Don't look at the mirror
it might despise you
as it knows too well
your true character!

The absurd
I like to study
it will have something
that affects and teaches me

for truly weaknesses
and faults I've too many
I could rank top
on the list of absurdity!

The best leader is oneself

Every life
has a wall-
too high
or too low?
What's in store?
Is there a need
to go across
at all?

Greener grass
on the other side?
(it's your imagination!)
Know that many
have hurt their pride
in being thoughtless
blind and foolish

my task here
is still incomplete
by the present hours
I must abide -
I've no time
to look elsewhere
nor to be distracted -

the wall to me
is just a divider
I've no desire
to cross over

Confucius wrote in 600 BCE:

We become happier and wiser when we recognise our faults

and seek to correct them--this is the mark of a superior person

I was
I am
what to be
is like
a dream
but it will
a difference make
if myself I trust
as I enter
that unknown realm
and strengthened
by faith and courage

what has gone before
will become the pillars
of future understanding:
we are each shaped
and by time moulded

the self then
is the string
strung together
by past threads:
what we'll be
has its origin
in the embryo
that had once existed

Nothing from you
can be stolen
if you hold
your own--unbroken

yourself you'll steel against
every adversity that might happen
rise like an Ubermensch
a towering Promethean!

I wrote this in my 2017 memoir: To me,  one of the greatest wonders of the world is the existence of libraries- the free fountain of knowledge, the greatest democracy, the refuge of poor aspiring students, the favourite haunt of scholars and teachers, the refuge of the lost, the tired, the confused and even the sorrowful, the resting-house of retirees, the meeting place of the greatest minds of the world , and the humblest and most unobtrusive friend of everyone.   (. GROWING UP IN BRITISH MALAYA: A MEMOIR)

My tongue I'll hold back
             I'll not allow another word
            to be spoken--for both our sake-
            silence might offer some comfort -

             a million words we've said
             in the past--forward and backward
             how futile they have all demonstrated
            and our relationship has become so absurd

            this is the right time for me
             to leave--ere it were too late
             it will free us to love again
             and life's remaining days to celebrate

It's yours---the shame
just keep it
don't drag in
my name!

The day
   demands
   shifting
   one's position
   and posture:
   every event
   needs improvisation-
   formulas don't work
   neither yesterday's thought

   I'll enter the day
  with the mind
  of a child
  innocent
  untouched
  unencumbered

   on no philosophy
   will I be caught

Many took this (in passion)

to be the abbreviation

of ' Melbourne Basketball Association' !

Busy as you are
find the day's fun
that would be
enough reward
for what you've done

Let's not take life
too seriously
sometimes
we act so silly!

I ain't a Sucker!


Don't sell me

your 'Be positive'

I'm fine in my way-

go and address those

who are in the 'negative'-


how disgusting

is this preaching:

'Follow my advice

success it shall bring!'


Those who had been

taken in

paid $ 5,000

for a course:

' You shall surely win!'


They left with lots

of motivational material

they memorised the formulas

to the very letter

like a prayer!


I met them years later

they still looked dismal:

they failed to know

being positive

is an phenomenon

that comes from their inner!

Don't shake
me or wake-
I take delight
in my dreamy state

they are at the market-place
so much noise they do make
spectators feverishly rush there
they don't want to be late

but I stay still and silent
no step towards there do I take
my day-dream is in hibernation
my poem I'll patiently wait to create

Life should be tiny bites
not a huge digestion
it suits all appetites
the latter only causes constipation!

In response to a post on Aldous Huxley's idea on intellectualism:

I read his PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY when I was 20. But I am not an intellectual--I am one who values feelings and sentiments more, rationality much less.

Being deeply influenced by Zen and Taoism,  I keep an open and unfettered mind which allows me to be intuitive and free.
Re: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ZEN- THE PATH TO A CALMER AND HAPPIER LIFE, 2018, 2021 and 2024,  on sale in over a dozen countries

Life is more a clinic
than any picnic!

In response to a post on 'conversing with the right people'  as enlightening

I have learnt just as much from engagements with ordinary people---
each has their own story and some such stories are poignant, heart-warming and moving.  
  Who are the 'right' people-intellectuals?

The latter are so pompous and boring--not my cup of tea!
They put me to sleep!

Love hurts
more than
it does bless

I am more a feeling
than a thinking person:
feeling is a greater dimension
than the logic of reason

Too much thinking
takes away time
which should be
devoted instead to living

the latter in exploring
experiencing and engaging
is the route to learning
and understanding

the self has lived courageously
through every trial and tribulation
in over-powering the wildest storms
it has built life's strongest foundation

inspired by such conquest
true wisdom has crystallised
the self has become its own master
and all of its dreams have materialised

My life
is a parenthesis:
I've more to say
but sometimes what
I'm unsure-
my thought
my feeling
or mood
can change
in a wink
thus, only
a semi-colon
will follow

the full-stop
is the final station
what sort
of coda
will there be
in store?

I'll. be present
but have nothing
to present--
I merely attend

Every life
has its own
'searching for'
but if asked
the person
would reply:
'I'm not sure'

This is mankind's
moral sore-
pursuit in blindness-
the perpetual woe!

Darkening sunset
trees cast their sombre shadows
gentle light flickers

'Before long'
how long-
a year
a month
or- nothing is clear?

Give me
a date
if possible
also a time
otherwise
it's vague
the meeting
might not be on!

It would
suit me better
if you would just say-
'perhaps'
I'll then walk away
without the need
to speculate

We lead our lives
largely by guessing
not reasoning

I have lived!

Know what
you shouldn't
it'll be the beginning
of your wisdom

people accumulate
that which is inane
thinking they have gained
but are sadly mentally -maimed

knowing what's worthy
to be known is to be sane
discarding the unnecessary
is to have a wise mind ordained

It's a myth

(you wouldn't admit)

that others you fear-


the very truth

is that yourself

you fear and dread

and have projected

it outside

your restless world

thus, the wrong narrative

you alone have created-

a moral mistake-



know then:

the root

of your every fear

is your self

being over-indulged

and exaggerated

if that were detached

you'd find your freedom

and peace-

the false, the undesired

and the absurd

would have been

totally discarded

The 'ought to'
is not the same
as 'must'
each is its own class
often in sharp contrast-
choosing foolishly
is what so many
can't grasp

I'll not be drawn into
the mindless dispute
myself I'll implicitly trust-
there's no need
at all for me with anyone
to argue or discuss

We'll always be larger
than life--it's but its own-
it doesn't feel or know
what it is to suffer

Loving a second time
has a vast advantage
one has the insight
of experience

the dross has dropped of
the cream rises to the surface
the heart leaps to a new embrace
a blissful world is born in wonder and grace

Silence
is the subtlest language
alas,  most of us can't grasp
its hidden message!

But for yesterday
the forward-carrier
I wouldn't have
existed today

'twas the catapult
of time- the bearer
of moments unbroken
that makes me a real character-

no one can ever live
without the yesterday- the creator
of what's awaiting at the corner
it's life's most potent chronicler !

I have nothing
at all to justify
just a common person
quietly passing by

the world is by wisdom
inundated-- the why
of life is beyond my mind-
all I know is I live and die

how lonely indeed
is each individual life
tears are more common
than joys---in every eye-

ah, love so tender, so sublime
like the brightest rose under the sky
has its low as well as its high
though unknown to others is its silent cry

The 'I'
is the problem
not either eye

It's not for me-
heroism
nor any -ism :
all I need
is peace
silence
and quietism

It's futile -wisdom
   without freedom
   begin with the latter
   it will create the former

I don't teach
      nor preach
       have no wish
       to have a reach
       beyond what I am
       to be just myself-
       no one nor any thing
       to impeach

      while others agitate
       and itch
       to exhort and educate
       driven by their sense
       of importance
       purportedly
        other lives to enrich

        I know my standing
        I live not to compete
        on pride I don't feed
        humbled in any situation
       by my intellectual limit-

       over such a long time
       I've patiently learnt from what
       life has offered to teach
       and led me forward
       to unravel secrets
       for which
       I show unending gratitude-

        in my simplicity
       and humility
        I've quietly lived
        and truly blessed
       as I've not suffered
      from the sling of any grief

I caught a star
hid it in my pocket
no one knows
we share a mysterious secret

Yesterday challenges my today
tomorrow awaits to test me
I heed not-  I'll chart my own way
all odds to overcome- to be happy!

You don't need to-
myself I'll pardon
it's more healing than
that from any other person-

none but I alone would ever know
the how and why of my circumstance
though I'm humbled by their generosity
this issue ultimately is left only to my concern

If life were
   understood
   completely
   we'd have nothing
   more to live for  
   being stultified
   and empty
   all wonder
   would have died

   no more teaching
   nor writing
   there's no need
   for reading or inventing
   superfluous is every thinking

   the morphing
   of  the intellect
   creativity in waning
   the self in annihilating
   and the dehumanising
   of every human undertaking

The voice of love in youth---loud

   that of middle-age----moderated

   in old age:  nothing is spoken---love is quiet

There's a point
beyond which
one doesn't care
to worry anymore-
it's not defeat
or despair
but the strength
and courage
to accept
and challenge -
what life
has strewn
on the way

this is the essence
of self-understanding
of stoicism
and of Taoism
in letting go
in not seeking
and non-striving
with the self
in conscious emptying

this then becomes
the self unbreakable :
life has been overcome
and the individual
enters into the realm
of complete bliss and freedom

How do we define
the good and noble?
by our own selves
or by other people?

Words, oh words
how they twist the truth!
Who, tell me please, who would
ever say they aren't good?

We've to experience weakness
to be able to harness
strength and courage
for what it teaches

but for being thrown
into life's hottest furnace
that has scorched us
we'd still be lulled
into our realm
of self-indulgent comfort-

the old must die
for the new
to be brought forth

though weak and frail
I'm never broken
as into the light
I stepped
from the blackness
of the darkest