When you think the world uncertain

Do you ever wonder at “the fortunate”
    ...those with blessings far beyond your own?

Do you ponder, pity-filled, at the truly wretched
    ...struggling or abandoned way below?

Do your spirits rise to hear how many resurrect
    ...cleaning off the mire into which they’re born?

Do you ever dare to face the plummet fall
    ...of Icaruses who seemed about to reach the stars?

It takes high courage (or fool’s abandon)
    to see how really little is for sure.

Tibetans call this life a dew drop,
    ahanging on the lotus petal’s tip.

In calm we all may let the dew drop fall or fly
    when we are cleansed within that Ocean
        where dewdrops end
            and whence they come again.

O, for the courage needed for that plunge!

One peace is but a piece

If your first experiences of peace
    do not evaporate all fears
    or heal all aches and pains,
        be not surprised:
    you live as mortal, not as god.

Remember what these are:
    your first experiences.

One meditation or relaxing scene
    is cultivation of a skill,
    not a magic bullet.

You’ve mastered many skills in life,
    skills far more difficult.

This one’s merely newer,
    subtler,
    less clamoring,

    and vastly More.