Lousy at Math

Once a group of thieves stole a rare diamond

Larger than a goose egg.

Its value could have easily bought

One thousand horses

And two thousand acres

Of the most fertile land in Shiraz.

The thieves got drunk that night

To celebrate their great haul,

But during the course of the evening

The effects of the liquor

And their mistrust of each other grew to such

An extent

They decided to divide the stone into pieces.

Of course then the Priceless became lost.

Most everyone is lousy at math

And does that to God—

Dissects the Invisible One,

By thinking, saying,

"This is my Beloved, he looks like this

And acts like that,

How could that moron over there

Really

Be

God."

~Hafiz

Adulthood

No one is an adult

except the one who is free from desire.

~Rumi

Proper Speech

A lunatic is someone who has lost everything but his reason.

                                                                                 ~G. K. Chesterton

Thunderstruck

But all my foes will cease to be,
And all my friends will cease to be,
And I will also cease to be,
And likewise everything will cease to be.

All that I possess and use
Is like the fleeting vision of a dream.
It fades into the realms of memory,
And fading, will be seen no more.

                                   ~Shantideva, in The Way of the Bodhisattva

A Monk's Poem

Only when you are neither wise nor foolish
can you be called one who has attained the way.

                                                                   ~Ryokan

A Zen Poem

All worries and troubles
    have gone from my breast
and I play joyfully
    far from the world
For a person of Zen
    no limits exist
The blue sky must feel
    ashamed to be so small

                                ~Muso Soseki

From an English Poet

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

                                               ~William Blake

A Passage of Wind

If someone asks
about the mind of this monk,
say it is no more than
a passage of wind
in the vast sky.

                                   ---Ryokan---

The Way

Only when you are neither wise nor foolish
can you be called one who has attained the way.

                                                       ---Ryokan---

Abundance

                                        Then the well spoke to me.

                                         It said: Abundance is scooped from abundance
                                         yet abundance remains.

                                                                                               ---Anne Sexton---

Meditation

Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.

                                                                                                                               ---Ovid---

All Beings

                                         When you embrace a disposition to help all things,
                                         do not turn your back on the impure of heart.

                                                                                          ---Hsieh Ling-yun---

Thoughts

Thoughts of themselves have no substance; let them arise and pass away unheeded. Thoughts will not take form of themselves, unless they are grasped by the attention; if they are ignored, there will be no appearing and no disappearing.

                                                                                                                                 ---Ashvaghosha---

Experience

Experience is the name everyone gives


                                                                                                to their mistakes.




---Oscar Wilde---

A Good Man's Life

The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best of a good man's life.

---William Wordsworth---

Mind

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

---Ralph Waldo Emerson---

Acts of Love

Familiar acts are beautiful through love.

---Percy Shelley---