Hallway to Nowhere

Tag: buddhist

  • Origination Tea Cup (Poem)

    steam rises from the tea. consider these things

    how did this cup come to be?

    a skilled artisan learned from skilled potters who learned from their teachers and so on

    a ceramic with multiple sources, and also the celadon glaze

    a kiln in which it was fired; wood that provided heat

    a building itself that housed this all

    thus it is with the tea

    tea farmers, masters all, helped by family and community and so on

    (Only a village produces fine tea.)

    trees dependent upon rain, earth, and light

    countless different elements interconnected

    change one, and the whole transforms

    each lift of the cup and sip of the tea,

    the entire world is joined

  • Death Is My Friend (Poem Regarding Yamantaka)

    Death sits with me, my faithful companion.

    We have known each other since my birth.

    Sometimes I have ignored their presence,

    To be startled once more when I noticed them again.

    I remember over and over

    That this is merely my familiar friend.

    Their fierce visage is meant not to frighten,

    Only drive away my aspects which prevent a meaningful happy life.

    When finally we walk away from this existence together,

    I will not be alone but with my dearest guide.

  • Losar Reflection (Poem For the New Year)

    Let me grateful.

    For when I awaken in the morning.

    If I do so with relative ease and comfort,

    This is a joy.

    If I do so with suffering and pain,

    This is also a joy.

    Whatever happens, I have enormous opportunity.

    Whether the day brings a chance to actively study and reflect;

    Whether the day brings time to pause and rest.

    Each provides an expedient time to practice.

    May I seize every occasion possible

    To act with kindness, compassion, and patience.

    Towards myself; towards other beings; towards the world.

  • Mise En Scene (Poem For Feb 27-PouncePunk22)

    Consider your landscape and your place therein:

    How do you move within this tableau?

    A masterful stride that crushes underfoot, unheeding and careless?

    A mindful walk that considers terrain, thoughtful and considerate?

    Are you owner of all or simply another piece of this whole?

    The answers we give delineate and determine our surroundings.

    Interior and exterior, these are intertwined and essentially the same.

    Trample unseeing the grass and insects; build without ceasing regardless of cost.

    This befouls your very air and your indifferent heart. Death comes in many forms.

    Remember other denizens have equal claim; think upon the welfare of earth, sea, and sky.

    Understand this enables all to breathe with comfort in concert.

    Easy? No. Your replies, my replies, our replies shape the common ground.

    Think. Be aware. Transform your mind.

  • Kintsugi Dreams (Poem For Feb 24-PouncePunk22)

    I walk on debris,

    The detritus of expectations.

    I gather fragments to make kintsugi dreams,

    Toss them in the air, and watch them come crashing down.

    They add to the rubble underfoot.

    Thus it has always been. Thus it continues.

    I laugh with delight.

  • Messenger (Poem For Feb 18-PouncePunk22)

    Dark aspect and terrifying mien.

    Wings of skin and bone with barbed points.

    Grey-scaled limbs with daggered claws.

    Fiery eyes with glaring stare.

    Chilling voice with harrowing words.

    Speaking thus:

    “You are responsible for your own enlightenment.

    You are also responsible for all other beings.

    Hear these words and open yourself.”

    Are you sure you want to meet an angel?

  • Stillness & Movement (Poem-PouncePunk Art Challenge)

    How to find a still mind?

    Try being aware of movement,

    The ever-flowing change that is always occurring.

    Take the body, for example.

    Even in the midst of the deepest meditation or dreamless state,

    There are infinite shifts taking place.

    Cells replace themselves; breath moves in and out; the heart beats; and so on.

    Similar processes happen across the physical world,

    From the most minute particles all the way to vaster aspects of slow relentless geologic change.

    Accepting this impermanence with equanimity

    And relinquishing the notion that this will stop in any way

    Provides a space to relax and rest with a sense of ease.

    This will also evolve but observe with detachment.

    Nothing (and everything) lasts forever. This need not cause suffering.

    Find the path to peace and joy.

  • Glitch (Poem-Feb 13 PouncePunk Art Challenge)

    Start. Stutter. Stop. Start again. Stutter. Another stop.

    This is how we live, with bardos all around.

    We try to build bridges between all the gaps,

    Seeing them as problematic malfunctions.

    What if we relate them as opportunities instead,

    Learning to explore them and what they offer?

    We might trade considerable anxiety for a more spacious mind,

    Relaxing our many intermittent frustrations into playful curiosity.

    Breathe. Now begin.

  • Fissured Light (Poem)

    Thank you.

    Your words run quicksilver

    Over my patched places.

    I am shattered anew.

    But now the light flows through,

    And I laugh to see this.

    The cracks of all my imperfections

    Are not flaws,

    Nor am I merely broken.

    I am that, yes, but also and at the same time,

    Gloriously whole just as I am.

    As are we all.

  • Thankfulness Tea Cup (Poem)

    Steam rises from the cup.

    Consider these things.

    I am so grateful to have tea.

    I bow down to the earth that nourished it.

    I bow down to the farmers that grew it.

    I bow down to the masters that crafted it.

    I bow down to the workers that transported it.

    Om Mani Padme Hung.

    “May all beings have happiness and the cause of happness.

    May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.

    May they never be disassociated from the supreme happiness which is without suffering.

    May they remain in the boundless equanimity, free from both attachment to close ones and rejection of others. “