May the Poetry

May the poetry you read and write
not be frivolous musings
over the frivolous,
or worse still,
that trivialises the serious.

May the poetry you read and write
be the least fancy way
of conveying a truth,
or at least,
a path to the truth.

May the poetry you read and write
focus more on reason than rhyme,
for sometimes reason is without rhyme.

May the poetry you read,
that is the poetry I wrote above
be meaningful to you,
that is,
if you consider it poetic at all,
poetry at all.

Mind Olympics

All the physical Olympics is actually mind Olympics too. Will power, perseverance... you get the idea. But what is all this geared to? For what should we break world records? What does it really prove? That our ego is never satisfied? Does competition through sportsmanship really make the world a better place? Those who win get proud and the losers feel sad. Not sure. But what I'm sure is that the ultimate mind Olympics is in training the mind to increase in Compassion and Wisdom, to win Enlightenment.

Treasure Without Attachment

Treasure everything in the moment
because everything changes from moment to moment.

Do not be attached to anything in the moment
because everything changes from moment to moment.

This is the middle path -
To treasure the fleeting is to practise compassion.

To not be attached to the fleeting is practise wisdom.
Perfecting the duo is to become enlightened.

The Buddha treasures and cares for his disciples,
but he is not attached to them when they pass away.
Can you love like He does?
Not yes or no - but that you try.

Dishes for the Dishes

There's always time for housework... and meditation. It suddenly struck me that

 

Work is work.

Spirtual practice is work.

Housework is spiritual practice too.
No two minds needed.
Life is one single practice ground for perfection of the path.

"You can wash the dishes to have clean dishes,
or you can wash the dishes to wash the dishes."

-Paraphrased from Thich Nhat Hanh

Working on Off

I had to go to office to do some work on one of my retreat days. Strangely, working seemed more efficient with a renounced mind - a mind with minimal involvement in office politics, idle chat... a mind with less greed and hatred. I feel a sense of floating - like I'm not really there, yet I was grounded in the moment. Not really there because with a retreat attitude, I was not "involved" in worldly matters, yet I was mindful. Somewhat in the world but not of the world.

The Lost Man

One day, a man, no one in particular (well, he could be you) took a wrong turn somewhere and found himself lost thick in the middle of nowhere. As there was no one he knew or anyway to contact anyone he knew, he found himself a stranger in a strange land.

He had to depend on the kindness of strangers for food and shelter to survive. It was pure compassion that kept him alive because he wasn't anyone very important to anyone. He was literally just a man on the street. 

He could no longer relate to anyone the way he did. He wasn't particularly a friend or enemy to anyone, or a son, brother or husband of anyone... In fact, he wasn't anyone - he was nobody. 

It made him panic... till he realised there was no need. In fact, this is his new life. He could be anyone. He could be the person he really wanted to be - without the burden of the past, without anyone's expectations of his future. In fact, he was forced to re-evaluate the worth of his own attachment to his past and his prior expectations, since there was no way he could return to his past life.

From the strangers that now became his friends, he learnt compassion. And he learnt to befriend other lost strangers. From realising the importance of being at home in the here and now, he learnt wisdom.

One day, he looked back and realised that he did not really take a wrong turn in the first place, to end up where he was. In fact, it was the "right-est" turn for the better he ever made. He realised that there is no such thing as a wrong turn, that all that matters is how he "turns" himself for the better. The man who lost his identity has no found himself. The man who thought he fell into a terrible trap discovered great freedom.

But that's him. What matters is, as mentioned in the beginning of the story, is that... "he could be you". You don't have to be lost physically. Just lose your "self" mentally now... let go of your self-definitions, for they are illusory anyway. Re-read this story and put yourself in the man's shoes. Who are you? Who will you be? Welcome to your new life. It begins from right here and now... as always.

Friendship

How to be a spiritual friend?
Be a friend first.

How to be a friend?
Befriend yourself first.

How to befriend yourself?
Understand and be kind to yourself.

Be compassionate and wise to yourself.
So that you know how to be so to someone else.

The Delusional Fix

If not knowing how our delusion arose is part of our delusion, what a fix we are in? But knowing how to rid delusion is more important than knowing how it arose.

For example, knowing how the sun rises does not mean you know how to make it set. In fact, thinking the sun rises and sets is itself a delusion! Trying to know how to make the sun set is thus a delusional pursuit, just as trying to discover how we became deluded in the first place. Knowing how a tree bears fruits does not mean you know how to harvest it. Yet, having harvested the fruit, one can discover how fruits come into being. Thus, knowing what to do with our delusions - practise to diminish them with the arising of wisdom is always the prority and anything otherwise is never the priority.

Nausea

I woke up last night at about 6 am feeling somewhat nauseous for reasons unknown for a few minutes. I went to the loo in the dark, and spat out some semi-vomit in small portions. There was no diarrhoea. I think I was somehow living out the following passage that I read at about 7 pm, about 12 hours ago before an audience, based on the topic I chose - "What the Hell am I Doing Here? : An Existential Investigation into the Meaning of Life."

I wrote that 10 years ago. Strange... was I hit by a stray remnant wave of a past existential crisis? Haunted by the past? Or my mind playing a trick? Or a "Freudian-Satrean Nausea-Slip", revealing my underlying dissatisfaction with my life? Maybe I woke up in the night and was shocked that I still existed! This is what I wrote and read:

"A feeling of nausea welled up in him and subsided - it reminded him of taking a train when he was a child with his family. He had felt a devastating wave of travel-sickness. He was sick of everything - even the beautiful scenery and his Mother's gentle coaxing did not help. He wished he was dead then. He wished he was dead right now. It wasn't exactly a deathwish - he only wished he never existed."

Today I'm observing the 8 precepts. Maybe the answer to the mystery will come to mind. Life is of much dissatisfactions - the First Noble Truth experienced rawly and suddenly. It's humbling - I don't know what form of suffering my karma can throw at me next. It's better to believe there are more waves of suffering about to hit me and cultivate my spirituality well. I know I still wish "I" didn't exist - but not in a suicidal way, but by death of my ego - Nirvana.

Free Trap

Like a bird flying in a limitless sky above a boundless sea with no land in sight, all the physical freedom in the world had become his trap. No purpose, no refuge, no home, no resting place.

"You can travel all the way around the world, but where does it get you to?"

-Pet Shop Boys (West End Girls)

Fortunate

Oh how fortunate is the one... who sees his misfortunes as fortunate lessons from which he can learn from to be stronger... who is glad that things are not worse... that he is able to take it in his stride.

Hallucination

The problem is not just that we hallucinate...
but that we ARE our own hallucinations,
while we hallucinate that we are hallucination-free.

Retreat

Every spiritual retreat is an opportunity to renounce, even if for a while, worldly matters, the world, and your greed, hatred and delusion involved in them.

But

The sun is just a star among zillions.
But every star is a sun.

You are just a sentient being among countless ones.
But you are a Buddha too,
"sleeping" though,
hopefully "awaking" though.

Moving

What are the essentials to move from my old home to my new? I find myself doing filtering of my possessions big and small at many levels, with many categories... with hesitation now and then as to what is worth keeping. I gather lots of stuff for recycling and for giving thr needy. We don't need a lot really. We want and keep too much really. It is what we can renounce that brings us character, not what we gather.

10 Minutes

Get up 10 minutes earlier...
Slow down 10 minutes of rushing.
Live 10 minutes more.
Savour life 10 minutes more.

Take time to see more clearly.
Take time to hear more clearly.
Take time to smell more clearly.
Take time to taste more clearly.
Take time to feel more clearly.
Take time to reflect more clearly.
Even if it is only for 10 minutes.

In Stereo (Where Available)

We are more clogged up in the senses than we think... much more to say about our clarity about our thoughts and how we perceive. In the train after going down a high storeyed building, my ears went pop and suddenly I am experiencing surround sound.

Seamless Changing

One thing after another,
after another...
so closely,
that there is no definite one thing,
or another.

Better

"Okay....
So...
Does that make the world a better place?"

-zlyrica

Middle Path

Doing the right thing feels extreme for the extremely evil. Where is the middle path in doing a seemingly extreme thing that is a right thing to do? Just practise it till it feels like a moderate and balanced thing; not an extreme thing.

Real Myth

Myths persist because there are certain truths (and morals) in them despite the fairy tale element. The wise see the first while the foolish just laugh at the latter.

Anticipation

Do you anticipate the world to prove you right or wrong? Is either right or wrong? I think both are wrong. Let's not expect anything from this world, for to expect is to expect dissapointment - and it doesn't do anyone any good. Let me expect myself to prove those waiting for the world to disappoint them wrong instead. Let me touch the world with compassion and wisdom best I can.

"Life is already so difficult. How can we be anything but kind?"

-Buddha's Little Instruction Book

Grey

Under a grey sky,
grey navy ships
on a grey sea...

No...
just grey thoughts
from a grey mind.

Horizonless

How is it that there is this apparent flat horizon on our rounded Earth? Silly question. For there is no horizon in the first place. How often do we wonder about illusory truths about illusions?

Write Therapy

Write yourself into a story of yourself with your real life dilemmas. Analyse with fictitious mentors, and write yourself out of your problems. The Four Noble Truths in the story of your life... at the moment.

Just Them

The sky is all calm cloudlessness.
And the sea is choppy murkiness.
But that's just them.

Lighthouse

Seeing the lighthouse perched on the largest crop of rock that made it definable as a small island, I realised how a big obstacle or problem can itself be a solution - for the rock is fortunately big enough to build a lighthouse upon it - so as to warn ships of itself, and more importantly, the many other smaller chunks of rock jutting around it randomly.

Hands-Free

Observation of a friend driving -
You need your hands free
to fix the hands-free kit on the phone.

Want freedom?
Spare some free time first.

Good or Bad

I don't know whether this is good or bad,
it is just like that.
The good can turn better or worse.
The bad can turn worse or better.
Is this thing I'm experiencing good karma or bad karma?
I think it is just karma at play -
no need to label -
just be at ease.