The Thou

The Thou exists in each person
We neglect another’s Thou to our own harm.
We exalt our own Thou to the harm of all.

Wind

The world is wind.
No one controls the wind.
Yet it continues to blow as it will.
The ruler of the world
Must remain gentle
Blowing with it
Only changing heat gradually.

Butterfly

Life must have unpleasantness
For change requires breaking
But keep unpleasantness brief
Lest it become a habit.
Become used to gentleness,
Make the butterfly your norm,
So be the world’s guide.

Base

Be pure in loving service;
Pure of mind, pure in motive.
In purity, seek not the pure
  but the base.

Tracks

Take care to leave no tracks
Take care to speak with peace.
Once your boot steps in the mud
You cannot remove your imprint.

Leaders and People

Wise rulers prevent judgment by
  teaching the people to care for each other.
Wise people prevent judgment by
  teaching rulers compassion.
A wise nation prepares for calamity
  for we live in a broken world.
Wise rulers begin shalom with the lowest
  and work their way up.
Wise people prevent the natural tendency
  of rulers to love the elite.
A wise nation trains the world in
  love and so establishes shalom.

Three Deaths

The penultimate death is this:
The underground passage to an unknown land;
The unseen forest creek leading to the deep ocean;
Eternal darkness of hidden rest;
The track divided, whether right or left we have already chosen.
It is a separation from all we love and rapture we have known to plunge into
A solemn welcome to the sea of hidden humanity.
The masses fear it
but we all must travel

The master Death is this:
He awakes you every morning, sorrow lowering your brow;
You roll over, wondering which way he will abuse your body;
He plants today the brutal children in your path, threatening, battering;
He is the menace in the officer’s gaze as he destroys your safety;
He is the fist of the skinhead landing on your face, your gut, your crown;
He is your rapist, thrusting his hell within you;
He is the kidnapper, forcing you to kill or be killed;
He is the comfort of the liar, easing us all to the ideas of war and famine;
He is the persistent nausea and pain of what another calls “healing”;
He is the slow quiet desperation, certain of an untimely ending.
He is living dystopia
For all the lowly.

The defeating death is this:
The newborn father awaking to give the mother respite;
Forgiving he who stole your life;
Giving the last coin to bring the injured to a healer;
Remaining awake all night to prevent a friend’s suicide;
Quitting your job because they abuse the poor;
Standing  before the soldier that he won’t shoot the innocent;
Daily waking exhausted to serve those without hope;
Becoming a slave to comfort the slave
Healing lepers and so becoming a leper;
Serving prisoners as a prisoner;
Ending on a hateful blade.
Embracing the master
Is death’s defeat.

Dirty

The Creator formed humans of humus
That we might always remember our weakness.
Our mortality nips at our heels
With sickness and pain and accidents and the death of our loved ones.
Every promise we make is futile and feeble;
  Our firmest resolve is thinner than onion skin.
Our plans for tomorrow are outside our control;
  Each act we command ourselves to do has unforeseen consequences.
Our relationships thwart us as much as empowers.
We are vessels of clay to remind us that
We must be complete from without.

Diogenes Unchained

I am looking for the weakest
Who relies on the unseen strength
All my possessions, all my wisdom
All my love, all my fame
I grant to that one
Pour it uselessly at her feet.
I am not wasting my great resources
  for they will be used to build the eternal.

Small is Beautiful

The greatest accomplishments are small acts
The greatest strength is found in the weak
The greatest wisdom is the uneducated mind
Because the greatest power
Is the One who fills the empty.

Curse of Stealing

Woe to the poor man who steals from his brother;
Deeper still the disaster that befalls the authority
Who preys on the weak.

Present/Futue

Some are intended for imprisonment;
Some are intended to use weapons to kill;
Some are intended to serve their soul to their masters;
Some are intended to wipe their shoes on the back of the weak;
Some are intended to give all, leaving nothing for themselves;
Some are intended to rob the very life from another…
How often we forget the two guiding principles of existence:
  Whatever we do to others is what we will receive, and
  Our fate is in our hands.

Fearism

Our enemy is not the violent but violence;
  not the oppressor but oppression;
  not the terrorist but terrorism.
Woe to the one who becomes violent to combat violence;
  who oppresses to combat oppression;
  who terrorizes to combat terrorism,
for all he most fears will fall upon him.

Power

The power of deliverance is not physical
 

for we are not delivered from that which binds us.
The power of deliverance is not ethereal
  for ghosts are only whisperers, not chain-breakers.
The power of deliverance is not political
  for deception cannot build what is true.
The power of deliverance is not religious,
  priests are for comfort, not revolution.
The power of deliverance is unseen, raw and angry
  more solid than solid
  imperious to fear or bribes or weapons.
And He is triggered by the whispered cries of a child.

Fixer Upper

The Creator gave us an incomplete world so we might share in his creation.
He gave us a world of violence so that we might create peace.
He gave us a world of competition so that we might reward charity.
He gave us a world of suffering so that we might heal.
He gave us a world of emptiness so that we might fill it with love.