TOWARD WISDOM

for Copthorne Macdonald

    What human goal is higher than to grow
    Toward wisdom and in every instance know
    Which choice to make, which road or path to take
    Most likely to proceed for goodness’ sake?

    Discerning what’s of value to pursue
    And finding how to do what you must do
    To make your careful way toward that end
    Is what philosophers must comprehend.

    As “wisdom lovers” they should show the way
    And keep all wanderers from going astray,
    Which means avoiding harm and seeking health,
    Then finding kindness is the greatest wealth.

         Philosophers should strive to bring to light
         And put in practice only what is right.

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TRUE FAITH

The faith most imperative for human beings to develop is the belief in our own potential to live wisely, in ways that enhance the viability of prolific life on Earth. 

This is not faith in a Divinity, a transcendent deity to be worshipped, petitioned, revered and feared.  Rather, this is a faith in our own potential to divine wiser and wiser ways to conduct ourselves in concord with the thriving of life on Earth far into the future. 

As brilliant as our sciences and as astounding as our technologies may become, we must cultivate the sagacity to employ such learning most beneficially. 

If one’s belief in a guiding and supportive God helps to cultivate such wisdom in thought and deed, then that is well and good.  However one finds a way to live wisely is a service to the flourishing of life on Earth—and beyond. 

True faith promotes wise behavior.

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A PEAK EXPERIENCE

    Spontaneously transported to a height
    Or depth of consciousness, my mind alight
    With mystic radiance unseen before,
    I seemed to pass beyond perception’s door
    Into a sacred sphere transcending all
    I’d ever known, yet now cannot recall,
    Though then it seemed that I could see the frame 
    Of everything, the end at which we aim.
    The morning after, though, that mystic glow
    Began to fade.  No longer could I know
    The essence of all things I then could see
    As plainly as the apples on a tree.
         Such knowledge I feel bidden still to seek,
         So climb I will till I regain that peak.

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PURPOSE

   Is there a purpose to the universe?
   Does it proceed by an intentioned plan,
   Our Cosmic Mother, caretaker and nurse,
   The foremost fruit of whom is man?

   Or is it merely randomness that’s made
   Our fruitful biosphere evolving us,
   No higher law than physics being obeyed,
   Simply mechanically industrious?

   That lower could give rise to higher things
   Spontaneously, without design in mind,
   As if a bird without the use of wings
   Could fly, seems not how nature is inclined.

        Though how the Cosmos came about remains
        Obscure, it’s what some Purposer ordains.

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WISING UP

    The given is we’re here and know we are,
    And know we know, which makes us doubly wise:
    We know we’re dust from some exploded star
    And somehow sense we’ve yet to realize
    The full potential of our latent being,
    Arriving at some wisdom still unknown,
    Some cognizance that’s ultimately freeing
    When finally we come into our own.
    What that may be, we can but speculate,
    Imagining some lofty paragon
    Perfected in what makes a person great,
    The mantle that all sages then will don.
         What other could that be than being kind
         And toward the care of all to be inclined?

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CREDO

      
       I do not judge you on what you believe,
       But just on how your faith makes you behave;
       It matters not the creed to which you cleave,
       So long as you are loving, wise and brave.

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THE LAST SAMURAI

 The Samurai are gone: the last one killed—
 Good riddance I, a pacifist, would say,
 Remembering all the blood their swords have spilled
 Despite the fabled glory of their Way.

 How can a path of violence be praised,
 No matter all the discipline it shows?
 There’s something in that temperament that’s crazed,
 And it’s a road humanity must close.

 Though honor, glory, valor were esteemed
 In cultures we now reckon primitive,
 From such pursuits our race must be redeemed
 And learn not how to die but how to live.

      The art of war recedes; the arts of peace
      Prevail, while love and harmony increase.

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