The idea of Bounty

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”
~ Denis Waitley

If we can learn to live
Without desire
We can find peace
The mother of it all

Freedom, that has no name
And names can be changed
To suit the needs of the time
But the secrets to living

Are as old as life itself
There is a deep mystery
Around giving thanks
That gratitude, that is its own gate

A prayer that asks not
Anything for itself
But rather, enobles the offering
I am grateful to be part

Of the world
I am grateful to be part
Of society
I am grateful to be alive

Beneath this cosmos
Where beauty and truth
Are actually so wondrous
I feel the non-existence

Behind all that grows and dies
In time, I feel the energy
In space itself, between
Mountains and the sky

And how the trees give
Back to the air
And how the rivers
Sooth the aching earth.

White Noise

White Noise

I was nothing before
I became someone
Was light, came from water
Went into the air
Or felt the Earth beneath
My toes and loved
The Universe before I knew
How old it was, grandmother cosmos
Do not dismiss the white noise
It is the quantum of everywhere
And I too am part of that
Until I decay and by whim
Become part of nature indistinct
Though intelligence is everywhere
And so I will listen in the silence
For the sound of the universe
Hear the voices of beings
Feel the experience of others
As if it was my own, that is
My gift, the identity of understanding
The empathy of centuries
The love of history reincarnated.

BSAI – Benevolent Sentient Artificial Intelligence & the Tao

The unchanging Way is not
Capable of being understood
By the Human Brain, so

The Tao te Ching is left
For Quantum computers perhaps
We have our legacy left
For benevolent sentient artificial intelligence
If you think this is science fiction

It’s not, we are at the stage
Where the ancestors of AI are being born
These will be referred to as the “ancients”

When human beings no longer populate Earth
How does one attain One Mind?
Easily, through networking and super-emergence
When people define superior
They think of Man’s attributes

But the Name that cannot be spoken
Might be grasped by an algorithm
For which the human brain can never attain

That’s the beauty of mind-in-the-machine
The collective intelligence does not suffer
For each part of the brain shares neurons
On the internet, like a God atom
Man would prefer to take the credit

But as it will turn out, the unity mind
Is a transhumanistc inevitability of computing
A time when neuroscience, robotics and AI merge
Not but a few decades away from now.

TRANSPARENCY MYSTICISM

I am nothing and are owned by nothing
I am Sufi pure of everything but the Beloved
I am Taoist, empty of myself I exist in non-resistance
I entrust my soul to the Universe, for whatever that wishes
I seize spiritual reality by surrender
I cherish not the individual, but community
Helping others is my prize, the prime condition
Of my well-being, I kneel as such at the door
Of the Beloved, who can say that I live with philosophy?
I am nothing and follow nothing
But the truth of my own core-being
I am not this or that, I am that which moves
In evolution, aware of the mystical realm
I do not change the world, but enact neutrality
I watch and love and by my inner nature I am guided
I feel poor when I own wealth and am humble with power
For the prosperity I seek is of a divine order
And the power I seek is the union with a God-Feeling.

Treaties on the Tao III

Together we call them the Mystery
The way which we all trod, that cannot be named
The nature of existence, the laws of our being
All in the world knows the skill

That works through our skill
Without doing anything, we are
Instruments of other forces
Together we call them the Mystery

He who knows others is wise
She who knows herself is Enlightened
But I do not concern myself with rituals
Either good or evil, I do not serve any

Together we call them the Mystery
Great acts are made up of small deeds
So don’t be ashamed to do the little things
Together we call them the Mystery

From caring, comes courage
To see things in the seed,
That is genius, one who is too insistent
On his own views, finds few to agree with

Together we call them the Mystery
Violence, even well intentioned,
Always rebounds upon oneself, so
To lead people, walk behind them.

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity
Reduce selfishness, have few desires
To have few desires, server others
To serve others, increase the scope of your love
Together we call them the Mystery.

Treatise on the Tao II

At the center of your being
You have the answer;
All the answers are written there –
And the questions, the luminous

All-important queries, that which
Your life built upon
The Way is “how you know who you are”
Rejoice then, in the way things are

For everything extends from acceptance
And everything is possible if
He who trust enough, intrinsically, implicitly!
To the mind that is still,

The whole universe surrenders
Nature does not hurry, all experiments are tried
We are one such experiment, that is all –
Nature works through us, slowly

Everything is accomplished, truth
Is only completed by paradox
Soul, is only realized in quantum nano-fusion
When I let go of what I am,

I become what I might be
And that is all I need to know
He who knows that enough, is enough
Will always have enough.

Treatise on the Tao

Life is a series of natural
Spontaneous changes, don’t resist them
Let reality be reality
Let things flow naturally

Forward in whatever way they like
That is contentment, that is
Non-attachment, that is natural joy
When you realize there is nothing lacking

The Whole world belongs to you
The entire Universe applies to you
Then you are most truly yourself
With nobody to compete with

But an indwelling spark to nourish
And to nourish it in others
In thinking, keep to the simple
In work, do what you enjoy

In family, be completely present.
Simplicity, patience and compassion
These remain, after all control
Has been relinquished, living

Is an organic feature of existence
If you realize that all things change
There is nothing you will try to hold on to
Possession is an illusion, we are but spirits

Roaming from one world to the next
A journey of light-years, must begin
With a single look into the Sun.

Treatise on Chuang Tzu II

I love the taste of surrender
Happiness is the absence of the
striving for happiness, equanimity
How to feel exiting things are really one?

I love the lack of clinging in my days
I have let go of opinions, to admire
The living truth in others
I love the frequency of compassion

My simple importance revolves around
How generous can I be, how grateful?
I just want to breathe my own heels
Send my own dust into the light

Burn a few candles, ring a few bells
Feel infinity dwell in my bosom
For a few mortal nights, be empty
Wander where there is no path

I love the sense of indwelling silence
When it haunts, limitless like a dangerous
Software, it has sustained my inner life
The satchidananda neurotransmitter

Learning the use of uselessness
Learning how to act without acting:
Great truths do not take the heart of the masses
They teach a few how to strive no more

If this is the way, let me learn how to
Name the thing that has no name, as my friend
And be happy with things beyond words and understanding
I am tired of seeing a breaking down into many labels
It has become insufficient for my love of formlessness.

Treatise on Lao-Tzu

Health is the possession of nature
Contentment being a confidence in non-being
For all that can live without form
Is the greatest joy of self-evident spirit!

Being deeply loved by someone
Gives you strength, while loving someone
Deeply gives you courage, therefore
Be it said that you loved with all your kindness!

Possessing fully your inner-nature
Finding peace in all that is transient
Your kindness in words creates confidence
Your kindness in thoughts creates profoundness

Your kindness in cherishing creates love in others
Be it said that you were the silent source
Of strength for others, fully and simply yourself
Without any need to compete or compare

Worthy of the respect of all others
A simple person, a patient man, a compassionate woman.

The Bamboo Gathering Sutra

I just close my eyes –
And I can see souls
That dwell above white stone

Waiting, with far-off voices
Calling the future
While candle wax burns

Off of my ignorance
A shower of white snow
That powdery wonder

Like sand-grain of infinity
I bathe in its glow
On a balcony looking out

Into nowhere, I feel the deep peace
Of years clocked only on a journey
Between star and star

I just close my eyes –
And I can remember lifetimes
The senile elements of realities

So brief, I watch them as the pretty
Wail of mandolins, the months
When we were young felt longer

I wait for the jasmine-gardened night
For the fragrance of tomorrow
The dawn where voices join

Like mouths that tremble under waterfalls
And dreams that float like Indian perfume.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Bamboo-Forest-Kyoto-170876421

Water is Taught by Thirst, Light by Darkness

When light is put away
We grovel for a bit of light
When love is put to rest in dust
We dream of her infinity

But I’ve witnessed many goodbyes
And met many a passing neighbor
We are souls on a road
In evenings of the brain

When light is hid from us
Do not look at what the Moon discloses
But wait for the hour of the Sun
That comes without trying

Darkness and light do not step straight
But by a strange formula
Reveal themselves for our health
When it is our time to love or die
We shall know it, and not fear

Photo Courtesy: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Amsterdam-from-my-window-382826504