How to Expand Love - Dalai Lama

You are born as human being, and that cannot change until death. all else - whether you're educated or uneducated, young or old, rich or poor - is secondary


We must keep in mind that too much involvement in the superficial aspects of life will not solve our larger problem of discontentment. Love, compassion, and concern for others are real sources of happiness.


If you nurse hatred, however, you will not be happy even in the lap of luxury.


Only through kindness and love can peace of mind be achieved.


Self-defeating attitudes arise not of their own accord, but out of ignorance.


Love and compassion are beneficial both for you and for others. Through kindness toward others, your mind and heart will open to peace.


Rather than working solely to acquire wealth, we need to do something meaningful, something seriously directed toward the welfare of humanity.


...focuses on valuing our enemies because they provide us with unique opportunities to practice patience, tolerance, and forbearance


By extending ordinary feelings of love and concern beyond their usual biased limits, love is freed from counterproductive attachment


Emotional problems do not reside in the mind's essence; such counterproductive attitudes are temporary and superficial and can be removed.


We get angry at what fails our desires. Anger is fomented by the misconception that the object and yourself are established this way (as enemy and victim) in and of themselves. Hatred is not part of the mind's foundation.


Lust, hatred, and jealousy all depend upon the initial mistaken belief that objects exist as independent entities


Non-virtuous attitudes such as hatred and pride - no matter how strong they are - are generated only with the assistance and support of ignorance


Suffering i caused and permitted by an untamed mind


Acquiring more things once you have what is necessary cannot lead to contentment


Happiness comes through taming the mind; without taming the mind there is no way to be happy


Even while generating a great many good and bad conceptions such as desire, hatred, and bewilderment, the diamond mind itself is free from the corruptions of these defilements, like sky throughout clouds


At present you find it unbearable that your friends suffer, but you are pleased that your enemies suffer, and you are indifferent to the suffering of neutral persons


Pure compassion is not biased or partial, it is thoroughly imbued with equanimity and encompasses both friend and foe


Once you have generated an attitude of equality toward all, then it will be possible to view not just friends, but neutral beings and even enemies with great endearment


Lust, hatred, and indifference must be neutralized


Realize that, like yourself, all of these people want happiness and do not want pain, and in this important way, they are equal.


Looking forward to the future, there is no reason why an enemy must remain an enemy and a friend must remain a friend. Friends, enemies, and neutral people are equal because they may shift interchangeably from one role to the next.


When negative thoughts and motivations such as hatred or anger are present, even a friend is seen as an enemy, but when negative thoughts toward an enemy disappear, the enemy becomes a friend.


We live in dependence upon those who have no special motivation to help us.


Only when forced with the work of enemies can you learn real inner strength.


When things go smoothly, life can easily become like an official ceremony in which protocol, like how you walk and how you speak, is more important than content. But at a time of crisis, these things are pointless - you have to deal with reality and become more practical.


Without the appreciation of kindness, society breaks down


If you become overwhelmed by mental discomfort, external things will not help at all. However, if internally there is love, warmth, and kindheartedness, external problems can be accepted and faced more easily


When we encounter human suffering, it is important to respond with commiseration rather than to question the politics of those we help. Instead of asking whether their country is enemy or friend, we must thing - there are human beings, they are suffering, and they have a right to happiness equal to their own.


As long as desire, hatred, attachment, jealousy, or ignorance are present, crime is possible.


It is difficult to think of a pleasurable experience, that, if overindulged in, does not have an inner nature of pain


In turning away from attachment, you need not ignore essential needs such as food, shelter, and sleep. Rather you should separate yourelf from superficial distractions that elicit such explanations such as "I must have this!" When you give your life over to such thoughts, finery and money become more attractive than spiritual development; distressing emotions increase, leading to trouble, disturbing yourself and those around you, while you figure out ways to satisfy these emotions, causing yet more trouble. 


Attachment is built on this mis-perception and will always cause more pain.


Your attachment to the feeling of pleasure itself draws you into distressing actions and thereby into cyclic problems.


There are two types of desire - unreasonable and reasonable. The first is an affliction founded on ignorance, but the second is not. All human development comes out of desire, and those aspirations do not have to be affliction.


Counterproductive desire is unreasonable attachment to things. This inevitably leads to lack of contentment. Ask yourself if you really need most of those things and the answer is no. This type of desire has no limit, no way to satisfy itself, it leads ultimately to suffering. You must put a brake to this desire.


Attachment is one-sided, narrowly focused on yourself for just the short term; the more attached you become, the more biased and narrow you become.


Love thrown into bias by lust and hatred eventually must be stopped. Love influenced by afflictive desires necessarily brings with it hatred at what opposes it, and along with that comes jealousy and all sorts of problems.


Actions are secondary, since they are sometimes positive or negative - always changing - whereas there is never any change in the fact that beings want happiness and do not want suffering.


The main point is not whether a particular person is good or bad to you but the fact that the person is the same as you in wanting happiness and not wanting suffering


I do not concentrate on that person's bad behavior but reflect on the fact that this is a human, who, like myself, wants happiness and does not want suffering, but is voluntarily bringing pain to himself and intentionally destroying his own happiness.


No amount of wealth can buy an extension n your life. On the day of death, nothing you have accumulated can help, you have to leave it behind.


It is crucial to understand that there is no point in being attached to the pleasant appearances or angered by the unpleasant ones.


You need a strong will to achieve the good to make a wish that you will become able to help all beings throughout space. You need a strong self


Contentment is necessary for happiness, so try to be satisfied with adequate food, clothing, and shelter.


All the troubles on this earth are ultimately due to egotism and self-cherishing.


Without enemies you could not fully engage in the practice of patience - tolerance and forbearance. From the viewpoint of training in altruism, an enemy is really your guru, your teacher; only an enemy can teach you tolerance. 


Without patience, you could not develop true love and compassion because you would be subject to irritation


Tragic circumstances help you develop inner strength, the courage to face them without emotional breakdown.


There are different levels of happiness and different kinds of suffering. Material things usually correspond to physical happiness, whereas spiritual development corresponds to mental happiness. Since our "I" has two aspects - physical and mental - we need an inseparable combination of material progress and internal spiritual progress.


The kind of selfishness that leads to fighting, killing, stealing, and using harsh words - forgetting other peoples' welfare, always thinking about yourself - I, I, I - will result in your own loss. Others may speak nice words in front of you, but behind your back they will not speak so nicely.


When there is a will there is a way, is indeed true. When we get entangled in a difficult situation, if our will, or courage lessens, if we fall into laziness or feel inferior to the task, thinking that we could not possibly undo this difficulty, his diminishment of will cannot protect us from suffering and will likely make more.


We must generate courage equal to the size of difficulties we face.


As compassion grows stronger, so does the willingness to commit yourself to the welfare of all beings, even if you have to do it alone.


As long as you have compassion, you will be free of the deepest anxiety.


Anger needs to be controlled, but not hidden from yourself. Recognize your reactions; do not deny them. If you do, your compassion will be superficial


Giving your anger the instrument of words and actions is like giving a child a pile of straw and a box of matches. Once lit, anger feeds off the air of exposure and can rage out of control.


When you are ill or suffer an unfortunate event, imagine "may this illness or misfortune serve as a substitute for the suffering of sentient beings". 


If you can do something without a problem, do it; if it is impossible, worry is useless


As your activities of body, speech, and mind become more and more directed to the benefit of others, you develop a profound sense of love and commitment


The impermanence of this present life will force you to leave behind all wealth, but by giving it away, you can take it with you as good karma.


Just as deficient children are punished out of a wish to make them competent, so punishment should be carried out with compassion, not through hatred, not desire for wealth.  Even those whom they have rightfully fined, bound, punished, and so forth, you being moistened with compassion, should always be caring.

Work in Progress - Wilson's Ghost

Thereafter, Wilson's ghost haunted the 20th century : in the Second World War, in which 50 million people were killed; in the Cold War, with its nuclear fear and destructive "proxy" wars; and in the countless post- Cold War conflicts that threaten anarchy, death, and destruction.

We argue that fundamentally, the human race - in particular foreign and defense policy makers of the Great Powers - has not made the prevention of human carnage a central priority.

Beware of the temptation to believe that sustainable peace will be maintained simply by plotting to achieve an alleged "balance of power" without a strong international organization to enforce it.

For President Wilson had convinced many Americans that Armistice Day represented not merely the end of the most devastating war in world history, but also, in the phrase Wilson made famous, "the war to end all war".

"America," said Wilson, "is only the idealistic nation in the world."

Wilson failed the accomplish these objectives. In the end Germany was humiliated and embittered by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which required not only the ceding of vast tracts of land but also the payment of exorbitant reparations to Germany's European enemies.  Wilson's League of Nations, moreover, was rendered nearly irrelevant by America's absence from it, due to Wilson's failure to persuade the U.S Senate to ratify the treaty creating it. During a cross-country speaking tour in the summer of 1919 on behalf of the treaty, Wilson suffered a stroke, from which he never recovered. The Senate would vote down the League shortly thereafter. Thus did his personal tragedy reflect that of his country and his world.

The Moral Imperative - establish as a major goal of the U.S foreign policy, and indeed of foreign policies across the globe the avoidance in this century of the carnage - 160million dead - caused by the conflict in the 20th century

The Multilateral Imperative - recognize that the United States must provide leadership to achieve the objective of reduced carnage but, in doing so, it will not apply its economic, political, or military power unilaterally, other than in the unlikely circumstances of a defense of the continental United States, Hawaii, and Alaska.

Wilson was accused of being a native Idealist

Yet the tragic history of the 20th century that followed strongly suggests that Lloyd George and the other Europeans - self-style "realists" - might with considerable profit have listened more closely to the "idealist" from America.

Wilson believed that until the power to make war was given over in large part to an international body such as the League, there could be no insurance against the kind of miscalculation, paranoia, suspicion, and error-ridden decision making that had led to the First World War.

And only by means of Article X would it become clear that seeking unilateral advantage at the expense of others would not be tolerated and would thus, Wilson believed, be significantly deterred.

Without Article X, he believed, nations and leaders were bound to waver in moments of crisis, when "the will to war is everything," as it had been during the July crisis of 1914. Thus, there mut be no unilateral application of military force by any member of the League of Nations against any other member, under penalty of a guaranteed and proportionate military response by the forces of some or all of the other members.

Milos

By Anis Mojgani

Let us take a sack of spray paint and spray paint over the paintings.
Let dance through Paris;
kiss in the shadow of the Louvre,
crawl inside its windows,
scroll manifesto's over its canvas',
write Morris' code on the sculptures,
roll a sleeping bag on the floors to sleep inside of, tell one another a story by flashlight,
unearth everything from before,
burry each other inside the other,
feed grapes to the ants,
light fireworks in the fists of sleeping kings; kill a monarch.
Break back outside and find a world to do all these same things to;
up and upon against break the bricks, climb over them,
and when the sirens scream,
laugh aloud, hold my hand and run fast.
Run through the streets with me with a bunch of bottles,
a bucket of gasoline,
a mouthful of matches,
a pocket full of paintings and fresh faced batch of policemen to chase the fires we are lighting,
laugh on a shoulder of gold.
And i thought that the museums where cemeteries where the dead paid the wall to hold what we had so that we could walk through what we once were,
And children take their skulls to turn into gardens,
to pluck for forefathers and farther stars,
that on some nights resemble an armless mother praying for her arms to return.
Every tooth that we tear from our jaw to fling at the black gloved riot soldiers as another shadow that we are trying to lose.
Let every giggle be filled with lust; let us laugh this night away and i will fuck you like you were a prayer.
I could save me by having my mouth around you,
and i will hold you afterwards like you were the pulpit and i was the sky,
and this love that danced between that hardness was a telephone line of holiness that those two things spoke through.
Take me into your heart like i was a saint,
and you were a face of forgiveness blooming in a valley destined to sink further.
Be a river with me;
Be the storm;
the bend in the path;
the front porch; the heat in the south;
be a boot full of banjo strings;
a fist full of written songs;
a mouthful of chocolate dust.
When they come to take us,
stab them between the eyes.
Do not take your hand from around mine.
Make a fist with the other, and punch spines like guilds, spit, sweat, kiss them like a grandmother. How will open mouthed terror love filled?
And when they come to cut out hair and ask to hear penance come from inside us,
say with me loud and trembling,
but loud and clear that:
"i have already emptied myself. I kissed regret goodbye, took the hands of another backwards angel, and rode backwards into the rain"
When the hangman of morrow comes to hang the sun in its daily execution say this with me: "'Sarah we are apples, our love is an apple; im unbuttoning my shirt; painting a circle over my heart, please,, just shoot straight."

For Jane

225 days under grass and you know more than I. they have long taken your blood, you are a dry stick in a basket. is this how it works? in this room the hours of love still make shadows. when you left you took almost everything. I kneel in the nights before tigers that will not let me be. what you were will not happen again. the tigers have found me and I do not care.

Moon

I have seen nearly every city from a rooftop without jumping.
I have realized the moon did not have to be full for us to love it.
We are not tragedies
stranded here beneath it.

Broken

“How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured...No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer...” 

 - Harry Jacob Anslinger

Shake the Dust by Anis Mojgani

This is for the fat girls.

This is for the little brothers.

This is for the school-yard wimps, this is for the childhood bullies who tormented them.

This is for the former prom queen, this is for the milk-crate ball players.

This is for the nighttime cereal eaters and for the retired, elderly Wal-Mart store front door greeters. Shake the dust.

This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them,

for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns,

for the men who have to hold down three jobs simply to hold up their children,

for the nighttime schoolers and the midnight bike riders who are trying to fly. Shake the dust.

This is for the two-year-olds who cannot be understood because they speak half-English and half-god. Shake the dust.

For the girls with the brothers who are going crazy,

for those gym class wall flowers and the twelve-year-olds afraid of taking public showers,

for the kid who's always late to class because he forgets the combination to his lockers,

for the girl who loves somebody else. Shake the dust.

This is for the hard men, the hard men who want to love but know that is won't come.

For the ones who are forgotten, the ones the amendments do not stand up for.

For the ones who are told to speak only when you are spoken to and then are never spoken to. Speak every time you stand so you do not forget yourself.

Do not let a moment go by that doesn't remind you that your heart beats 900 times a day and that there are enough gallons of blood to make you an ocean.

Do not settle for letting these waves settle and the dust to collect in your veins.

This is for the celibate pedophile who keeps on struggling,

for the poetry teachers and for the people who go on vacations alone.

For the sweat that drips off of Mick Jaggers' singing lips and for the shaking skirt on Tina Turner's shaking hips, for the heavens and for the hells through which Tina has lived.

This is for the tired and for the dreamers and for those families who'll never be like the Cleavers with perfectly made dinners and sons like Wally and the Beaver.

This is for the biggots,

this is for the sexists,

this is for the killers.

This is for the big house, pen-sentenced cats becoming redeemers and for the springtime that always shows up after the winters.

This? This is for you.

Make sure that by the time fisherman returns you are gone.

Because just like the days, I burn both ends and every time I write, every time I open my eyes I am cutting out a part of myself to give to you.

So shake the dust and take me with you when you do for none of this has never been for me.

All that pushes and pulls, pushes and pulls for you.

So grab this world by its clothespins and shake it out again and again and jump on top and take it for a spin and when you hop off shake it again for this is yours.

Make my words worth it, make this not just another poem that I write, not just another poem like just another night that sits heavy above us all.

Walk into it, breathe it in, let is crash through the halls of your arms at the millions of years of millions of poets coursing like blood pumping and pushing making you live, shaking the dust.

So when the world knocks at your front door, clutch the knob and open on up, running forward into its widespread greeting arms with your hands before you, fingertips trembling though they may be.