back to see behind
We look forward and go on.
When we die, life does not look back
It looks forward and goes on.
But the living do remember the dead
Those they have passed on life’s highway.

Body and Mind

When mind goes before the body
It is sad
When body goes before the mind
It is tragic.

Faith & Evil

Good faith
Does not justify evil;
When faith justifies evil
It is bad faith.

Small & Large

When our world is small
Everything seems large
And when our world is large
Everything seems small;
Perception
Determines importance
Better than measurement.

Love & Form

Love is a chaotic rebel;
Whenever it becomes organized
It looses its essence.
In the proverbial battle
Between form and substance,
Love clings to substance
And sacrifices form.
05.01.2016

Strength & Offendability

Allowing insults to offend
Is weakness;
The strong are unoffendable
Nor notice insults.
04.26.2016

Law & Conscience

When law and conscience clash
Those who follow their conscience
Hold their conscience above the law
And those who follow the law
Hold the law above their conscience;
This dilemma spawns conflicts
That may not have solutions.
02.24.2016

Love & Dependence

Love strengthens us
Altruism levitates us
Hate fractures us
Indifference flattens us
Yearnings nourish us
And dependence diminishes us.
02.23.2016

Problem & Solution

Between
Defiance and acceptance
Struggle and surrender
Solution and problem
Victory and defeat
Lies tolerance
The flying white flag
Of peaceful coexistence.
02.22.2016

Problems & Solutions

Some problems appear to have solutions
And some do not appear to have solutions;
In either case, the one solution
That can circumvent all problems
Is the change from the wrong
To the wright attitude.

Mistakes & Time

Often, it takes us years
Before we find out that we were wrong;
Perhaps we should be more careful
With what we decide to believe.
02.20.2016

Legal & Ethical

Charging the poor fees they cannot afford
When the one charging for the service
Does not need the money
May be legal, but is not ethical.
02.18.2016

Synapses & Connections

Just like our brains grow smarter and wiser
By increasing their synaptic connections
We also grow smarter and  wiser
By increasing our human connections
With other human beings, living or dead
Wherever they had lived or may be living.
02.16.2015

MIndsets & Times

We can only think
From within the mindsets of our times;
We cannot think with past or future mindsets
Hence, we misunderstand our predecessors
And will be misunderstood by our successors.
02.15.2016

Skepticism & Self

Not to believe everything
We read or hear or see, is easy
But, not to believe everything
We think, or feel, or say is hard;
Wisdom and enlightenment
Grow out of self skepticism.
02.14.2016

Efficiency & Time

The more time we have
The less efficient we become
And the less time, the more efficient;
Being occupied brings out the best in us
And being idle, brings out the worst.
02.13.2016

Poverty & Fitness

Poverty is a creature
Feeding it promotes obesity
Enlightening it promotes fitness.
02.12.2015

Complex & Simple

By definition, complex problems
Are ones that don’t have simple solutions;
Therefore, when we propose
Simple solutions for complex problems
We should know that we don’t know
And that we cannot be right.
01.28.2016

Rational & Irrational

If we could realize
When we are irrational
That we are not rational
Order and peace would reign
Instead of chaos and violence.
01.23.2016

Suppression & Rebirth

Suppression promotes rebirth;
Burying the seeds of an idea
Only serves to give it roots;
Bad ideas should be exposed and debated
Rather than suppressed and driven under ground
Where they can ramify and grow out of control.
01.19.2016

Imprisonment & Enlightenment

Imprisonment is of two types, physical and mental:
Physical imprisonment by genes, age, disease,
    time, place, circumstance, and punishment;
Mental imprisonment by feelings, thoughts, beliefs,
    habits, obsessions, opinions and ideas;
In either case, our only chance at freedom is
    enlightenment.
12.30.2015

Censorship & Freedom

We can only think in secret because
If we were to openly express our ideas
We would be ostracized by those
Who do not approve of them;
All societies sensor free expression.
12.30.2015

Friendship & Fellowship

Having coffee with a friend
Invokes better conversation;
Having alcohol with a friend
Invokes lesser conversation;
And having drugs with a friend
Invokes poorer conversation.
12.29.2015

Learning & Others

We learn more from those who disagree with us
And less from those who agree with us;
We learn more from our mistakes
And less from our successes;
We learn more from our experiences
And less from our readings;
We learn more when we engage in debates
And less when we are preached to.
12.28.2015

Courage & Recklessness

Courage without reason is reckless
Good reason demands enlightenment
Enlightenment demands open mindedness.
12.27.2015

Excellance & Power

The pursuit of excellence brings joy
The pursuit of wealth brings thrills
The pursuit of power brings fears
And the pursuit of pleasure
Brings the anticlimax.
12.26.2015

Courage & Reason

Rational courage is
When belief in one’s self
Overcomes fear of consequences
And drives one to well reasoned action.
12.25.2015

Greatness & Joy

In the final measurement

Human worth and greatness

Are but the joy and peace

Attained and imparted,

And the pain and suffering

Lessened and prevented.
12.24.2015