the hero’s journey
is one of suffering and peril
no greatness was ever achieved
without sacrifice and diffculty
yet in our own lives
we reject our suffering
or even worse avoid it
we remain foolishly mortal
when we embrace the pain
as part of the process
of overcoming our evils
all hesitations vanish
fight on and fight forever
into the endless tomorrow
Driven by love, knowing
that this is the only way
America is a Great Nation
Sometimes called the greatest
I think that may be undeserved
But, faults and follies all the same
Is special to me
Maybe its just because I live here
and I have always lived here
but I think there is something special about this place
We have Freedom!
Somehow we find ourselves blessed to live in a place
Where we have enshrined such a noble ideal
Free not just in person, and in government
But free in mind, the most precious of all
We are all given a gift to determine some small part
of this great experiment
and that is pretty awesome
But the freedom we so love
as is so often intoned
Isn’t. Fucking. Free.
It’s a responsibility
It’s something we have to watch and nurture
and protect and even more
protect in others
because if all men are not free
then there is NO freedom!
And it is because I love my country so
that i get so angered, incensed, enraged
When people throw their freedom away
When out of greed and ignorance
Forget their responsibilities as free men
And oppress the freedoms of others
raising themselves up over their fellow citizen
they say freedom is when I can be more free
they say let each find what freedom they may, this is my own
and bit by bit, they steal our nations vital essence from us
and by stealing it destroy it
so that no one can be free
When a no talent billionaire bigot gets on stage
and tells us to hate, and to fear
and citizens throw away their precious freedom
to support a mad, racist, fascist Disneyland
when the masses cry out
make me powerful!
punish my enemies!
Ill trade my freedom for safety! for prosperity!
Ill give all my freedom for a lie that makes me feel good!
When hateful messages pour into every home
When death is everywhere, and war is never ending
When the machine just burns forever on, consuming without conscience
consuming without meaning
consuming without thinking
Where is Freedom?
I get so mad because the secret to our great nation’s success
Is. so. fucking. simple!
What makes America great is that we help each other!
A nation of pioneers, we always say
but we forget pioneers rely on each other most of all
In the wilderness, your neighbors are your only allies against cruel fate
And from this we learned how to be great
we learned to cooperate, to build, to believe together
To pool our freedom, to invest it in something greater then ourselves
We discovered an interesting property of freedom,
that when we use our freedom to help others,
when we give it away so that it can be more than just ours
It multiplies!
and multiplies, and multiplies, and creates wonders we are still just discovering
And from this was born this wonderful nation
America
So why have we turned away from this great heritage?
Because we have become complacent
resting on our laurels, fat, indolent
small and petty emperors always looking for the next fool
We indulge in all manner of vices, we turn inward
We say, how can I be happy today
We say, how can I get what I want
A child like attitude developed, cultivated
through constant commercials and propaganda
We give our freedom to the rich to make us happy
We give our freedom to the power hungry to think for us
We give our freedom to our jobs to keep us from being scared
And by a million small cuts our country dies
We didn’t build this great nation by focusing on ourselves!
But by focusing on building a great nation
The. Greatest! Nation.
and America can be that again
if even it ever was
but only if we help each other, because remember
helping is what made America great.
So, when refugees come to our shores in desperate need.
Help Them.
When the poor cannot eat, cannot house themselves, cannot find medicine.
Help Them.
When people suffer from addiction. When people make mistakes. When people are people.
Help Them.
When people disagree with you to the point you just want to beat the stupid out of them
Help Them. (Not by beating them)
We have to be a nation of helping
Helping always, helping everyone
Even when it might hurt us, even when we are scared,
even when we don’t know if its the right thing to do
Help Them.
We have to understand again that so that we can all be equal in this country
We all have to accept have an equal responsibility to help one another
rather than raise ourselves up
we should pride ourselves on raising up others
raising up our family
raising up our community
raising up freedom until it rings from every corner
of this goddammed great country
so that we can be free
we must make all men free
and we must work like slaves to do it!
My fondest wish is that we will all get to work.
If we want to live in a beautiful world
We have to learn how to perceive beauty
Everything being their own thing
and being somewhat equal in emptiness
Why do some phenomena strike us so?
Created, uncreated, real, unreal
We see what we want to see
When we see beauty it is us
When we see ugliness it is us
When we see we see us
We see what we have faith in
Or what we can’t believe
mostly be believe in what we want
but when we learn to see what is
we stop wanting
So, then to live in beauty
make yourself beautiful
caring, joyous, helpful, patient, kind
working hard for others
creating a whole world of perfection
We have to perceive something to know it
Without perception there is no knowledge
The world is chaos but our stories make it more
We deny our power to be whole and peaceful beings
Simultaneously using our will make ourselves miserable
All because of the faults of our perception
Not the fault of this world
The world only is
Accepting that we can move forward
With the true stories of our lives
Lives that we write because we know
That living is all that we can do
To understand the world we have to understand the instrument
When it’s finely tuned, it becomes so much more harmonious
The Dharma is often described as a liquid
it fills up the container of the mind
fills it up with compassion and emptiness
And like a liquid, the Dharma
as it fills us takes our shape
creating us again from the inside out
by purifying the ego
we become more of what we are
everything can be consolidated
slowly slowly we fill up
our bodies become transformed
into true and incomprehensible light
Drink deeply, life is short!
understand what can be collected
find out what you can become
A wise man looks after his karma
Like
a rich man looks after his money
And I am well invested
And although the returns may now be slight
I have the power of exponents on my side
exponents and time, a powerful combination
my future looks bright
So come what may
what slight degradations
hunger, pain, exhaustion and the like
The trivia of life
I know my ship is coming in
To take me to the other side
The paradise that never left us
It’s bottled up inside
The problems I am talking about Are the same as those discussed As the original Mahayana scholars It is amazing to me How much these problems remain the same We think so much has changed now! We think ourselves so much wiser But where is the life that brings us happiness?!? What is knowing everything? If we do not know that And what was true then is true now Happiness brings Happiness Peace brings Peace When we learn to see the true nature Then we are living the good life The dharma seed grows slowly But it seems to always increase The teacher ever eminating Has enchanted my form Purifying me into my true self And by doing so has freed me from myself Bound me to his timeless tradition Made me more than just a human Everyone sees me as they will But I choose to only see dharma The rewards are everlasting
Failure is the mechanism
Through which we become successful
Trial and error
We form our billion patterns
Everything becomes locked
When our misconceptions become permanent
When we see things dualistically
Failure versus Success
The important thing is the motivation
The heart of giving for all
When we act with this heart
We surpass failure and success
We give in to the purity of the heart
And by doing so perform the actions
Of no action
We find comfort in the great things
Our great hearts bring us
Pleasure in our service to others
Peace in every moment
And then you can just exist
Enjoy the long goodbye!
Doomed to be on the outside
A wicked twist of fate
Made into something so strange
Uncontrollable
But a delight to control
Fighting always Fighting
Trying to survive
I hate desperation
So needless imposed
We were meant to be so much more!
I can’t fit myself
into your timid little frame
Should I be blamed
harmed?
for your ignorance?
All I want is what everybody wants
Good work, a nice place to live
peace and quiet
and i’m still fighting for it
The things so many take for granted
I cant tow this line
I cant pretend everything is ok
Everybody has Buddha nature
Everybody is the same
Why must some die so others may live in luxury!
There seems to be
a whole universe of ignorance
vast and impenetrable
but sometimes when I send out a light
I see lights in return
So maybe not so outside after all
Leisure is a suckers game
Sloth a foolish paradise
Our desires devour us
And make us in their image
It’s like playing blackjack
The house always wins
We should revel in our work!
The ways in which we move the world
The power we have to make things happen
Which is always right in front of us
This is our hunan gift
To make the world in our image
But what we make also makes us back
And so we have to work in ways
That make us strong
That make us wise
We have to do the work of the divine
So that we can find our divinity
So find your divine task!
Work and find joy in it
Then when you rest
You know you have earned it
Your mind will be at peace
And your world will be at rest
It's Almost Friday: 