The Noble Eightfold Path: Part 1 Right View

1. Existence means suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is attachment.
3. The cessation of suffering can be attained.
4. The path to the end of suffering is the Noble 8 Fold Path.
--The 4 Noble Truths of the Buddha


I hear you in my dreams as a song
If only I were awake
then could I see your true being?
Would I be able to walk the path
beside you?

The melody so beautiful
like nothing I had heard before.
Like water cascading down
a mountain stream.
The stones are worn smooth
by centuries of knowing.

These trees stripped bare
of their branches so that one
can see them naked and exposed.
Winter trees unafraid of laying bare
their truth so that we may
learn form and shape.

To understand that all things
must change, be born, die.
That to become attached
is no longer an option.

Come, come whoever you are

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, come yet again.
Rumi


You have always wandered my life
as a thought, a description of
some other thing. I always wanted
only one thing, never wavering
ever faithful. But something in you
never recognizes me. I shake you and
shout "Here I am, come back to me.
I have always been right here at the
end of this dusty road, across the ocean,
down one way streets, at the end of the
world." But you always forget.

And then sometimes there is this wonderer
And it becomes a thing in itself, a thought,
a being. Then sometimes you come back
but it is too late. We have continued
our journey across oceans, down one way
streets. We become lost. Because the other
was only ever a thought anyway.
And then as soon as I am lost
you forget again.

And then the worshipper of dreams
comes alive and then you really
remember and almost even
wake up. Have a conversation
and leave. Leave me be so that
I might live. And everyone says
I love you. But tragically, the
image remains poorly described
and fades away, only ever
seeing itself through my eyes.

Then there is an energy, movement,
reality and you are gone, lover of leaving.
I am free and don't need to wait at the end of
dusty roads, in forgotten hiding places,
unmapped highways, across oceans.
And now I can't even remember if
this song is for you.

First kiss

“The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time.”
T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland

Beautiful autumn morning
every day you think the trees
can't possibly get more brilliant
and then they do.
I drive down the street breathing
in the colors of the trees
driving past places I used to live,
get drunk, walk my dog,
fall in love.

I used to think that the beauty
of the mid autumn sun
falling through the trees
was all that was required.
Then other things got in the way
and I could not see the sun
the way it falls at that particular
angle - reminding us that suffering
will occur if we do not pay attention
to the beauty of the light amongst
the leaves in this present moment.

How is it possible to know what is
truly in the heart of another?
Wanting this will surely bring
great suffering. It is best to know
what is in your own heart first.
There is still great mystery in
this moment. To turn inside and
to know your true self, that is what
the light asks of us.

Stop longing after something
you will never have, never know.
Walk past places
you have lived, read a book, stayed
up all night, kissed someone for the
first time. Watch the leaves turn,
as they do every year, see that one
that is a pure burst of crimson.
And pay attention to the light,
how it slants through the trees
and touches us more softly.