The Soul

The sun sings.The heart answers.The soul listens. The heart sings.The sun answers.The soul listens. Although some say the word "soul" is obsolete, there is no substitute. The soul is the foundation of nothingness upon which the person is built. There is no dualism of body and soul. They are two views of one person. In time the person dies, body and soul, except as a bell reverberates long after it is struck. Outside of time, however, the soul is that part of a person that is eternal and unchanging, the same in every being that ever was and ever will be. We experience the soul in the same way that we experience our thoughts and feelings. But unlike these other experiences, our experience of the soul is our window onto eternity, through which we see the essential truth, beauty, goodness, and oneness of all things. Nothingness is the soul of Being. That is why when we look for the soul we cannot find it. But when we eliminate all else, we find ourselves immersed in its sea. Early on, there's a point to regret:In creative pain, one can make changes.Grief is a wild, foolish, helpless rebellion,Heart against stone, desire smashing againstThe locked fact, the impenetrable event,Yielding nothing but the wash back into life. For one who grieves, there's no point to regret:One lives through pain, it's not a time for changes,Undoing in one's heart what one must accept in life,Repositioning the precise stones one smashes and smashes against.

Proverbs of Love

One can be unhappy by oneself, but to be truly tormented,one must love. Love is harder to accept than to give. To love is to embrace life. To love fully is to embrace bothdeath and life. The secret of happiness is simple: be loving, giving,caring.Why, then, are so many unhappy?Because they are afraid. Love only yourself, and you are alone.Love only one other, and the two of you are alone.Love only your family, and your family is alone.Love only your nation, and your nation is alone.There can be no communion, not even with yourself, except through love of God.

Good and Evil

Good and evil are like unstable elements that bond immediately to form a single molecule. A jolt of electricity, however, can temporarily separate them again. The innocent are guilty of not knowing they are guilty, whereas the guilty are innocent of not knowing they are guilty. The most common justification for evil is cynicism. The second most common justification for evil is idealism. However, idealism tends to justify the greater evil. One often perceives someone as evil because one perceives oneself as good. This error is the cause of a great deal of confusion and suffering. The reward for goodness is self-satisfaction, wherein also lies great danger. How, then, is one to know good from evil? That which springs from love is good. That which springs from greed, lust, or hatred is evil. That which is beautiful is good. That which is ugly is evil. That which you yourself would want from another is good. That which you yourself would not want from another is evil. There are those who cast aside all restraints and are willingly evil. There are those who live perpetually restrained and become self-righteous. There are those who are aware of the evil in their hearts, words, and acts, yet are able to love themselves and others. Evil must sometimes be met with violence, but the only antidote is love. Thus to be good one must love those who are evil, among whom one must include oneself. That is, to be good one must be evil, both at war and at peace with oneself. In the war between good and evil, the major battleground is in the hearts of children, and the weapons are the lives of adults.

Poetry and Explanation

Since poetry is a partnership between poet and reader, what the poet meant is not what the poem means. The image always means more than the explanation, making any explanation by the poet reductive. Explanations by those other than the poet, however, may be enriching because they are not authoritative. What, then, is a reader to do when faced with an intriguing passage that seems obscure? First, search her own mind and heart; second, search the minds and hearts of others through reading and conversation; third, treat the explanation of any poet foolish enough to make one with the same attention given to that of any informed reader; fourth, always be aware that the fault may be with the poet and not with the reader. What, then, is a poet to do, having written a passage that many readers find obscure? First, consider whether the passage is unnecessarily obscure, and, if so, revise it; second, if the passage is richly obscure, have faith in your readers; third, if neither of the first two suggestions works, consider another vocation. The only thing a poet should even consider explaining is what he never should have written in the first place.

Mirror

One cannot have what one wants Unless one wants what one has. One cannot love oneself Unless one’s self is loving. One cannot control one’s temper Unless one tempers one’s control. One cannot fail for long Unless one longs to fail. One cannot live in another’s shadow Unless one shadows another. One cannot gain another’s trust Unless one trusts another. One cannot be contented Unless one is contented by being. One cannot be loving Unless one loves being.

Metaphysical Proverbs

Things are or not in relation to the motion of consciousness through time. Imagination constructs experience from the spindrift of a vast and violent sea. This process evolved through natural selection. Therefore the only possible definition of truth is pragmatic. Whatever is, is as it is in relation to an observer. To a different kind of observer, with different senses and imaginative processes, it would be an entirely different sort of thing. To no observer, in itself, an object is potentially as many different kinds of things as there are different kinds of possible observers; that is, both infinite and nothing. Most of what lies outside our consciousness is to us unimaginable. The further we wander from the realms we evolved to experience, the more dumbfounded we become. Since we continue to wander further and further, we continue to be dumbfounded in increasingly sophisticated ways. Death is our experience of the end of individual consciousness.

Appearance and Reality

To appear wise, one must talk;To be wise, one must listen. To appear to do good, one must be busy;To do good, one must know when to stand aside. To appear to lead, one must put oneself first;To lead, one must put oneself last. To appear caring, one must give advice;To be caring, one must give space. To appear to love, one must know how to give;To love, one must know also how to receive. To appear happy, one must smile;To be happy, one must be free with tears.

Adages of Age

In the morning there is hope; in the afternoon, fulfillment; in the evening, memory; at night, peace. Free choice is destiny without a crystal ball. Quality seeks its own level. Boredom is the result of insufficient attention to detail. Every moment of life is a moment of unperceived ecstasy.

Knowing and Not Knowing.

What one knows is always less than what one doesn't know. Therefore, one must place more importance on what one doesn't know than upon what one knows. But how can one place importance on what one doesn't know? First, and most tellingly, by being humble about what one knows. Second, by being skeptical about what anyone else claims to know. Third, by investing large amounts of one's time, energy, and resources into knowing more.