When I am in pain
I have discovered
calmly introspecting
gains me self-awareness of my pain,
and helps me achieve acceptance
of how the pain is happening;
and then calmly expressing my pain
in words
enables further self-awareness of my pain,
diminishes the psychological-energy of the pain,
and helps me endure the pain
calmly.
Is it the same way for you?

Quiet solitude
is freedom
from others' demands,
is freedom
from the noises of the world.

In quiet solitude
I can focus introspectively
on my emotions and thoughts,
becoming more self-aware,
and discovering
how to improve my mind-functioning
towards optimal joy and happiness.

God
I appreciate
everything
you have given me.

What does it mean
when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
says we should
‘act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood’?

Should we be peacefully cooperating
to achieve our mutual happiness?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
says we have the right
to life, liberty and security of person.

When I have the right
to life,
do you have the duty
to keep me alive?

When I have the right
to liberty,
do you have the duty
to give me liberty?

When I have the right
to security of person,
do you have the duty
to give me security my person?

I am
40 revolutions
around the Sun
today.

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society
would every person
be compassionate and helpful
to others
to facilitate the joy and happiness
of others?

The so-called philosopher
Friedrich Nietzche writes:
"Wherever I found a living thing,
there found I Will to Power ...
to the stronger the weaker shall serve".

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society
would every person
be compassionate and cooperative
to every other person
instead of domineering and exploitative?
To achieve joy and happiness
in society
must we be
not domineering and exploitative
but compassionate and cooperative?

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society
would government
strive to achieve
the joy and happiness
of every citizen?
Would leaders
feel compassion
for the joy and happiness
of every citizen?
Would every citizen
feel compassion
for the joy and happiness
of every other citizen?

To act with humility
is to be aware
that I am unomniscient and uncertain
so I need
to be on guard
against the unforseen
bad consequences
of my action.

Accepting
and preparing myself
to experience
my body becoming older
and my ******-functions diminishing
towards death
brings me peace of mind.

Can we joyful and happy
alone? And lonely?
If not,
are we social animals
evolved
to live in society with others?
If so,
how do we make our society
a joyful and happy experience
for everyone?

When I feel
my life is meaningless,
I remind myself
it is my responsibility
to make meaning of my experiences
by doing philosophy:
which clarifies
my aspirations and values,
which evaluates my experiences
in comparison to my aspirations and values,
which discovers wisdom
about what I can do
to improve my situation
to achieve my purpose: joy and happiness;
then my life is meaningful!

Is there bad-envy and good-envy?
Is bad-envy
when I desire to take away from another person
what brings them joy and happiness?
Is good-envy
when I take clues
from how another person has achieved
joy and happiness
to achieve joy and happiness
for myself?

I accept
my mistakes
as in the past;
and in the present-moment
I strive to improve my self
so I don’t repeat these mistakes
in the future.

Is science
about discovering
how an unknown Destiny
is happening?

Does my joy and happiness
increase
when I appreciate
opportunities for joy and happiness
in my current situation?

I am humble
when I’m aware
that I don’t know anything for certain;
that all I am aware of
are philosophical-questions
with uncertain changing answers.

I just watched a news report:
In southern Pakistan
a mother cries sitting on a hospital bed
watching over her malnourished daughter
who is laying in bed dying.
The mother sobs uncontrollably
as her 3 year old daughter
slumps after her last breath.
The child’s father
wraps his daughter’s limp body
in a blanket
and carries her out of the hospital room
in which scores of other malnourished children
lay dying.

I am left wondering:
Is there something we can do
to feed the malnourished children
in Pakistan
and around the world?

Accepting
that my body will probably become sick
into the future,
and preparing myself
to experience the sickness
and improve my health,
brings me peace of mind.

I have been a fool
all my life,
lacking the wisdom
to achieve joy and happiness
in my environment.
But Destiny
by confronting me
with dangers and difficulties,
hurts, harms and losses,
is beating me into shape,
impelling me towards wisdom.

I just watched a news report:
Global numbers of insects are halving every 25 years
Bees Butterflies Moths and other species disappearing
which is a problem because
it kills Birds Reptiles Fish which live off the insects,
and insects pollinate 75% of crops which humans grow,
and 87% of all plant species on the planet need pollinating;
if insects die then flowering plants will die,
most plants will die.
Why are insects dying?
Farmers are blamed for using pesticides
but there may be other causes too.

I was left wondering:
Is there something we can do
to save insects and plants?

When my emotions are in disharmony
I do introspective-philosophy
to tune up my emotions
and conduct them
until they are a harmonious symphony.

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society
would every person
have sufficient resources
to enable their
optimal joy and happiness?

I compose songs
which express how I live.
I compose melodies
which joyfully exercise the heart.
I compose rhythms
which move the heart to dance.

Acceptance
that experience is continuously changing
brings peace of mind.

Acceptance
that I must make continuous effort
to respond to continuously changing experience
brings peace of mind.

Does it brings peace of mind
to accept
what is happening
within Destiny
in the present-moment?

I just watched a news report:
A father and 3 year old daughter
lay dead
half-submerged in the Rio-Grande river
over which they tried to cross
from Mexico into USA,
fleeing from poverty
and violence
in their central American country of origin.

I was left wondering:
Is there something we can do
to relieve poverty
and achieve prosperity,
and stop violence
and achieve peace
in central American countries?

When I make choices to act
in everyday life
should I ask myself
“how does my choice
affect the joy and happiness
of every person in society?”?

When you need to sleep
but remain awake,
what do you do?

When my mind is caught in the past
regretting my errors
with sadness, disappointment, repentance,
I re-focus on the present-moment
leaving behind in the past
the self I was when I committed errors;
And I focus my attention
on evaluating the self I am
in the present-moment,
striving to improve my self
into the wisdom I need
to achieve joy and happiness
in the present-moment.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
says we are all endowed with Reason,
but what do we mean by ‘Reason’
in everyday life?

Is Reason:

Logically relating concepts?

Or

Being strategic
in pursuit of selfish interests?

Or

Philosophically discovering
wisdom
about what practical activities to do
to achieve joy and happiness?

Is a ‘reaction’
an initial impulse to act
after an experience?
Do reactions
get us into trouble
when we act out the impulse
without first self-introspecting,
becoming aware of emotions and thoughts,
self-evaluating emotions and thoughts,
and self-correcting emotions and thoughts?
For example:

A toddler cries
then her mother slaps her hard
then regrets the slap
when her toddler cries more miserably.

A youth insults a man at a bar
then the man punches the youth hard
knocking him to the floor unconscious
struggling to breathe,
then the man regrets the punch
and regrets getting arrested even more.

I am optimistic
that Destiny
will reveal to my mind
the answers and solutions
as I continue to ask Destiny
philosophical-questions
about how I can achieve
joy and happiness
within the situations
Destiny is bringing me.

When I feel
inconsequential,
I remind myself
Destiny does not happen without me
and all my actions
have consequences:
for example,
when I eat, my body gains nutrition,
when I exercise, my body becomes healthier,
when I’m kind to myself, I become happier,
when I’m kind to others, they become happier,
when I turn off the light in the room when I leave
I help save the planet from climate change,
and so on.
Then I realise
I am consequential!

Whilever I live
that is the time
Destiny
has allotted for me to live;

When I die
that is the time
Destiny
has allotted for me to die.

I am a lonely poet
so I write poetry
to relate to other poets.

Is a poet like you
reading my poetry
a type of friendship?

Is there a friendship-joy
in reading other poets' poems
and responding to them?

Singing out my sorrows
in poetry
I feel
my emotions relieved
my thoughts clarified
and I am ready
to strive for joy and happiness.

When I predict my death will happen
sooner or later,
I re-focus on enjoying the present-moment;
I re-focus on discovering opportunities
for joy and happiness
in my current situation;
I re-focus on discovering opportunities
to improve my current situation
to increase my joy and happiness
in the present-moment.

Can my worrying be replaced
by calmly asking questions
about what the situation is
and accepting
what the situation is?
and calmly asking questions
about how to improve the situation
towards my joy and happiness?

I am drinking
a canary yellow mug of
hot Ceylon black tea
wafting fragrant tea-steam into my nose;
as I sip the tea into my mouth
the water nourishes my thirst and
the hot tea warms my lips, teeth and tongue
and as I swallow
spreads warmth
into my throat
and down across my chest
and into my stomach.
I feel
nourished,
refreshed,
rejuvenated,
warmed-up.

In my youth
when I was in school
I thought like everybody else
learning was done
by reading textbooks,
and I would have a successful life
if I read
lots of books;
but after many years of book-learning
‘knowledge’
I discovered that book-knowledge
did not enable me
to be joyful and happy;

I discovered that
to be joyful and happy
what I needed was
not knowledge
but wisdom
about how to be
joyful and happy;
and to achieve wisdom
I had to do philosophy:
thinking originally,
learning from my own experiences,
asking questions about
how to achieve my
unique joy and
unique happiness
in my unique situation
using my unique self.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
says we are all born free,
but what do we mean by ‘freedom’?

Is a baby starving in a slum
free from poverty?

Is a baby dying in a war-zone
free from violence?

Is a baby crying in a refugee camp
free from persecution?

Should we be striving to improve our world
until babies are born free
from all the situations which lead to
our unhappiness?

When I fear losing
the happiness
I am enjoying at present,
I re-focus on enjoying
my happiness
in the present-moment:
I enjoy the sun, before it sets;
I enjoy the moon, before it fades;
I enjoy loving and being loved
before my people die;
I focus on enjoying
the happiness
of the present-moment.

From the perspective
of my aged foolishness
I realise
my youthful foolishness
and I apologise.

Living is like playing an instrument
and the instrument is me:
Soul, mind and body.
My soul wields my mind-body
to play notes (do activities)
which harmonise (are adaptive)
with the melodies (opportunities for joy and happiness)
I discover within Destiny.

In an ideal
joy-and-happiness-society,
would we all
have compassion
and empathy
for each other?

Should architecture
be stimulating
and pleasing
to the mind and heart?

Sometimes I write poetry to cope:
freely expressing
my emotions and thoughts,
relieving my mind
of burning exploding emotions
and incessant thoughts
which were seeking my attention.
Once I have carefully clearly listened
to distressed emotions and impelling thoughts
they dissipate
leaving my mind in peace.

Once I have clarified
in a poem
what I am feeling and thinking,
then I philosophically reflect
on what I am feeling and thinking,
striving to discover wisdom
about the practical issues
my emotions and thoughts
have raised in my mind.
Thus, poetry is my path to wisdom
by which I achieve more joy and happiness.

I play jackstones
to relax and rejuvenate:
I hold one stone in one hand
with 4 stones on the floor,
then I throw the one stone in the air
and before I catch it
I grab off the floor as many of the 4 stones
as I am able to
then catch the one stone too.

Playing jackstones
is the simple joy
of enjoying the agile exercise of my hands
and enjoying focusing attention like meditation
on my hands and stones
instead of focusing on my struggles and sufferings.

While playing jackstones
I am simply enjoying
being alive, and
I am happy.