Sunday, February 14, 2010

Numbness

Today I realized that I feel no pain.

Divulge

It wasn’t simple but she made peace with the past
It was only after the fact
After all the cracks, the attacks, self reflections, and the many rejections, that she felt a connection
That there was something there underneath all the anger and frustration
She doesn’t point fingers and blame
It was something that had to be done, for them to stay sane
But All you saw was the exterior
Not aware of the interior
Painful nights all alone
To you, their life styles was unknown
Slowly entering the danger zone
While they were getting stoned
Swirled with different worlds, as they learned to distinguish different codes
Feeling unattached
Like out of nowhere they were snatched
In opposite directions
Reaching out for affection from many wrong angles
Such a bad selection
Still, with him, she made peace
She thought to herself, Forgiveness IS key
Learning from experiences can set you, free

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Noble Truths


I read a book called “Asian Philosophies” by John M. Koller and I’d like to share a small portion of it. Before I do that, I’d like to share a quote from a book, which was recommended to me by a good friend called “The Mind’s eye” by Henri Cartier-Bresson. This book is actually on photography. Cartier writes, “Buddhism is neither a religion nor a philosophy, but a medium that consists in controlling the spirit order to attain harmony and, through compassion, to offer it to others.”
The four Noble Truths taught by the Buddha are number 1: “The truth of what suffering is”. This noble speaks of arising and brings up all the sufferings that we as humans go through. It speaks of the suffering of birth, death which includes sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and disparity. More suffering that is mentioned here is “association with the unpleasant, dissociation for the pleasant” and “not to get what one wants ”. The first one is about humans finding rebirth and death as a cycle of suffering. The Buddha goes on to believe that humans see themselves as changing and perceive their core as unchanging and think of themselves as “separate, not only from other beings, but also from their own body and mind”. The Buddha believes that this thought that most humans share is ignorant and believes that all things are continuously changing and are consistent with all other forms or beings. The Buddha finds no separation between beings and does not see the beings as permanent. The main point here is that it is ignorant, and a failure bound to happen if one were to detach or separate themselves, along with being permanent and staying unchanged through the five aggregates (physical process, process of sensation, perceptual process, volitional process, and the process of consciousness) when all these five groups are constantly changing processes. The second noble is “The truth of the conditioned arising of suffering”. The main suffering that is discussed here is craving. It is explained that craving is “a strong, desperate form of desire that moves a person to extremes in trying to attain or avoid something”. An example would be a person who is addicted to sex and they would do anything in their power to get it even if it had to go as far as raping a person. This act brings suffering, however this is not to be confused with the craving and desire of food, or the desire for a toothache to get better. Desire becomes suffering when the craving is selfish or greedy.
The third noble is about elimination: “The truth that suffering can be eliminated by eliminating its conditions”. This noble mainly speaks of nirvana, which is a positive outlook to try and eliminate craving that leads to suffering. The positive viewpoint of nirvana “refers to the peaceful and joyous life free from suffering that is achieved by extinguishing craving for performance”. The fourth noble is “The truth that the way to remove the conditions that give rise to suffering is to follow the middle way, constituted by the noble Eightfold Path”. This noble is the Buddha guide to life. This noble is to eliminate both craving and ignorance. It speaks of making ones speech, actions, motives pure and stopping the inflow of other additional cravings. This noble includes “right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration” along with the right view, right intention, and livelihood. These four truths are experienced by Buddha to eliminate suffering (duhkha).
I think these four nobles constitute sufficient analysis of duhkha, both its rising and elimination. The Buddha explains each suffering very clearly and it shows how they come to be suffering. It is either through ways we cannot control (labor pain), or through things, we can control (ignorance of self permanency). Buddhism recognizes suffering and tries not to reduce them but in fact to eliminate them through good, pure practice, self and mental discipline. The sufferings are negative; nonetheless, the Buddha sees the positive side and brings it out for a better life through love, compassion, wisdom, and moral conduct. :)

Overlooked

While he conceals pain
He wishes that she could see
Sincerity
Dreaming only in his sleep…he reaches for the stars….only to wake up to his endless scars
Suddenly he knew exactly where he was from
His bay rum mixed with her scent left him feeling num
Where did she come from?
Lost in her own soul,
in her own scars,
Blind to his love
She was only after his lust
Distrust

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Fearless collapse


Falling without fear in her heart
Without being embarrassed to express her art
Free your mind and find independence in your soul
Gaze out of the window and watch the snow fall into the hole
Empty souls
Beyond what you were ever looking for
Incomplete lives looking for a piece of mind
Lost in the battle
Consigned
Beauty versus ugly expressed the insecurities they were concealing
Surprisingly revealing
Took her garment off
Started feeling
Healing
Falling with no fear is all she was ever feening