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Category Archives: POETIC NONSENSE
Poetry by Lawrence R. Spencer. Poetic nonsense by Lawrence R. Spencer and others. Haiku poems by Lawrence R. Spencer.
BEAUTIFUL DELUSION
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Leo Tolstoy (9 September, 1828 – 20 November, 1910), was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright and philosopher who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Tolstoy was a master of realistic fiction and is widely considered one of the greatest novelists of all time. 
He is best known for two long novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Tolstoy first achieved literary acclaim in his 20s with his semi-autobiographical trilogy of novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856) and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based on his experiences in the Crimean War. His fiction output also includes two additional novels, dozens of short stories, and several famous novellas, including The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and Hadji Murad. In addition to novels and short stories, he also wrote plays and philosophical essays on Christianity, nonviolent resistance, art and pacifism.
The Kreutzer Sonata is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, named after Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. The novella was published in 1889 and promptly censored by the Russian authorities. The work is an argument for the ideal of sexual abstinence and an in-depth first-person description of jealous rage.
Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker, social reformer, and Georgist. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr..
(source: Wikipedia.org)
LAOTZU, IS THAT YOU?
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LAO-TZU, IS THAT YOU ?
Without seeking, one may know all under heaven;
Without finding, one may know the way of heaven.
The wise man knows without searching,
Understands without thinking, accomplishes without acting.
To know when one does not understand is a virtue;
Failing to know that one does not understand is an error.
One becomes more perfect each time an error is corrected.
But One who knows but does not act accordingly, does not know
Be honest with those who are honest. Also be honest
With those who are dishonest; thus is honesty attained.
All beings as basically good. However, prevent those who
do evil from harming others for even they are basically good.
What separates goodness and badness ?
What difference is there between yes and no ?
What distinguishes beauty and ugliness ?
Front and rear join in the center.
Being and non-being are a circle of decision.
The way of heaven conquers without war,
Speaks little but answers well, is always present
Without being summoned, is not rushed but is well planned.
The wise man is skilled in all of his undertakings.
He who is skilled at counting needs no counting devices.
He who is fluid in speech needs no script to guide him.
A man of skill practices skill and conquers reality.
A man who fails practices failure and is conquered.
Walls form and support a room, yet the space between them is most important.
A pot is formed of clay, yet the space formed thereby is most useful.
Action is caused by the force of nothing on something,
just as the nothing of spirit animates the flesh.
One suffers great afflictions because one has a body.
Without a body what afflictions could one suffer?
When one cares more for the body than for the spirit
One becomes the body and looses the way of heaven.
He who looks will not see it; he who listens will not hear it;
He who gropes will not grasp it.
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Poem “Laotzu is that you?” from “PAN-GOD OF THE WOODS” by Lawrence R. Spencer. Copyright © 2011. All Rights Reserved.
Photo was taken on April 21, 2010 in Bohinjsko Jezero, Radovljica, SI © 2010 Mitja Kobal-Cwithe @ www.fotohikari.com
ALL IS MIND
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This principle embodies the truth that “All is Mind.” It explains that THE ALL (which is the Substantial Reality underlying all the outward manifestations and appearances which we know under the terms of “The Material Universe”; the ”Phenomena of Life”; “Matter”; ”Energy”; and, in short, all that is apparent to our material senses) is SPIRIT, which in itself is UNKNOWABLE and UNDEFINABLE, but which may be considered and thought of as AN UNIVERSAL, INFINITE, LIVING MIND. It also explains that all the phenomenal world or universe is simply a Mental Creation of THE ALL, subject to the Laws of Created Things, and that the universe, as a whole, and in its parts or units, has its existence in the Mind of THE ALL, in which Mind we “live and move and have our being.” This Principle, by establishing the Mental Nature of the Universe, easily explains all of the varied mental and psychic phenomena that occupy such a large portion of the public attention, and which, without such explanation, are non-understandable and defy scientific treatment.“
– from The Kybalion
