Tao Te Ching #2

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

- Lao-tzu (550? B.C.E.)

Wings of Desire

People are distracted by objects of desire,
and afterward repent of the lust they've
indulged,
because they have indulged with a phantom
and are left even farther from Reality than
before.
Your desire for the illusory could be a wing,
by means of which a seeker might ascent to
Reality.
When you have indulged a lust, your wing drops
off;
you become lame, abandoned by a fantasy.
Preserve the wing and don't indulge such lust,
so that the wing of desire may bear you to
Paradise.
People fancy they are enjoying themselves,
but they are really tearing out their wings
for the sake of an illusion.

- Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273)

On the Death of Anne Bronte

THERE's little joy in life for me,
And little terror in the grave;
I've lived the parting hour to see
Of one I would have died to save.

Calmly to watch the failing breath,
Wishing each sigh might be the last;
Longing to see the shade of death
O'er those beloved features cast.

The cloud, the stillness that must part
The darling of my life from me;
And then to thank God from my heart,
To thank Him well and fervently;

Although I knew that we had lost
The hope and glory of our life;
and now, benighted, tempest-tossed,
Must bear alone the weary strife.

- Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)