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Poetry

Anything is subject for a poem:
A catalog of boxing equipment, a collage
  of other poems
Serpentine trail of incense, raised deer fur, old
  shoes pointed pigeon-toed,
Glass and steel cityscape, almond eyes of a saint,
  weeping of tiny flowers,
Sunlight on whitewashed walls, blue shadows of
  stooped women,
A sprung mousetrap, a trickle of blood in the
  gutter,
The homing swoop of a gull, chill whitecapped
  bay, scent of eucalyptus.
Green lawn of broken blades, clods of fat earth.
Anything is subject for a poem.

Even in sleep, write a poem.
When waking, write a poem.
While loving, write a poem.
Even voting, write a poem.
When angry, write a poem.
While dreaming, write a poem.

The sages say quite seriously that those who wish to know Tao better should cultivate the poet in themselves.

Every day priests minutely
examine the Dharma
and endlessly chant
complicated sutras.
They should learn
how to read the love letters
sent by the wind and rain,
the snow and moon.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe.

Don't look down on anybody, unless you are going to help them up.

222. Those who check rising anger as a charioteer checks a rolling chariot... those, I call true charioteers. Others only hold the reins.

223. Overcome the angry by non-anger; overcome the wicked by goodness; overcome the miser by generosity; overcome the liar by truth.

We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for this party nor against the other but we are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with God, and with one another, that these things may abound.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all.

Do not put faith in traditions, even though they have been accepted for long generations and in many countries. Do not believe a thing because many repeat it. Do not accept a thing on the authority of one or another of the sages of old, nor on the ground of statements as found in the books. Never believe anything because probability is in its favor. Do not believe in that which you yourselves have imagined, thinking that a god has inspired it. Believe nothing merely on the authority of the teachers or the priests. After examination, believe that which you have tested for yourself and found reasonable, which is in conformity with your well being and that of others'.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you. They are unique manefestations of the human spirit.

Fairy tales are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated.