The book of: Don't Worry Be Happy! The Book Of The Heart!
The below is a good rough INTRO for a new book I am working on; posting it like this has helped me refine it. I like a lot some of what this INTRO says so far, and feel the book will offer even a lot more, and have a great range to it. The photo at the end of this blog entry we may use on the cover, or at least surely in the book.
"To safeguard, empower and free others! I feel is a goal and happening in the best of art, literature— and human relationships!"
The Book of: Don't Worry Be Happy!
The Book Of The Heart!
Introduction by Daniel Ladinsky
Isn't that the hope, and even promise, of every Holy book, and all the esoteric traditions, and even every position of yoga or prayer, or making love? To: Don't worry — be happy! And to let your heart govern like the sun!
If you were to Google those four words, you would see how Meher Baba, and then years later Bobby McFerrin (who hitched a ride on those words into a song) rock-n-rolled that phrase into a big hit record that reached literally millions in the world.
Isn't that what every intelligent and loving parent (or true friend) would want for you? For you to unfurl your wings and caress the cheek of God, or the Moon; or wind up mid-air on a butterfly wing being able to high-five everything. Yep, everything from a profound Knowing that awaits us all! The way so beautifully & wildly Yoda and/or Buddha could after hours in the bar, and even all day long — more downplaying the Reality of who, who anyone can really ever touch. Of what anyone can ever touch!
What Does Anyone Ever Touch?
I like when good book titles, or contemplative thoughts, can pop into this old cowboy's brain; it having been kicked (my ken) by the hoofs of the Sky, helps a lot.
Indeed, what can anyone ever touch but the Omnipresent. But the existence of the One Being — with zillions of forms within it!
O gosh! Seems after ten thousand poems, and so much other writing stuff, my pen thinks it still has something to say. Floating around for over 50 years in the wine barrels of Meher Baba, and Hafiz and Rumi. I will blame them. And...
And literally walking for hundreds of miles in India, with someone I felt was a true teacher. Someone who might have caused Carl Jung, or Basho or Issa, or some Dalai Lama, or Elvis— to say: Hell, you know a lot more than me!
My teacher was a true Zen Wizard of Oz, and could sit on a branch with the sun and give as much life. Or sit on a branch with a bird, and not bend it an inch more; for the soul knows no gravity, only benevolence & light.
The book of: Don't Worry Be Happy. The Book of Life! The Book Of The Heart! Every single Hafiz and Rumi poem is really all about that; I will talk about at times and expound on especially life-changing verse— if imbibed. If imbibed… for there is such a physics in all this! What you let deeply touch you can so effect! Even transform!
So lets wade into this together and be able to more caress the cheek of whatever can make us feel better; and what can help us give more, and be bugged less! And dance more in our eyes & laughs— with our hoofs kicking up angel dust & hope from the earth and sky-meadows!
I feel a good start here, in this book, is a poem-rendering of Hafiz, tilted: Troubled. If you Google: Troubled, Hafiz! You can even hear me reading it on a lovely CD that was a lifetime gift to the Lama Foundation; all proceeds go to them. The title to the CD is: The Mountains Hint At Our Beauty! And true, so true, they do. For we are really their root! All is really a golden leaf on our tree!
To safeguard, empower and free others! I feel is a goal and happening in the best of art, literature and human relationships! Look what a great song or film can do; a wonderful painting, or a masterpiece sculpture; a poem or haiku that can so crack open the moment, an hour, or a day— that Buddha rolls out and says: “Let's boogie. Let’s more than— don’t worry be happy. Let’s realize we are each other to the bone! Let our every movement and sound help write — the book of the heart! For we live, for we live to love! And to kiss beauty, near and far!"
Daniel Ladinsky
November 2025
Taos, New Mexico USA
