Many Paths, Same View.

(This is the view of Gunung Tahan and the Tahan Range from Mount Terisek.)

“You can never conquer the mountain. You can only conquer yourself.”

- James Whittaker


That is why we feel so fulfilled, when we reached the top.

- Ghostwise

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“There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same”

- Chinese Proverbs


Did we climb the mountain - for the peak or for the view?

- Ghostwise

We Drove Our Gentle Mother From The Land.

(Today I tried to get closer to Nature. Morning mist in Lucky Valley, Pahang.)

Nature, the Gentlest Mother
-Emily Dickinson

Nature, the gentlest mother,
Impatient of no child,
The feeblest or the waywardest,
Her admonition mild

In forest and the hill
By traveller is heard,
Restraining rampant squirrel
Or too impetuous bird.

How fair her conversation,
A summer afternoon,--
Her household, her assembly;
And when the sun goes down

Her voice among the aisles
Incites the timid prayer
Of the minutest cricket,
The most unworthy flower.

When all the children sleep
She turns as long away
As will suffice to light her lamps;
Then, bending from the sky

With infinite affection
And infiniter care,
Her golden finger on her lip,
Wills silence everywhere.

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We drove our Mother
From the valley to the sea,
From the forest to the hill,
Till there was no place she could go.
She shed bitter tears on the barren land
And drowns us all.

- Ghostwise

On Earth There Is No Heaven.

(I went to the hills, and I came back down to earth.)

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance,
the wise grows it under his feet.

- James Oppenheim


I went to the hill to seek peace,
I came down from the hill to live peace.

- Ghostwise

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On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.

- Jules Renard


When I have picked up enough of the shattered glasses,
I'll make my own mirror.

- Ghostwise

I Seek Wisdom And Foolishness In Equal Measure.

(I just came down from a Zen retreat - a little wiser, a litter more foolish.)

Spring has its hundred flowers,
Autumn its moon,
Summer has its cooling breezes,
Winter its snow.
If you allow no idle concerns
To weight on your heart,
Your whole life will be one
Perennial good season.

- The Golden Age of Zen, p. 286


I found that it was one season -
In the green of the tropical jungle.

- Ghostwise

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A little foolishess, enough to enjoy life
and a little wisdom to avoid the errors,
that will do.

- Osho


I went up the hill,
To seek a little more wisdom
And a little more foolishness
In equal measure.

- Ghostwise