Inner Peace Poetry

Poems for inner peace below are taken from:

A Wild Bull

The effort to make the mind quiet,
Is like holding a wild bull on a leash.
The leash is held on to, and he drags you around,
And you are determined not to release.

One day maybe the bull will stop moving,
And finally you can rest.
Or you can stop expecting the bull to be still,
And let go of the leash, instead.

Once you don’t care what the bull does,
When you no longer seek to control him,
Wherever he goes and whatever he does,
Does not affect the one watching.

A bull moves around, that’s what it does,
If you fight him, he fights you back.
Don’t ask the mind to be silent,
Then silence is all that you have.

The Universe’s Experience

Everything in experience has already appeared,
The universe is dancing.
If you try to manipulate the dance of experience,
You will feel trapped in a movement of suffering.

If you see that your experience is already allowed,
That the universe is letting it happen.
Then the person that tries to manipulate experience,
Dissolves back into the background.

It is the universe’s burden, not yours or mine,
When thoughts and sensations arise.
So let the universe carry on as it wishes,
And dissolve the suffering mind.

Infinite Space

A person travels above, through infinite space,
In their space suit, looking for something.
They look left and right, forward and back,
And they are spotted by someone who’s watching.

“What is it you need?” someone calls after them,
As they look up to notice the person,
“I’m going on a search to find infinite space!”
Comes the reply shouted down with assertion.

“Stop and look around, you are already there,”
Comes the call from the quiet spectator.
“Leave me alone, I’m so nearly there!”
He will find the infinite later.

He goes on his search, travels for years,
Visiting all of the galaxies,
Never realising that his sought-after infinite space
Is the very space that he travels in.

The Swimming Mind

The struggling mind fights and moves,
Like someone swimming on top of the sea.
It desperately wants to find the route,
So it can rest and finally be free.

Someone calls out at the swimmer,
“Just drown and have it all done!”
The swimmer refuses to go deeper,
And waits till the rescue boat comes.

It waits and it waits, always it is waiting,
For it’s saviour to come and to save it.
“Once the boat is here, then I can rest,
And my struggle will be old and outdated!”

But the boat never comes, and the swimmer keeps searching,
Wanting and hoping for release.
The mind grows exhausted and gives up its yearning,
And the swimmer is sucked down into the sea.

The swimmer does drown, it may have been painful,
It certainly wasn’t what they expected.
And after they’ve gone, all that remains,
Is the depth of the sea unaffected.

Original Consumers

A young group of people started their training,
In a beautiful paradise of a place.
The food was bountiful, the water was pure,
And the houses they lived in were great.
They had everything and more, abundantly rich,
And as their training began,
They all gathered round the large golden table,
And the trainers unfolded their plan.

The children sat down, listened and wrote,
Their diamond pens dancing and glistening.
They concentrated hard, payed great attention,
As they were taught to see only what’s missing.
Lack was the aim, not enough was the tool,
To get them to always want more,
Gifts all day the children were given,
And they reported on how they fell short.

“Not quite sweet enough”, or “Should be more sweet”,
“Not enough of these”, or “Too many”.
As long as they described something not right,
Then their marks and grades would stay steady.
They got more creative, more and more skilled,
At seeing the wrong or the missing,
When given good food, perfect on plate,
They decided it arrived far too quickly.

And as they became more and more glum,
At how they had nothing they wanted,
They traipsed around their paradise of an island,
Feeling quite lost and despondent.
The overflowing riches that brimmed all around them,
Were overlooked and no longer seen.
The first needy batch of human consumers,
Were now ready for their timely release.

They moved out in the world, spread like a disease,
Infecting all of those they would meet,
They convinced the whole world there wasn’t enough,
And they needed much more before peace.
Resources were hoarded whilst more things were bought,
They turned their world into a mess,
Enough for the whole world many times over,
But it seemed like there was now so much less.

All apart from the very small group, 
Who had trained the first batch of consumers,
The trainers by now where far richer than ever,
From people’s belief in their horrible rumours.
They owned all the companies, that offered relief,
From the life now full of toil and such lack.
Whilst selling them goods and employing the people,
Staff’s wages they would soon get back.

They developed their countries, printed their money,
Still had enough to take care of them all,
But spent most of their money on fighting each other,
To get even more while others grew poor.
People were starving, others were fed,
From the masses of food that they had,
Whilst off out at sea they dumped tonnes of food,
To keep the food prices on track.

“It’s how the world is. There isn’t enough”,
The trainers would say to trainees,
Whilst in the evening off they would go,
To rest in their mansions at ease.
If the people would question: “Is it the case,
That there really isn’t enough?
Or have we been duped, and there is plenty
And Life need not be so tough?”

Then perhaps they would see, that their world provides plenty,
That the problem mostly does lie,
In the mindset of man, his greed and his fear,
And his tendency to tell lies.
That the society they build, take part in and sustain,
Reflects the beliefs of the people,
That each must first address his or her mind,
And dig up the root of their evil.

Beware of deceit, beware of corruption,
Not only from your fellow man,
But the voice in your head that causes you pain,
and leaks out into the land.
If the mind is in turmoil, then so is the world,
The two are one and the same,
The world can shift to a healthier place,
When the mind is no longer insane.

Happiness Is A Boat

Happiness is a boat, sitting on a lake,
And for Happiness what humans do is make a big mistake.

The boat that they are sitting in has writing on the side,
The word reads “Happiness” and it is obvious to the eye.

But they can’t see the word since they are already inside,
So unknown they sit in Happiness, sitting side by side.

And when humans are in the boat, a discovery they make,
That overboard the letters are reflected in the lake.

So as they stare down at the lake, feeling so very happy,
And read “Happiness” that shimmers in the water so very gladly.

They jump out of the boat from where they comfortably sat,
And they end up in the water, landing with a splash.

Then they get in trouble and they’re struggling for air,
Because they can not swim well, and they were not prepared,

To land out in the water and find out they had been cheated,
By the words that the water merely reflected and repeated.

But for a while they still declare that Happiness they saw,
Lurking in the waters and it’s Happiness they adore.

So they search and search no longer feeling happy as before,
Since Happiness was abandoned when they jumped off overboard.

Will they make it back inside the boat? Only time will tell.
Don’t look now, but more are jumping overboard as well.

Perhaps they want to reach the others and offer them their help,
Happiness remains, abandoned by the little selves.