Training the mind - 17

The beauty of nature

Is beyond the reach of time

Caught in its throes

The mind appears far from perfect

The essence of life is achieving a lasting state of beauty and perfection. There is abundance of both in art and nature. Both are reflections, one of the individual mind and the other of the universal mind. When one stands in front of an imposing snow clad mountain for example, it is very common to be lost in complete awe of it's beauty and majesty. The same thing may happen when observing a beautiful work of art, or listening to deeply moving, soul stirring music.  Despite what may be going in one’s mind at that time stirred up by restless thoughts, for a few distinct moments there is complete peace. The mountain appears to have consumed the person standing in front of it. The same goes for other experiences such as music or art. As long as one is in front of it, one is lost in that beauty. The observer and the the observed are unified in the one experience. 

The cure

A disease that defies investigation

Unless there is a loss, of expectation

Difficult to detect like a camouflaged spot

It isn’t through a microscopic agent that it's caught

The vector is the mind

That’s always caught in a bind

Traveling on wheels that spin faster than time

Setting up conditions that are prime

For an affliction with one symptom

That usually is never fearsome

Like a prophesy

It is immune to common courtesy

Lunar scalpel

The rise and fall of tides

Is something the moon provides

Whipping up of the oceans

Is reflected in our emotions

Waxing and waning of the moon

Is a great boon

Not just to the sailors out at sea

But to those who seek the inner guarantee

Fullness and emptiness

Together provide unique awareness

Rise and fall of mind’s energy

Are both required for the remedy

Training the mind - 16

The most sought after relationship

Rarely survives the test of patience

Thoughts ask a lot in return for pleasure

Unlike the monuments of nature

Can one have a close relationship without expectation? The easy answer is yes. Being individual entities, there is no getting around relationships of one kind or another. But one can easily live without expectation. It is optional. We may not have control over certain relationships, but we have full control over our expectations if we choose. For example, our relationship with the air we breathe is essential for living. We can never cut that umbilical cord and say we can do without air. The atmosphere will continue to exist without us but without it we cannot live. Even though the atmosphere “holds all the cards”, there is no expectation of a return favor. Life itself is a relationship between the living and dying. The survival of each cell depends on which way this relationship tilts. This relationship is taken for granted when one is healthy, as the work of maintaining life goes on automatically in the body and we continue to reap the benefits. Only when the body is sick, do we dive in to aid the the process of life through medicines and other interventions. 

Inner voice

Cultured shouts emanating from the shadows

Drowned by playful noises in concrete meadows

That shadowy voice doesn’t turn hoarse

It’s silent whispers carry immense force

It’s message is one of hope

As one makes it up a steep slope

That is the darkness within

Deep underneath one’s own skin

Intrepid explorers follow the faintest sound

That get’s louder when no one’s around

It offers a seat to rest on

The fortunate sit there waiting for dawn

Surprise package

The backstage curtain keeps hidden

Surprises that aren’t forbidden

If eyes can turn back

One may find them hidden in a sac

Tied by threads from a good life led

Everything else cornered by time, which has fled

Leaving one with the pouch protected by a knot

With its promises, remembrance of anything beyond is shot

An inventory isn’t kept

To do that it would take a trained adept

Who leads a good life by another measure

That does not tangle with sensory pleasure

Mercury

A view so close to the sun comes with a price

An envelope holding life is the sacrifice

Bleached like an orphaned bone

It isn’t a temperate zone

Locked into a committed orbit

Mighty planets surrounding it prohibit

An escape to cooler reaches

Amongst the plush earth’s natural riches

In a race to nowhere

It’s circular path isn’t a stair

That a Roman deity can climb

To the tune of a song with an eternal rhyme

Evergreen

Evergreen trees, standing tall though a long slumber

Leaves looking for raindrops which they outnumber

Feeding a sea of green turns clouds bare

In our incubator, there’s always need for water and air

These cathedrals of the jungle are living proof

In the power of the silent, patiently raising rivulets of sap to the roof

Contrasting with the deluge from the skies

In its attempt to baptize

The testing ground for the fittest

Much in nature is a bequest

A crowning achievement, wish we’d all recognize

Would be so, if a seamless mind wasn’t balkanized

Elemental song

The elemental songs

Are forgiving of mankind’s wrongs

Nature’s unmoved by pursed lips that sing

Ballads to only those within a narrow ring

Innocence does not sting

There’s power behind the tears they bring

It’s uninterrupted joy

Cruelly stopped by the slightest selfish ploy

Ordinary ears can never overhear

What is easily heard by a seer

Only when thought is silenced

Is that reticence licenced

Carbonized reality

In this carbonized reality

Modernity has forsaken simplicity

Complicated lives aided by machines

Cannot easily survive without means

The silent majority, rest of the species

Cannot be said to be filled with deficiencies

Flowers in full bloom, birds soaring high

The illuminated dance of a fire fly

In every creature richness of life abounds

Whether or not they can articulate sounds

Mankind is the only victim

Of a self imposed dictum

Between clouds

Jumping from thought to thought, each a bubble

With scarcely any fear of a stumble

Some amongst them

Command others to stand as a stem

To fuel unrelenting growth

Sourcing energy from both

Body and mind

That the senses have intertwined

Into a fabric that’s worn

With age, much of it is shorn

Playing host to light and dark memory clouds

That cannot keep out unrelenting crowds