Treatise on Zhuangzi

Once upon a time, I dreampt I was a butterfly
I flew with whatever happened
Letting my mind wander freely
I felt the ultimate in words because of meaning
A unity or forgotten words in silence

I was conscious only of my happiness
I lived in peace and now I fly
I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man
A path is made by walking it
A life is loved by living it

Do not reward or punish yourself
It is the lowest form of education
But rather speak to the Tao in everything
Watch your own and the turmoil of beings
Knowing you will return to the butterfly-state
Kindhearted as a grandmother, amused as an uncle

Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness
To be truly ignorant is enough, be content with your own knowledge
Leap into the boundless and make it your home
Forget the years, forget separation, forget distinctions
And duality, during our dreams we do not know

We are dreaming, we may even dream of
Interpreting a dream, that is why
After a great awakening, we laugh at them.

Treatise on Socrates

Knowing nothing, I am wisdom
Beginning to wonder, by all means
Marrying my time on the Earth
contentment being the wealth of my nature
Since all men’s souls are immortal

What should I fear, tell me?
I’ve got a good wife, I’ve become happy
though if I took a lover, it would be
Philosophy, that dead pursuit
Of men who like to admit

That true wisdom is following our nature
Sincerely, God knows best what is
Good for us, and be as a child
For an honest man is always a child
Avoiding the bareness of a busy life

Let him that would move the world
First move himself, becoming one’s own teacher
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom
Be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle
The self is its own casing of ignorance

Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events
Weak minds discus people, therefore learn
To gossip of higher stuff, an education of living.

Treatise on Shakespeare

Some are born great
Some achieve greatness by repute
But us wise men know ourselves fools
And to our own selves be true
Loving all, trusting a few
Doing wrong to none

All the world is a stage
And with smiles we play our parts
The wheel will come full circle
Until the stars give ourselves back
Our destiny, to be great
And bleed, and tickle, and die

As surely as night must follow the day
Ignorance being the curse of God
Better to be a witty fool, than a foolish wit
Amused by the humour of our own minds
Some are born hearing comedy in their hearts
While others die many deaths of tragedy

If music be the food of love, play on
If body be the bread of pleasure, dip it flush
Full of sound and fury and a treasured youth
Into water, for joyful tears are all that is left
Parting is such sweet sorrow

Come, ladies and gentleman
Drinking down all unkindness done to us
May we still love the faults that made us blind
Aware and knowing of the floods that omitted fortune
Ah how a good human, does revere their own downfall.

A Treatise on Michelangelo

A man paints with his brains
Not with his hands
A woman makes music not with her fingers
But with her heart
Death and love move the artist

We all labour to the genius
Of our own absolute love
But we must learn eternal patience
For faith in oneself is always
the best and safest course

In this brute world of circumstance
Our fate can change in an hour
If we have been pleased with life
We should not be displeased with death
Since all art comes in the end

From the same master
Still then would I hope that
I may always desire more than
I can humanly accomplish, therefore
That the art of God may shine in me

Not for any personal glory but
For the human good, for that spirit
I live and love in God’s peculiar light
And my soul can find no staircase to heaven
Unless it be through Earth’s loveliness.

Treatise on Hafiz

Beloved, your love should never
Be offered to the mouth of a stranger
Only to someone who dares
To cut pieces of your soul
Out with a knife of the sharpest attachment

To warm you with your own warmth!
Even after all this time
The sun would never dare to say
To the Earth, “You owe me”
Then never seek your just rewards

But learn in this life how to truly give!
It lights up the whole sky
Run my dear, from anything
that does not strength thy budding wings
Awaken thy heart to the necessity

Of only one language, human love
For all other things are mere sayings in the wind
For only by loving can you taste
Your mortality, nearing the God
Through the eyes of the angels

To scream from the guts of Infinite existence.
What we speak becomes the house
We live in, so speak of love
As a pearl that delights to live
At the bottom of the ocean

Be content that the light, will one day
Split you open like a diamond
Love this Earth, with your beautiful eyes.

Treatise on Carl Jung

Embrace your darkness, for there
Is always something to learn
Look deep within your own heart
We are the most brilliant teachers
Of ourselves, and what kind of pupils?

We are two personalities then
One lives and the other watches
We are both male and female
Like two chemical substances
If both are bonded & react, how do they transform?

Let the light in and accept the darkness
Love thy defects until they are virtues
Sharpen thy virtues until they dissolve
Your own recipe for living just needs
Some seasoning, so create yourself anew

Liberate the hypothesis on which you base your life
Until you find a freedom to die and be born again
The pendulum of pain teaches of a secret order
I am not what happened to me
I am therefore, what I choose to become;
You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.

Treatise on the Buddha

Do not dwell in the past my friend
The future is a mere dream
Love the present moment
Be content, grateful as a wild beast
Joyous as a wild flower

Have faith in the best relationships
Three things cannot be long hidden:
the sun, the moon, the truth of your love
So love as if there is no tomorrow
Let thousands of candles be lit in your heart

For all beings deserve to be happy
Happiness never decreases by being shared
So share your life compassionately
Do not dwell in the past that is suffering
Do not year for some vain tomorrow

Love the present moment
For we are shaped by our thoughts
We become what we think, so let
Pure joy flow from your thoughts like
The light that has no shadow of itself
For not in the universe is there one like you.