truth

What’s Wrong With Hope

What’s wrong with Hope

Poor health, wealth

Decaying relationships,

Stuck in the mud 

Of the societal mind.

Driven to hoping, 

Wishing

Praying 

Waiting.

Hoping for that brighter day

Bringing the better job,

The perfect mate 

The greater joy, the best life.

For the more vulnerable 

Addictions numb the pain,

The Isolation

Anger, resentments.

Hope, the ultimate excuse

For avoiding the only truth,

The present

The now.

We are so close, yet become so far 

From each breath,

Each whisper of love 

The unseen cradled embrace. 

Conditioned to see 

Only the picture of happiness

Made of material abundances,

Independence, successes and achievements 

The list goes on and on.

But the essence of you 

Remains hungry,

Starved.

The glitter dissolves, 

Even becomes sickening 

Lacking vibration 

And vitality.

Hope not for a better tomorrow,

Hope for today

The light to ignite 

Your flame, your fire,

The ultimate defense

To all that’s smothered 

And shattered your being.

Don’t lose this battle 

On this one, is built the war, 

The war of life. 

Be your own warrior, savior 

Sit not and hope.

Stand, run if you have to 

But done whither 

In hopeless hope.

Truth of Confusion

Truth,

What is.

Confusion,

Everything else..

Concepts

Perceptions

Conditioning.

Fear

Guilt

Insecurities.

Imagination 

Learnt behaviors

Expectations.

All run you wild 

Physically

Mentally.

Driven by 

Cortisol

Adrenalin.

Slowing, 

Applying 

The brakes 

Takes 

Practice,

Self talk

In kindness,

Forgiveness

Self worthiness.

Truth,

You are.

Confusion,

Transient attributes.

Whether 

Actual

Or not.

Truth,

Your are dynamic.

Confusion,

You want definition.

Truth,

You are free.

Confusion,

You feel tied.

Breathe

Breath.

Feel 

Flow. 

This the 

Only

Possible

Truth there is.

You

Need 

To know.

Marvel

A New Year, 

A new day

A new second

The human perspective 

So small

So narrow

When the universe 

So ginormous 

So vast.

Discoveries at their peak

With the use of the Hubble 

To James Webb telescopes 

Existence 

Distance

Evolution 

Now seen or understood 

In limitless beauty 

And the mastery of design.

We,

The entire history of our human race,

Here 

For even less than a minute,

If all existance 

Scaled into an appreciation of a day. 

And yet we still 

Marvel at the beginning 

And end of a ‘year’

Rhetoric of the ‘Now’

Being ‘Present’

All commercialized, trendified!

Yet here lies

Every possibility that can be had.

Look no further 

Look not to the vastness of the skies

But into the realm of your heart,

You encapsulated yet circulate

In both universes

Inside and out.

Only one can be truly 

Felt, understood 

Beyond any doubt, 

That you are as magnificent as

All the stars, galaxies 

Milkyways

And Universe.

You are the drop 

In the ocean,

Yet that ocean

Is within you.

Marvel, not at the New Year, 

Marvel at You!

You are existence 

In all it’s beauty,

Magnificence 

And all possibilities.

Happy recognition 

Of Now, 

The day

And of You!

Ignorance

Man’s greatest curse 

Ignorance of who he is.

So what are we!?

We are dust that has come alive 

Dust that is impregnated 

By the ultimate 

Giving movement, thought and spirit 

Beyond imaginable incredibility.

If for a moment we dare to appreciate 

That we are drops of water, 

Chemicals and their reactions,

Unfathomable yet engineered 

Into synchronicity and self regulation, 

With nature’s bell curve 

From infancy to geriatric demise, 

Given the fortune of possibly seven decades or more.

Where in this timeframe 

Did we give credence

To the liberty of life?

Too busy distracted 

With fear, greed, and a presumed freedom 

When all along 

The ultimate has been bestowed, 

Day after day 

Each a renewed opportunity 

To participate, to glorify 

Existance.

For in a blink of an eye 

And as your actual eyes close, 

It will come to an end 

And what will it have all meant? 

Nothing!

For it was only for you alone 

To enjoy, to unfold, to acknowledge 

This relationship 

You, your existence, your sustainer.

So don’t take lightly 

Revel in your seasons,

Reflect and learn your lessons 

Grow and reach towards the light within.

As only then 

Will you beam and reflect

A truth for yourself and your community 

Both.

Art by Catrin Welz-Stein

Hiroshima

Countless children at school

Workmen at construction sites,

All unknowingly said a final goodbye that morning…

A white to grey plumage rose to the sky

As crimson red flames scorched the ground

Soon a black radioactive rain showered down.

The range of pain that ensued 

Completely breaks the heart

Churns the stomach

Depresses the mind to non-functional.

This the feeling 80yrs later 

Viewing the Children’s memorial

The Atomic Bomb Dome

Names, endless names…..

Reading the personal stories, 

Mothers’ searching for their children

Orphaned children housed by strangers,

All burnt, scarred, mammed, or with post exposure sickness.

City, housing, families, lives

Destroyed or left unrecognizable.

Mass destruction followed by 

Prolonged suffering and ugly painful deaths.

A truth known by the rest of us from history class 

This 3D evidence 

Even when second hand, 

Screams volumes 

Lessons learnt but easily forgotten 

Time, distance 

Poor excuses.

Are we not at a precipice 

Where so easily 

We could repeat history?

Only with greater

Far reaching force and destruction?

Our power is limitless 

As darkness and light.

Now is the time for unity 

To prevent another Hiroshima.

Acknowledge the pains of past atrocities, 

Claim the light, kindness and understanding from within

Let today’s children never have to learn and visit further new memorial sites.

Nepal to Nara

The man, Siddharthar Gautama,

Of Indian decent 

Known now across all continents.

‘Princedom’ childhood

Protected and privileged 

Lap of luxury.

Curiosity of a tender 

Wholesome heart.

Peeking beyond the fortress

Tears of realization, 

Suffering is omnipresent

Nirvana is not created.

With stillness,

Acceptance, 

Came actualization.

Everything has its place 

Dharma, Karma, Samsara.

With responsibility taken

Each can find our Buddha within;

Enlightenment to tread this earth

Free of entrapments, suffering.

The path from Nepal

The spirit of Buddha

Sits giant-like 

In Todaji Temple,

Surrounded 

By the bowing deer of Nara.

Gazing up

To the height and depth 

Of this monumental form,

My spirit expands 

With a knowingness, 

That it is only my stillness

That brings

My samsara,

My nirvana,

Right here, right now;

Which ever corner 

Of the planet I sit. 

Japan Waters Teach

In secluded Teahouses, 

Shrines surprising on any given dori,

Onsens, lakes and glistening stalactites;

Water everywhere is revered…

Quenching

Rejuvenating 

Exhilarating 

Purifying…

Immerse into Onsen waters,

Healing heat and minerals

Weightlessness teaches trust

Promise of nature’s caring protections.

Teahouses simmer waters ceremoniously,

With ‘Harmony’ between the articles and the environment 

Utmost ‘Respect’ of the process

Precision and care for ‘Purification’ 

All with ‘Silence’ and concentration.

Passing though a Tori, shrine after shrine 

Welcoming water wells and baths

Offer cleansing of the body,

Both inside and out.

Hosted by Hozu-gawa River

Floating along oar by oar,

Accompanied by scenic trains, birds

Along embankments and bridges alike 

Until a squeezed passageway

Between silver grey boulders 

Rocking and splashing,

Rapids, cool and drench…

What of this liquid

Colorless

Tasteless

Yet infinitely irreplaceable!

Unique to the Pale Blue Dot.

I hold you in my cupped hands,

You kiss my surrendering lips 

You run through my veins

Synchronized to life itself.

Pained

Pain, pain go away

Come again another day

If you really have to!

What is pain

This feeling so disliked

With discomfort, anguish 

Turmoil and more?

But wait…

Is it not ultimately a balancer?

A reminder?

That our painless moments

So easily forgotten, 

Are so very priceless.

So letting this shower of pain,

Much like the rain,

Drench me right now

As my body defaults, 

And my mind revolts,

Leaving me not knowing whether 

To succumb to the noise,

Or smash out of the bubble

With neither quite possible.

I return to a stillness

Where there echos an ancient whisper 

Where my breath becomes my umbrella.

This place is my solace,

My palace without 

Walls, fortresses,

As no defense is necessary.

Simply boundless

Cosmic and ethereal, 

Putting back into place 

The futility of any fight.

Letting go

Unclenching 

Relaxing 

And with a flow of peace

The light of gratitude returns,

Darkness withdraws 

And with clarity, pain can be understood 

And even managed. 

Hanging on by a nail…

So much weight,

On your shoulders

On your back.

Hunched over 

Broken down

Beaten by your own mind.

For the love of God

For the love of life,

For it can only be for love.

Hang on by that nail

Or that thread,

But mostly, by each breath.

So generously delivered

Without request

Without any demands.

Let yourself receive 

This love supreme,

That will never be understood, only felt.

For no matter

Any circumstance,

It is loyal

It is faithful

Just to you

Until the very end.