(“Citadel of Light Merit Badge”, 2016, original pen and ink)
The Great Debate
The great debate in buddhism
Specifically in ancient Tibet,
Was between the sudden and gradualist schools.
Even though the event is apocryphal
And never actually happened,
It’s a good and relevant story
Because it is the debate that happens to this day
Between students and teachers,
Dharma brothers and sisters
And within our own heart,
Because it concerns the nature of actual enlightenment.
You see,
The two schools view and conceive
The nature of reality,
And thus nature of ourselves,
Fundamentally differently.
The gradual school says life is like a dream
While the sudden school says it is a dream.
Disregard for a moment
The popular row row row your boat song
Which somehow inexplicably
Gave us all in the West
The sudden school lesson,
The vast majority of spiritual aspirants
Are of the gradual path
While only the very few are sudden types.
But the bottom line
Is that everyone is a gradual path type
Until they are a sudden enlightenment type.
(8/11/25)
Jane the eldest of three sisters, and the Tadpole was given an earlier debut. Hails the middle sister of extraordinary charm and endearinng demeanor that exemplifies an industry--I find lacking.
This be the common thread of most aspirants, forewarned a cobsweb be drawn innocence. She played Kristy McNichols bike friend on 'Friends', edged by a mom's hope.
I am glad that I met Louise Foley, Jane's sister, on what turned out to be my final drive to Carmel, as my own life was getting to be a Full House.
EMOTION
suspended
prominently
meditative
ethereal
in style
seductive
visions
in
secluded
patinas
disconnects
in balance
a sanctum
of spiritual
resonance
delicate
aspirants
storm
ijtegrity
&
complicate
I saw some politicians and sponsor
And I craved to the scene censor:
Not good to look at like cancer,
Unless dead one’s from-birth sensor
Or one buffoon like TV Spencer…
The sponsor would the stuff bank roll
But should like to dictate, each role:
For all betrayers “Hangman’s pole;
A body blacker than charcoal…
His percentage gives of the whole
To be released with Godly soul:
“From day one work towards the goal;
Out Politics would good cash dole.”
Some aspirants listen, dry-lipped,
Others waiters, who’d just been tipped!
We, Indians, are physically and mentally fit,
Our men and women are known for their hilarious wit;
Yet, it is a known fact, that we lack common civic sense,
Our cattle cross on highways; bulls mount betwixt traffic, dense;
You could witness men and women performing yoga-scroll,
Army-aspirants stroll; crowds stand and merrily extol...!
We do not have any solid inconvenience, indeed,
Though annoyed, often, we smile and so solemnly proceed...!
13 May 2022
PERCHANCE, pure ignorance led me to thine fate,
this insensitive cast of shadowed ills,
master of melancholy,
captain of misery,
pukes wormed to,
fester my sole.
WROUGHT, I to thine chambered bed of tear-filled filth,
thy soulless disposition of dogged bitten maladies,
mastery of wanton death,
captain of pistols gift,
giveth thee eternally,
peace lest mired,
in wretchedness,
be thine indeed,
forevermore.
BOUGHT, thee an earthly infirmity gift of thine underworld,
a substance of substantial kaleidoscopic wonderment,
masters of the Gorgon green powdery eyes,
captain favor thee and keep me stoned,
the zodiacal tamed universe in,
infinity delusion,
aloft.
OUTDATED is not part of modernity, an obstacle of fluidity,
utter nonsensical befitting of untruths worthy of,
frontal page jibberish for a stoned audience,
be the damnation of liberal bitterness and,
prosaic palfrey gallops expelling feces,
edible for domineering soulmates,
lost in love, fools that they are,
spiraling aspirants sticky,
cesspool of the,
damned!
2020 February 09
Future The Great
Bouncing and dancing future welcomes all
Growth of its rapidly epidemic cause
Aspirants of future conceive happy blind
Doers in present are kings of valentine
The hope of pleasure is a case of future
Always stands in the heart of bliss kisser
The optimistic approach is a path for survival
Fittest to live in is present architecture
The dream of future is a blood for all
To meet the target future is the metre
Without future no time will survive
Without life future will die
Precious is future in comparison with time
My mother conceived me in womb month nine
Agreeing with future heart pumps blood for brain
A pause of second sends in the home of heaven
So, going to Alaska in another season
Maturity of ice and waiting for icicles
A love to all because future will show dawn
Till the life remains future is time.
Curtain Time
by Odin Roark
The warnings
The preparation
The moment
Such expectancy
Be it plebeian
Or royal instinct
Openings' glitter
Brings incessant challenges
Making hoary one's existence
So functions the undertow
The inward monitor
Yours
Mine
Those backstage
Probity unseen
Untested
How diligent this amorphous reality
This integrity always in the making
Urging while cautious
Impotent while daring
Tactical while fearful
For it knows missteps
Begin in the wings
Yet
Blinding lights lure
Sounds of acceptance seduce
Daring casts its fate
Across one's personal footlights
Moment's truth is heard
Why
This need for lights
Applause
Veneration
Once reserved for artists
Of the stage?
We only know
Celebritydom
Entices the ignorant
The smart
The genius
And the saintly
The world is one big curtain
Al-Qaeda
Congress
Hollywood
Domestic and career aspirants
Even philanthropies
Clamor for the luminosity
The sweat of anticipation
The roar of acceptance
Not yet knowing the silence
Of an empty house
Such is reality
Sooner
Or
Later
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