No Excuses

My vanity is immense,
and fear infects everything I do.

For the first time
I can see this and not deny it.

Daily I am told of my shortcomings --
I listen to those who judge me.

The things they identify are true,
there is no excuse for them.

The Essence of Imprisonment

Deliver me from the isolation of the Self, for surely this is the essence of imprisonment.

Clever and calculating, I fall back into the prison of self.

When I am willful and overbearing, I am not loved, at best I am only needed.

The fetters of this reasoning binds me, but through the insight of this, I can be free.

The Cure

May we all sense the Purpose --
be it through God, or through mediation,
or by action, or through any way
that works, please let us find it.

We'll take this realization
when it happens.

Let it start this day.

Please let it be recognized now,
a cure of this cycle of wanting,
through the ache of it.

Delight

I pray delight never left
and when it comes back
it is accepted

I pray innocence are delight's
wings and generosity
illuminates it

May I not wait long in denial
before I make this place
snug for arrival

It Is In Giving That We Live

It is in giving that we live,
in giving we learn,
in giving we tell,
in giving we love,
in giving we receive,
in giving we know,
in giving we stay.

There is nothing else,
no lingering unhappiness,
no crushing doubt,
no harboring resentment,
no undying hatred,
no undone thing,
no broken promise,
no unfulfilled vow.

Let Me Never Forsake

Lord, give to me
the realization of
seeing things as they
are, and not how
I want them to be.

When I experience
difficulty, let me
pause & choose again,
because I know how
finite this Ego is.

Let me never forsake
such a great kindness,
from you towards all
loving & living beings!

Self Assured

Oh Lord, let me recognize my imperfections
so I may abide with them, neither rejecting such things
nor seeing them as existing.

It is through my defects that I gain insight,
it is through the confession of my inadequacies that I become
humble and receptive.

The day is good, and so is the night. Darkness
teaches me many things about the light, and a new dawn
is self-assured.