Wealth...

"He is richest who is content with the least, 

for content is the wealth of nature." 

Socrates

Knowledge...

“Knowing yourself is the 

beginning of all wisdom.” 

Aristotle

Freedom...

"Having the inner strength, balance, 

and capability to live well irrespective 

of outside situations and conditions

– that is freedom."

Sadhguru 

Do what you can...

"Start where you are. 

Use what you have. 

Do what you can." 

Arthur Ashe

Preach....

"It is no use walking anywhere to preach 

unless our walking is our preaching." 

Francis of Assisi

3 Rules

"I follow three rules: Do the right thing, 

do the best you can, and always show 

people you care." 

Lou Holtz

Imagination...

“Our imagination flies,

we are its shadow on the earth.”

Vladimir Nabokov

Celestial beings...

"If you look at the Earth from another
part of the universe, we are
celestial beings. It’s just a question
of  perspective." 

Sadhguru

Unexamined life....

"The unexamined life is not worth living." 

Socrates

Clinging....

"When you cling to demons as
truly existent, that binds you.

When you cling to deities
as truly existent, that binds you.

When you cling to enemies a
s truly existent, that binds you.

When you cling to friends
as truly existent, that binds you.

So know that memories
are self-liberated.

So know that thoughts
are self-liberated."

Composed by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche,

in 2005 at Holy Island, Scotland

Translated by Ari Goldfield.

Enemy...

"No one is to be called an enemy, all are 

your benefactors, and no one does you 

harm. You have no enemy except yourselves." 

Francis of Assisi

Experience of life....

"The experience of life should mature you. 

It is your choice to transform a memory 

into a wound or wisdom." 

Sadhguru

Dualism...

"Dualism is the real root of our suffering and of all our conflicts. All our concepts and beliefs, no matter how profound they may seem, are like nets which trap us in dualism. When we discover our limits we have to try to overcome them, untying ourselves from whatever type of religious, political or social conviction may condition us. We have to abandon such concepts as 'enlightenment', 'the nature of the mind', and so on, until we are no longer satisfied by a merely intellectual knowledge, and until we no longer neglect to integrate our knowledge with our actual existence.”

Namkhai Norbu, Dzogchen

The Self-Perfected State

Well being of others...

"Putting the well being of others above 

your own creates a different kind of 

strength, a strength that will carry you 

through life and beyond."

Sadhguru

Aging....

"Aging is no accident. It is necessary to the human condition, intended by the soul. We become more characteristic of who we are simply by lasting into later years; the older we become, the more our true natures emerge. Thus the final years have a very important purpose: the fulfillment and confirmation of one’s character.

James Hillman

A night thought!

Lo! where the Moon along the sky

Sails with her happy destiny;

Oft is she hid from mortal eye

Or dimly seen,

But when the clouds asunder fly

How bright her mien!

Far different we--a froward race,

Thousands though rich in Fortune's grace

With cherished sullenness of pace

Their way pursue, 

Ingrates who wear a smileless face

The whole year through.

If kindred humours e'er would make

My spirit droop for drooping's sake,

From Fancy following in thy wake,

Bright ship of heaven!

A counter impulse let me take

And be forgiven. 

William Wordsworth

Good & bad experiences...

"What's recommended is that if you have a good experience, don't get too excited. And if you have a bad experience, don't mistake it for a serious deviation or a sidetrack that you have to find your way back from. If you have a bad experience, just continue practicing as you were. In other words, whatever happens, just keep looking at your mind."

Thrangu Rinpoche

 Pointing Out the Dharmakaya

Dreams...

“Hold fast to dreams,

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird,

That cannot fly.” 

Langston Hughes

An honest man...

"An honest man is always a child." 

Socrates

All beings except...

"Every worm, every insect, every animal is 

working for the ecological wellbeing of the 

planet. Only we humans, who claim to be 

the most intelligent species here, are not doing that."

Sadhguru

Genius...

"The difference between stupidity and 

genius is that genius has its limits." 

Albert Einstein

Fear

"We can easily forgive a child who
is afraid of the dark; 

the real tragedy of life is when
men are afraid of the light." 

Plato

Fool and Wise

"Men who know themselves are no longer fools. 

They stand on the threshold of the door of Wisdom."

Havelock Ellis

Intelligent vs idiots

Intelligent ones wonder

– idiots are dead sure. 

Sadhguru 

On Religions...

"No one experiences freedom until they stop pushing against others. The only thing that binds you is the pushing against that which is unwanted. And so, if a religion could just be excited about what it is, or a person within a religion could just speak with appreciation about what it is, without justifying what it is by pushing against everything else, then each religion, in all of its difference, could be just exactly what you're reaching for."

Abraham (Esther Hicks)

Water...

Knowledge & ignorance

"The greater our knowledge increases 

the more our ignorance unfolds."

John F. Kennedy

Appearances

"Though shifting appearances ceaselessly rise,

just be unattached as a child at play."

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

Is it not about time?

"If the white man wants to live in peace 

with the Indian, he can live in peace...Treat all
men alike. 

Give them all the same law.
Give them all an even chance to live and grow.

All men  were made by the same Great Spirit Chief.

They are all brothers. The Earth is the mother of all people, 

and all people should have equal rights upon it....

Let me be a free man,free to travel,

free to stop,free to work,free to trade where 

I choose my own teachers, free to follow 

the religion of my fathers,free to think 

and talk and act for myself, and I 

will obey every law, or submit to the penalty."

Heinmot Tooyalaket 

(Chief Joseph), Nez Perce Leader

Fate:

An unconscious creation!

Live through intention!

Aspire to freedom!

Inquire of wisdom!

Decide with insight!

Know heart’s might!

Act if you are true!

See it all through!

Living is not for some!

Rest only when done!

Somwang (Book of poems2)

Fear, anger, misery

"Fear, anger, misery, frustration, depression, and 

despair are all products of a mind that you have 

not taken charge of."

Sadhguru

Thinking...

"There is nothing either good or 

bad but thinking makes it so." 

William Shakespeare

Knowledge & wisdom

"Those who know it do not speak about it. 

Those who speak about it do not know it."

Tao Te Ching

A good thing....

"One good thing about music, 

when it hits you, you feel no pain." 

Bob Marley

The mind...

"The mind is society’s garbage bin. Everyone 

who passes by stuffs something into it." 

Sadhguru

Trust...

“. . . if gold rust, what then will iron do?

 For if a priest be foul in whom we trust

 No wonder that a common man should rust. . . .” 

Geoffrey Chaucer

Endless Time

Time is endless in thy hands, my lord. 

There is none to count thy minutes. 

Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers. 

Thou knowest how to wait. 

Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower. 

We have no time to lose, 

and having no time we must scramble for a chance. 

We are too poor to be late. 

And thus it is that time goes by 

while I give it to every querulous man who claims it, 

and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last. 

At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut; 

but I find that yet there is time. 

Rabindranath Tagore

Our real World

"We live now in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy education, government destroys freedom, press destroys information, religion destroys morals and our banks destroy the economy".

Chris Hedges

Pacific Radio Speech (date unknown)

USA

Clouds And Waves

Mother, the folk who live up in the clouds call out to me-
"We play from the time we wake till the day ends.
We play with the golden dawn, we play with the silver moon."
I ask, "But how am I to get up to you ?"
They answer, "Come to the edge of the earth, lift up your
hands to the sky, and you will be taken up into the clouds."
"My mother is waiting for me at home, "I say, "How can I leave
her and come?"
Then they smile and float away.
But I know a nicer game than that, mother.
I shall be the cloud and you the moon.
I shall cover you with both my hands, and our house-top will
be the blue sky.
The folk who live in the waves call out to me-
"We sing from morning till night; on and on we travel and know
not where we pass."
I ask, "But how am I to join you?"
They tell me, "Come to the edge of the shore and stand with
your eyes tight shut, and you will be carried out upon the waves."
I say, "My mother always wants me at home in the everything-
how can I leave her and go?"
They smile, dance and pass by.
But I know a better game than that.
I will be the waves and you will be a strange shore.
I shall roll on and on and on, and break upon your lap with
laughter.
And no one in the world will know where we both are.

Rabindranath Tagore

Understand...

“Any fool can know. 

The point is to understand.” 

Albert Einstein

Tomb humor...

Epitaph in a Ribbesford, England, cemetery:

The children of Israel wanted bread

And the Lord sent them manna,

Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife,

And the Devil sent him Anna.

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils; 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed- and gazed- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude; 

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils. 

William Wordsworth

War

A young soldier grieves

Treads upon dried leaves

Yet another life and soul

Died on worn out soles!

Bright sky once so sweet

For the lost now weeps

The deluded drink & cheer!

But for all kin dark is near

As he gasps his final breath

Embraced by arms of death

An inner voice thus spoke:

“I lost my chance to “win”.

A short life: a collective sin!”

Somwang

Book of poems 2

Age...

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. 

If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." 

Mark Twain

Bob Marley....

"Don't gain the world and lose your soul; 

wisdom is better than silver or gold." 

Bob Marley

Long walks...

"I like long walks, especially when they are 

taken by people who annoy me." 

Noel Coward

Seek ...

"In every walk with nature one 

receives far more than he seeks.'

John Muir

Remembering a great King

"Lives of great men all remind us, 

we can make our lives sublime, 

and, departing, leave behind us, 

footprints on the sands of time." 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This month  marks one year since the passing of a great leader and a great King, His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej.

I have lived in Thailand for the past 12 years or so and visiting various rural locations in North and Southern Thailand I was able to witness first hand the enormous benefit that His late Majesty bestowed on the Thai people, his children.

Many foreigners are not fully aware that this wonderful man possessed enormous vision and know how. He was able to survey every region of this beautiful land and understand directly the importance of its resources and the need for their effective sustainable management for the sake of future generations. He cared deeply about all his people and dedicated his entire life, from an early age, to achieving these goals.

He worked to ensure the protection of the incredible bio diversity that Thailand has to offer. HM worked on a vast array of projects ranging from cloud seeding, crop innovation,water management, infrastructure, forest protection and conservation through to self-sufficiency integrated farming methods. He gave his people the chance to learn how to “fish”, how to use the vast natural wealth of the land in order to enjoy a good and comfortable life wanting for nothing. He taught about living off the land without destroying its resources and depleting them.

In the West we appear to have taken a different approach which is very sad. Unlike in Thailand people (with few exceptions) have come to depend on huge corporations for their livelihoods and have lost the art and imagination to be self-sustaining.

Thailand has had a long line of great monarchs: many of them were advanced thinkers, scientists and innovators and could see well into the future: one of the reasons that I believe Thailand was never fully colonized by any major power. HM was a musician, embraced and understood science and technology, was a conservationist, a father to all of his people irrespective of their religion. He did not speak much: a reflection of a true, wise and golden heart.

I know that I miss his presence that served as a uniting force for the country. I will attempt to keep his inspiration in my heart and do what I can to follow his example. It is the best way to keep his spirit with us.

The world has lost a great man, the universe has regained one of its finest lights.

A lawyer's epitaph

A lawyer's epitaph in England:

"Sir John Strange

Here lies an honest lawyer,

And that is Strange."

Secret Sorrows

"Every man has his secret sorrows 

which the world knows not; 

and often times we call a man 

cold when he is only sad." 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Love all, trust few...

"Love all, trust a few, 

do wrong to none." 

William Shakespeare

Afterlife: one thought!

"We have no reliable guarantee that the afterlife 

will be any less exasperating than this one, 

have we?" 

Noel Coward

On kindness

"Kindness in words creates confidence. 

Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. 

Kindness in giving creates love." 

Lao Tzu