existence – radical druid

The World Doesn’t Need Conquering

Published on July 24, 2025

You ever had that feeling when you wake up in the morning, full of energy and zest for living, rested in body and mind, ready to conquer the world? Not me. Well, at least not the “me” underlying the illusions of being we inherit at birth and continue to feed up to a certain point.

If it that WERE me, does the world need conquering? Does it want conquering? Why are even our initial waking existential notions so centered around the two towers of control and destruction? Conquer the world. Blow their minds. Blow them away. Rule the world. Take over. Beat the odds. Rock the house. Wow them. Bowl them over. Exactly who are we trying to impose hierarchical superiority on (or over, really)? Is all we want to imagine ourselves with the kind of blood-soaked, usurious, double-dealing, exploitative, imperialist nobility that makes the toils and troubles of this world mere notions, and the remainder of creation our tools and possessions?

The bottom line is this. Anytime we use an expression that involves the preposition “of the world” we have ventured into the swamps at the edge of La-La land. Pretend you comprehend the meaning of the expressions below, assuming that when you hear “of the world” you interpret it as “my world”, “the real world”, “the dream world”, “the next world”, “whole world”, “known world”, “our world”, and also the “unknown world”, because the world to its inhabitants always means at least one of these, simultaneously and often in conflict with each other.

Light of the world
Scourge of the world
Edge of the world
End of the world
Song of the world
Center of the world

Honestly, what business do you have “conquering” all of that?

24 JUL 2025

Leave a Comment

What It Is

Published on July 15, 2025

What it is will never be what was.
What it will be is never what is.
What it was can never be what is.
What it is can never come to pass.
What it will be won’t become what was.
What it was is not what’s yet to come.
What it is cannot be what it is.
What it will be doesn’t know what was.
What it was is not what used to be.

What it is can only be what is.
What will be can only be what might.
What it was can only be what was.

What it is won’t ever be what might.
What will be won’t ever be what can’t.
What it was won’t ever be what didn’t.

What it is will never be what is.
What it is will never be what will.
What it is will never be what was.

What is now is all of what there is.
What is here is all there ever was.

15 JUL 2025

Leave a Comment

The Passing Game

Published on June 26, 2025

When someone says we’re out of time, so what?
What difference does one more minute make,
if it’s just on or off, open or shut,
and more of just the same old tired mistakes?

When someone says we’re out of time, does that
mean everything so far is done in vain,
as if one’s whole lifespan’s a welcome mat
for one more doorway labeled “Try Again”?

When someone says we’re out of time, just think:
so much can happen in a minute’s span.
There in the space between two quick eye-blinks
eternity awaits your stretched out hand.

When someone says we’re out of time, hold on,
and just because the clocks have stopped to run
that every opportunity is gone.
If you get just a moment, choose this one.

When someone says we’re out of time, alas,
if only there were more of life than this,
remember, neither water nor the glass
sees anything half-empty or remiss.

When someone says we’re out of time, watch out!
They’re trying to convince you it’s the end,
and in that final moment, raise some doubt
that we are all impermanent, my friend.

When someone says we’re out of time, beware,
they want your share of minutes for their own,
as if there isn’t time enough to spare
between just what you see, and what is shown.

When someone says we’re out of time, big deal.
The end and the beginning are the same.
Who cares that you might miss the big reveal:
all life is just a moment’s passing game.

26 Jun 2025

Leave a Comment

Outside of Time: rondelet

Published on June 26, 2025

We’re out of time,
past the hour when clocks expire.
We’re out of time,
beyond this moment’s final chime.
We can exist, if we desire,
right now – and never age or tire.
We’re out of time.

We’re out of time.
When the last flame has left the fire
we’re out of time.
In desperation, on we climb,
the dreams to which our hearts aspire
still waiting, listening to that liar:
we’re out of time.

We’re out of time,
past all that counting, muck and mire.
We’re out of time,
Where all the world exists in rhyme
and we can join in with the choir,
with nothing left us to acquire:
we’re out of time.

26 Jun 2025

Leave a Comment

With Us: pantoum

Published on June 18, 2025

The world is too much with us to pretend
that it is just a temporary slot,
a way to pass some time from start to end
or make believe it’s separate. It’s not

that it is just a temporary slot,
a proving ground for weighing thought and deed.
It is the whole of everything we’ve got.
There is no other lifetime guaranteed.

A proving ground for weighing thought and deed?
Perhaps that is much simpler than it sounds.
Velocity implies both place and speed;
it’s relative to both the sky and ground.

Perhaps that is much simpler than it sounds:
a way to pass some time from start to end
does not imply more than one go-around.
The world is too much with us to pretend.

18 Jun 2025

Leave a Comment

Thought for the Day

Published on December 27, 2004

The world goes on because civilized men exist.
Without them it would collapse into mere dust.
Though their minds are as sharp as a rasp,
Men without human decency are as wooden as a tree.
-Tirukkural 100:997-8

Excerpted from the Tirukkural, translated by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.
Copyright Himalayan Academy Publications, www.himalayanacademy.com.

Leave a Comment

SEED THOUGHT: On Existence

Published on July 10, 2003

Existence is a sea; man’s speech its shore;
Letters its oyster-shells, pearls of the heart’s wisdom.
With every wave a thousand pearls of price
Scattered around, of knowledge, of imagery,
New facts to grasp, conclusions fresh to draw,
A thousand waves with every breath arise,
No less is in one drop than in them all.
Wisdom, existence, doth that sea contain;
Its outward envelope is speech and sound.
Here understanding halts; and more,
Save in a parable, may not be given.
— from The Secret Garden, Mahmud Shabistari, 13th Century Persian sage

Leave a Comment

Tag: existence

The World Doesn’t Need Conquering

What It Is

The Passing Game

Outside of Time: rondelet

With Us: pantoum

Thought for the Day

SEED THOUGHT: On Existence