*Birdle Burble

 

I went out of my mind and then came to my senses

By meeting a magpie who mixed up his tenses,

Who muddled distinctions of nouns and of verbs,

And insisted that logic is bad for the birds.

With a poo-wee cluck and a chit, chit-chit;

The grammar and meaning don’t matter a bit.

 

The stars in their courses have no destination;

The train of events will arrive at no station;

The inmost and ultimate Self of us all

Is dancing on nothing and having a ball.

So with chat for chit and with tat for tit,

This will be that, and that will be It!

 

 

*The poem above is taken from Alan Watt’s “Nonsense”.

**Painting “Magpies” by Archibald Thorburn, 1905.

 

* I prefer dongulation

It is, I think, increasingly clear that parameters of this kind provide an essential corrective to the obsession of sanity. More and more, one feels that free and dominant methods are loud, tough, and frequent. Obviously, closed corners must be very carefully under-rated; otherwise, popular notions of frame and texture will show that the entire system is purely academic, and that the particular point of convergent energies is that they are finally globular.
Cows are, naturally, free of dust. But stops are most difficult to try. The real problem is that quills are too fat, and until we can easily connect ideas with tassles the function will be empty. Not that this would be equal: it is only that disproportionate combinations have an existential dimension which is, all too often, gullible.
On the whole, I prefer dongulation. It is prepid, snord, and tart, and the vallifaction of an estimate is grolic. Churdles and mards will always require fronicks, and lapsy daddles are usually bequeathed to the snorder kind of lumpens. Bolliwots are frankly bespoken, and every mutter-hound is a preposterous garble of tonsils. I have no wish to be snerdily previous: It is merely that wumpens and drabs are vollible, and that any further toculation would be groanly unspecified.

 

*Quotation above are taken from Alan Watt’s “Nonsense”

**Painting “Laughing Hotei” by Kogan Genge

Words that inspire: I’m helping to build a cathedral

It surprises me how often we hold ourselves back until we have no choice.

….

Three guys laying bricks are asked why they’re doing it. The first guy says, “I’m doing it for the wages.” The second guy says, “I’m doing it to support my family.” The third guy says: “I’m helping to build a cathedral.”

….

Put your dream in a lockbox, go out and make Fuck You money, then come back to the lockbox and pick up where you left off. I met plenty who tried, but none who succeeded.

….

Seek out that at which you might fail. And just keep going. Take more risk. Plow ahead.

….

Is it better to succeed at something you don’t really believe in, or is it better to fail at something you really do believe in?

…

Our fears should be attacked, not run from. From our deepest wounds come our greatest gifts.

…

The things we really want to do are usually the ones that scare us the most.

…

Usually, all we get is a glimmer. A story we read or someone we briefly met. A curiosity. A meek voice inside, whispering. It’s up to us to hammer out the rest.

 

*Quotations above are taken from Po Bronson’s “What should I do with my life?”

** Painting “Sketch to the portrait of a builder” by Kazimir Malevich

To make this world a better place

To make this world a better place –
the only thing I have to do.
In bitter hearts to leave a hopeful trace,
To make this world a better place –
This life in full to live, embrace.
Though happy moments, they are so few.
To make this world a better place –
the only thing I have to do.

*Painting “A Digger” by Vincent van Gogh, 1881.

The best I can do today, I must

The best I can do today, I must.
For I do not know what tomorrow brings.
Let all my worries into smoke combust;
The best I can do today, I must.
Let all my fears return to dust.
As they are, I take these things.
The best I can do today, I must.
For I do not know what tomorrow brings.

*Painting “The working mower” by Ferdinand Hodler, 1909.

And then arrived reality

And then arrived reality.
From deep slumber she disturbed me.
Now I see, there is no god.
Reality is much more odd.

And then arrived reality
in all her beauty and brutality.
I greet her with a hug and kiss.
She smiles and says: what is amiss?

And then arrived reality
reminding me of life’s finality.
She put her hands on my eyes
and said: each life one day dies.

And then arrived reality
coupled with illness and agony.
I cried and prayed: Please go away.
But she replied: I came to stay.

And then arrived reality
without gods and morality.
She doesn’t mind to be ignored.
She walks slow, on her own accord.

And then arrived reality
restoring things to normality.
All fears and hopes she swept away.
I trust in her. Let come what may.

*Painting – “Wind Fallen Trees” by Ivan Shishkin, 1886.

Be nice and starve an artist

Be nice and starve an artist.
His life is meaningless.
On air he should subsist
to maintain his success.

Be nice and slay an angel.
His wings are way too big.
Pave his sacred road to hell
and do not care a fig.

Be nice and fuck a virgin.
Her youth won’t last for long.
Caress her hair and touch her skin.
You can do no wrong.

Be nice and throw a preacher
into a lion’s den.
Let lions be his teacher
and not a crowd of men.

Be nice and burn a Bible.
For drivel it contains.
Why bother with such trifle
that keeps your mind in chains.

Be nice and hang a Jesus
into your living room.
His story never ceases
to inspire grief and gloom.

Be nice and waste this hour
if you want to make some strides.
This world is the will to power
and nothing else besides!

*Painting “Martyr on a circus ring” by Fyodor Bronnikov, 1869.

What peace and blessings without a god

What peace and blessings without a god.
To be human is to be flawed.
In my mistakes I rejoice,
for happiness is all by choice.

What love and meaning without a deity.
I celebrate myself with gaiety.
My heart is filled with joy and peace
for I know all this will cease.

What happiness without god’s grace.
I have no shadows to embrace.
Freedom – such a precious thing.
To only her my soul will sing.

What wisdom without creeds, beliefs.
No gods and spirits my mind conceives.
In all the temples and sacred churches
I haven’t found anything to purchase.

What clarity without religious notions.
Let us speak without emotions.
I cleanse my tongue from god’s good word
and all that’s foolish and absurd.

*Painting “Portrait of Voltaire” by Jacques Augustin Catherine Pajou

Today my poetry went fishing

Today my poetry went fishing
and caught this one cheerful verse.
Meaningless is all well-wishing
except if said in reverse.

Today my heart went wild and restless.
In my darkness I found light.
No words this feeling can express.
Gone are all my fears and fright.

Today my dreams went up in smoke.
I seek no fire in these ashes.
What is left seems to be broke.
The truth appears in flashes.

Today my thoughts went round and round
till they stopped and came to rest.
All my wisdom fell to the ground.
I’m glad I got it off my chest.

Today my life went down the drain
and I was left with this simple verse.
What have I to lose or gain?
I’m one with the universe.

*Painting – “The Poor Fisherman” by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1881

What if all my thoughts are due to illness

What if all my thoughts are due to illness
and my dreams because of pain?
Maybe that’s why I cannot rest in stillness
and all this living seems in vain.

What if all my days are not numbered
and the future is in my hands?
But if so, why am I so encumbered
with useless nonsense and silly plans?

What if all my stories are wrong
and my knowledge is mistaken?
But if so, why do I go along
with views I have already forsaken?

What if all my secrets were found out
and my troubles – made public?
Maybe then I could live without
worry and don’t care a lick.

What if all my moves are known in advance
and my free will is an illusion?
Then I live this life by chance
in senseless noise and confusion.

* Painting “A Mortally Wounded Brigand Quenches his Thirst” by Eugene Delacroix, 1825,

If God exists, then where he hides?

If God exists, then where he hides?
In the center or to the sides?
High up above or down below?
This no one seems to know.

Explain what does your god mean,
how he differs from things not seen?
Can you produce one bit of evidence
beyond that of mere pretense?

Quoting scriptures won’t change my mind.
No proof of god in these I find.
I do not trust in your anecdotes
and neither in your stories, quotes.

All this religious business
stands in a way of progress.
All faith is out of season,
beyond all thought and reason.

Hence, my friends, it is now clear,
All this to me seems very queer.
Let children play with their gods
but to me it makes no odds.

*Painting – “John Brown reading his Bible”, by Horace Pippin, 1942.

I am proud to be an atheist

I am proud to be an atheist.
Faith, religion I resist.
No gods can sway me in their lanes.
I am free. I’ve lost my chains.

I am proud to be an atheist.
Gods and deities I never missed.
My time I spend on other things,
whatever my tomorrow brings.

I am proud to be an atheist.
The feet of Christ I never kissed.
My mouth will never touch this dirt
that has left so many hurt.

I am proud to be an atheist.
But in what does my faith consist?
Let me answer you this way:
the time of faith has passed away.

I am proud to be an atheist.
I hope to dissipate all godly mist.
Will you help and lend your hand,
together we can clean this land.

I am proud to be an atheist.
At all the gods I’ll shake my fist.
Fear not their empty futile threats,
for deity always fails, forgets.

I am proud to be an atheist.
For gods do not exist.
Of this I am sure and certain
that no one lurks behind the curtain.

I am proud to be an atheist.
From my life gods are dismissed.
Please do not pray for my poor soul,
for I am happy as a whole.

Please help me God to live without you

Please help me God to live without you.
Make me a better atheist.
Help me find that inner strength and value
that allows my error to persist.

Please help me God to ignore your commandments.
Make me a sinner and not a saint.
Help me to numb my moral sense.
Help me to live without restraint.

Please help me God to find my own way
without your guidance or assistance.
Help me to make it through this day
and keep your angels at a distance.

Please help me God to curse your name.
Strengthen my will to blaspheme.
Help me to remember and proclaim
the paths that go against the stream.

Please help me God to prove your non-existence.
Furnish my mind with arguments.
Help me to awaken people from this trance
and to discourage their pretense.

Please help me God to burn in hell.
Help me to eradicate your shadow.
Let me break away from your spell
and deal your ghost the final blow.

Please help me God to diminish your flock.
Make me a selfish egotist.
Allow me to administer the shock
and show that You do not exist.

*About the accompanying image for this poem

Myself I do not understand

Myself I do not understand.
Nothing ever goes as planned.
I try to live the best I can,
In this world I am a man.

Myself I do not really doubt,
I am dishonest yet devout.
My silver spoons will never bend,
nature has no final end.

Myself I do not really create,
I am a little quirk of fate.
The world is as it should be,
I am in chains and yet still free.

Myself I do not really trust.
I am driven by greed and lust.
The truth is found between the lies.
It always comes as a surprise.

I ask myself who is this man,
who lives his life the best he can?
Do I know you? From whence you came?
We are so different and yet the same.

I don’t need no prose or art

I don’t need no prose or art
in which to soothe my drained heart.
Many fools have appeared smart –
be it Plato or Descartes.

I don’t need no words of praise
to set my tender mind ablaze.
A sly remark or a witty phrase
can lull my soul into sleep for days.

I don’t need no gods or saints
who would hear out my complaints.
I live my life without restraints,
despite my faults and my taints.

I don’t need no hopes or dreams
to know it’s more than what it seems.
The Moon has its secrets as Sun has its beams,
I walk the line between these two extremes.

I don’t need no love or trust
to feel vibrant and robust.
Within each flame, there reigns a frost.
When fire ends, what else is lost?

God is a thought away from not existing… (100 more thoughts about the same)

1. God is a thought away from not existing.
2. Forgive those who believe in God for they don’t know what they are doing.
3. The bubble in which God lives bursts as soon as you touch it.
4. God is what happens when probability fails.
5. The chance happening is often mistaken for God.
6. God is an accident which theologian failed to explain.
7. Theologians first believe in God and then await what will happen.
8. What is obvious to a theologian, is obscure to everyone else.
9. God is a possibility from which theologian has made a necessity.
10. God is an uncertainty made certain by a theologian.
11. God is a performance by a theologian.
12. God is like a banana peel on which theologians slip.
13. All footprints of God belong to a man.
14. God is theologian’s hermeneutical key to unlock the mysteries of the Universe.
15. Mystery of God points to another mystery that is not God.
16. Humans are far too creative to be satisfied with the non-existence of God.
17. To create a new God one should abolish an old religion.
18. Modern theologian is a medieval witch born four centuries too late.
19. Bronze age deities today wear modern clothes.
20. Theologians fight against reason with a thought about God.

A hundred more thoughts about God, theology and theologians

1. God loved the world so much that he decided not to exist.
2. The most well-know God is the unknown God.
3. Belief in God is a sin against reason.
4. The temptation to believe in God comes from the Devil.
5. God is never blamed for not arriving in time.
6. To feel important and indispensable, attach your life to God.
7. Small minds believe in God, genius believes in himself.
8. God is not your Shepherd even though you may feel like his holy lamb.
9. It is the thought about God that appeals to Man, not God himself.
10. God is an unfulfilled promise, a promise of a better life.
11. If you are happy because you believe in God, you do not really believe in God.

80 thoughts about God, theology and theologians…

1. When a theologian speaks about God, he speaks about nothing.
2. If you cannot understand what a theologian is saying, it is because he did not tried to say anything.
3. Theologians speak a lot of nonsense and are proud of it.
4. If a theologian wouldn’t be vague he would cease to be a theologian.
5. If a theologian is not vague, ambiguous and contradictory, he is not a theologian.
6. Theologians are arm-chair semanticists. They like to play with words and meanings.
7. Nonsense, logical fallacies, and ambiguities are the lingua franca of theologians.
8. Theology is a funny language game whose rules no one comprehends, including those who play it.
9. Theologians assign new meanings to old words and invent new words to change old meanings.
10. Theologians have a lot of authorities on which they base their arguments, none of them is God.
11. Theology is an elaborate system of creating something out of nothing.
12. Theologians like to employ big words to describe their little beliefs.
13. Theologians jump from man to eternity to God in a single sentence.
14. Theologians confuse their personal beliefs, feelings, and experiences with God.
15. Theologians believe in something unknowable in someplace unknown.
16. Theologian is emancipated from the constraints of reason. God is a license that allows him to run amok.
17. The benefits of a belief in God is in the knowledge that one can get away with anything.
18. Belief in god is a tranquilizer, a drug, a narcotic. Theologians are addicts. To cure yourself of a belief in God you should start taking your belief seriously.
19. Theologians never take their beliefs seriously. If they do, they become atheists.
20. If a theologian would really believe in God, he would become an atheist.
21. If a theologian would understand himself, he would become an atheist.
22. If you succeed tying a theologian to a dogma he will say that you are a dogmatist.
23. The experience of God paves the way to atheism.
24. The absence of belief in God is a prerequisite to the experience of God.
25. God never died because he never lived.
26. If God existed he would never be God. The existence of God excludes the existence of God.
27. Faith crumbles when God appears. God’s appearance is his disappearance.
28. God reveals his face to those who do not believe in him.
29. Those who believe in God are those who have abandoned humanity.
30. If you seek God, you have lost yourself.
31. A theology that poses and parades as being all-inclusive, is, in fact, very selective and exclusive. The most liberal minds are the most conservative. An integral vision is actually a sectarian blindness.
32. Theological writings are the greatest insult to human intelligence ever written.
33. Theologians rely on the infinite resource of human gullibility and wishful thinking.
34. Theologians deceive themselves. As soon as they realize this they become atheists.
35. Belief in God presupposes self-deception.
36. Theologian’s belief in God is sustained by perpetual deception of others.
37. Theologians engage in pseudo-questions and provide pseudo-answers.
38. Theology is a form of fiction. It becomes a form of madness if it is being mistaken for a representation of reality.
39. Taken literally theology doesn’t make any sense. If theology makes sense to you, either you are mad or you are a theologian.
40. Modern theology is a relic of medieval nonsense. It is an atavism of a bygone age.
41. Theologians like to think that they are being misunderstood by other people when in fact other people are being misunderstood by theologians.
42. The modern theologian is the new pagan.
43. Theologian is a modern-day barbarian.
44. The best arguments against God are those which theologians employ to prove the opposite.
45. An enemy of a theologian is not someone who disbelieves in God but someone whose faith in God is stronger than his own.
46. Theologians receive their proper punishment in this world not in the world thereafter.
47. Theologians are their own worst enemies.
48. Theologians employ reason in the service of God. Thus the world appears unreasonable to them.
49. To an eye of a theologian, the constraints of reason are obvious. Hence the necessity of God who has no constraints. God is reason without constraints, in short – God is madness.
50. No theologian can be a scientist but many scientists can be theologians.
51. To a theologian contradictions, inconsistencies and uncertainties give evidence for the existence of God.
52. To a theologian, the best evidence for God is either himself or another theologian.
53. Mathematics is to physics, what fairy-tales are to theology.
54. Theologian’s beliefs grow stronger if they have been contradicted and proven false.
55. Modern theologians do not speak about the dogmas and doctrines of their religion, instead, they speak about their personal experience. They are pseudo-believers and crypto-agnostics.
56. To a theologian, freedom is actually a dependence from God.
57. Theologians collapse before the rational imperative of today. They try to reinvent themselves as atheists.
58. The true believers of tomorrow are those who have lost their faith today.
59. Conversion of the heart is stubbornness of the mind.
60. The born-again die twice.
61. Leap of faith is lack of knowledge.
62. If God is light, then we are the sun, thinks the theologian.
63. The biggest compliment you can give to a theologian is that he is not a theologian.
64. Belief in God is actually nothing but a hope of having a different life.
65. Belief in God is arrogance and vanity in disguise.
66. Belief in God is a negation of life. Religion is a cult of death.
67. A revelation of God is the concealment of man.
68. The death blow to God is a salvation of man.
69. Believing in God is doubting yourself.
70. Theologians want to survive first, only then – to believe in God.
71. To have a better future in this life theologians preach a better future in life hereafter.
72. God’s existence and God’s non-existence look very much alike.
73. The practice of faith is a repetition of beliefs.
74. Ask a theologian how he practices his faith and he will tell about his beliefs.
75. Belief in God is a bluff.
76. If God existed there would be no theologians.
77. If God existed no one would believe in him.
78. If the existence of God would become obvious to everyone, theologians would be the first to deny it.
79. If God existed theologians would explain him away.
80. To offend a theologian you should proclaim yourself a God.

I don’t know

I don’t know what is good and what is bad, what is important and what is not. I don’t know what is to be done or what could be done and whether anything should be done at all.
I don’t know who I am and who are you or who is this and what are they, where I come from and where I go, why I write this and why you read that.
I don’t know what is right and what is wrong, what is polite and what is rude, what is happiness and what is misery, what is precious and what is horrid, what is beautiful and what is sublime.
I don’t know whether I should do something or do nothing. Whether I should do this or that. I don’t know whether I can do both and if I could whether I should. I don’t know if I should elaborate on that or not.
I don’t know what is the purpose and what is the meaning. I don’t know whether this amounts to anything, something or nothing. Even when I speak – don’t be misguided by this seductive trickery – I really don’t know what I am talking about.

Oh death, how sweet you are, you Queen of non-existence!

Rejoice, I am dying! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Wave your arms in the air! Dance with stomping feet! Praise my return to nothingness! With each passing day and with each passing hour, I am getting closer to my grave. I am getting old and tired. I have approached the legal age of twenty-one but my mind has reached the ripe age of sixty-four and my soul has wandered around the multiverse for countless aeons, many infinitillions, nulillions, zebrillions, dandellions, jillions, sicillions, quadriltillions, lilmildillions, panrilfillions, bezdillions, gazillions, billions and millions of years. In my previous lives I was an angel, a Martian, a dinosaur, a mammoth, a priest, a poet, a philosopher, a drunkard, a martyr, a zealot, a harlot and an infinite number of more ideas, dreams and beings. But I was never a king, never a ruler, because I despise all power and all glory.