Discipline

painting by Louis Comfort Tiffany: Algerian Shops

Don't avoid discipline.

You have learned ways to make a living

for your body. Now learn to support

your soul. You wear fine clothing.

How do you dress your spirit?

This world is a playground

where children pretend to have shops.

Sometimes when they wrestle,

it may look like sex,

but none of it is real.

They exchange imaginary money.

Night comes, and they go home tired

with nothing in their hands.

I Met One Traveling

In the evening between sleep and waking

I met one traveling. He was the light of consciousness.

His body was soul, his pure wisdom apparent

in his beautiful face.

He praises me for a while, then scolds.

You sit on the seven-sky throne, in prison.

The sign of Gemini has set a table for you,

yet you stick your head down a drainhole again.

Essence is not nourished with food and sleep.

Do no one any harm in this timefield

of short crops where what you sow comes up very quickly.

You try to accomplish things, to win,

to reach goals. This is not the true situation.

Put the whole world in ambition's stomach,

it will never be enough.

Assume you get everything you want.

Assume you have it now. What's the point?

The next moment you die.

Friend, the youth you have lived is ending.

You sleep a dreamless sleep

with no sense what morning you could wake inside.

Flowers open

"Stars That Set the Heavens Alight" by Isumi Omari

Flowers open every night

across the sky, a breathing peace,

and sudden flame catching.

These Lights

Inside water, a waterwheel turns.

A star circulates with the moon.

We live in the night ocean wondering,

What are these lights?

Having Nothing

Whatever comes, comes from a need,

a sore distress, a hurting want.

Mary's pain made the baby Jesus.

Her womb opened its lips

and spoke the Word.

Every part of you has a secret language.

Your hands and your feet say what you have done.

Every need brings in what's needed.

Pain bears its cure like a child.

Having nothing produces provisions.

Ask a difficult question,

and the marvelous answer appears.

Build a ship, and there will be water

to float it. The tender-throated infant cries,

 and milk drips from the mother's breast.

Be thirsty for the ultimate water.

Then be ready for what will come

pouring from the spring.

The Nightingale's Way

A bird delegation comes to Solomon

complaining, Why is it

you never criticise the nightingale?

Because my way, the nightingale explains

for Solomon, is different.

Mid-March to mid-June I sing.

The other nine months,

while you continue chirping,

I am silent.

Some Song or Something

Birdsong brings relief

to my longing.

I am just as ecstatic as they are,

but with nothing to say.

Please, universal soul, practice

some song, or something, through me.