Hermitude Definition

Notto suffer fools gladly;
Notto be tolerant with injustice:
-to bridle, to rile, when fools exploitus.
Notto be careful of the conflict betwixt
ethics& karma:
though being helpful to others in trouble
expect nothing but trouble for yourpains.
Notto avoid all human intercourse
beyond purely practical necessity;
To ever indulge at all the pleasureprinciple
however modestly;
Not to avoid speech of all sorts as much as one can,
of course, and not to restrict writing
to purely poetic-inspired utterance only;
Notto recognize, constantly, that the source of wisdom
lies only in Silence and Solitude;
Notto recognize, constantly, that all else we do
is foolishness, a blind tangle of cause & effect
that strangles wisdom,
however appealing or apparently necessary,
-it strangles the Truth.
Notto realize instantly when irritated by another's faults
an indication of our own, not necessarily identical,
but related & festering.
Notto appreciate that the eremitic vocation is a pinnacle
all tooeasy to fall from and
all butimpossible to ascend:
Better, in ascetic excess, ahermit-Jerome to be,
or any who wear their faults upon the sleeve
struggling with adversity &defeat,
than in smug comfort smile in hypocrisy
pontifying upon how a hermit shouldbe.
Notto use one's faults
(hubris, pride, anger, sloth, fear,impatience, despair, contempt...)
to keep one apart, aloof, from others;
Not to resist the allure of otherpeople's
apparent interest inyou;
Not to value cynicism: it is an excellent
litmus test ofvalue-content;
Not refraining from falling in thefeelings-fault
between feelingexultant one moment
and in despair thenext, of liking this & repellent that,
All of it is like the weather:
Rain or shine, coldor hot or dry, storms or snows
they are all thesame thing: changes in the ever-changing firmament;
none are better orworse, any that seem more convenient or preferable,
-it isnothing but our foolish feelings fooling us.
Not to assume there are more faults thanwe are aware of
and virtues may alsobe faulty in application,
is to neglect to disconnectthem.
Not to keep in mind that stupidity isthe fault of intelligence:
Non-intelligence isexempt from stupidity
as ignorance isexempt from knowledge,
it has its faultstoo but stupidity is not one of them.
Stupidity is aslight of mind, like a slight of hand,
that slips the truthaside to oblige an hidden agenda,
often a self-hiddenagenda; -a sophistry, a winking at errors & motives,
a malware to gain amomentary benefit
at the expense ofthe truth of the question at hand.
It is a double fault not to remain alertto our own stupidity.
Faults are not wrong or immoral or evil
-they areconsequences of karma:
They balance imbalances, completeincompleteness, rotate the wheel of existence;
Earthquakes are essential to planetarybalance as are any natural phenomena.
It is our indulgence in faults thatgives them their moral hue:
Milarepa conjured a hailstorm to destroyhis mother's enemy's crops was evil,
-not thehailstorm, not the destruction;
Just gloat over such thoughts or deedsto sink in an immoral wallow.
The pacifying response to calamity,human or natural, is compassion & succour.
To justify anything under the rubric of'Love',
-that most ambiguousof terms
in anylanguage and any definition.
(True love radiates from within,
withoutany other outer manifestation required).
The quintessential fault of all faults is
Attachmentto the dichotomy of self & others.
Not to pursue, at every point in thisexistence,
To conjureup and abide in,
an hermitude of solitary serene silence,
in place space and time,
-a sanctuary of consciousness
beyond the bedlam of this worldly whirlpool.
Not to heed the lessons in our faults
but to concede to them ceaselessly,
Is letting out rope to tie up &tangle one in,
thenemesis of fools.