S.K. Hayes


Despite the love you feel
and the joy you radiate
there are those misguided persons in the world
who would see you harmed.
They will confront you with fists
or await you in the darkness with their blades drawn.

Do not fear them
or become angry with them.

Allow your heart to hold the emptiness of purity.
Your receptive spirit will hear the sadness and rage
of your attackers' intentions
and your body will flow
with the winds of their hatred.
You will take them to the destruction they seek.

And as the dust settles
and the blood dries
do not let your own joy decrease
nor find the world any less beautiful
simply because some persons refuse to see you
with eyes that love.



From the water
We learn flexibility.

There will come times in your life
when you will find yourself quite alone
against vast armies
bearing swords
or contrary ideas.

Concentrate your spirit in the pit of your stomach.
And be like the water.
The river rushes on ever alive
directed in its course by the very rocks
that it slowly
stealthily
wears away and destroys.
Be like the waves.
Impossible to grasp
and bafflingly strong in their fluidity.

There is power in softness
Victory in yielding.

When a clash with the tumultuous
would surely bring defeat,
remember

You are the water.



From the air
We learn acceptance.

The cohorts of my grandfather
are now ominously silent behind their fortress walls.
And last generation's enemy
works beside us building roadways through the mountains.

If only men would realize
that all fathers delight in the laughter of their daughters.
There is room in the sky
for the crow and cloud alike.

Feel your soul gathering in your heart
and become attuned to the air.
Be like the wind
that plays with the gowns
of the powdered ladies of the court
and lifts the tattered kite of the fisherman's child
with the same gust.
Be like the air.
Ever everywhere.
Purring through the throat of the sleeping house cat.
And rustling the leaves in the mouse's den.
Accepting all
is really a way of loving all.

Hear the words that the wind will whisper
whenever you feel all alone:
"You are never alone."
Remember

You are the air.



From the fire
We learn intensity.

There are those who go through life
like so many moths.
Encountering breezes and bright windows in the night
as such things happen along.
Whimsically in mild confusion fluttering through days.
Until finally falling in foolish innocence
into the lantern's flame.

Allow the energy to burst forth from beneath your ribs.
And be as the flame.
Direct your will.
The raw blade howls when subjected to the intensity of
    the fire
and yet emerges from the forge with a purity
that promises immortality.
Be as the fire that is heat and light for others
and provide confidence through your warmth
and inspiration through your enlightenment.

When you are caught in the dusty webs of those
who would drain or misdirect the energy of your being,
remember

You are the fire.



From the ethereal heavens
We learn understanding.

You are not locked in that body of yours.
Your mind can soar and join other minds.
Do not be afraid
to explore
the dynamic potentiality of all things in the universe.
Quest ever on.
To know,
feel,
and be
all that you possibly can.

Your singular essence sings from your throat
and joins with the universal vibration of the heavens.
Become a part of the ethereal
and look down upon the earth as it plays its part
in the cosmos.
Tap the knowledge of the heavens
to see the scheme of impersonal totality
and become a part
of the mind and eyes of the divine.

In the course of daily strife
that would lock you into the futility of
ignorant individualism,
remember

You are the ethereal heavens.
You are capable of anything.



From the rocks and earth
We learn stability.

When all about you is frantic chaos,
do not be absorbed by the crashing of gongs,
the screams of the hysterical,
or the wailing of the grievous.

Lower your hips a bit.
Get closer to the earth.
Become one with the rocks
that never feel the need to weep.
Become a part of the plains
that never feel the need
to shift about at the whim of minor happenings.
Your roots are buried deep.
Like those of the mountains.

When the inevitable events of life seem as though
they would sweep you away,
remember

You are the earth.