Categories
Buddhism Dreams Poetry

Temporary Illusion-like Appearance

          Open your mind, heart
          to feel what you feel, name it

your Spiritual Guide whispers to you
as a wave that laps the sandy shore, gently
receding, absent whitecaps

          Name what you feel
          be not afraid
          for what rises will fall
          and what fear have we
          of what is not permanent,
          never mind what we cannot name?
          What we cannot name does not exist,
          so what is it?

and you go within,
as instructed for
within is all there is
when there is
no out there out there

and you feel

disappointment
red, raw, and sinewy
funnily, sadly, and sorely
familiar, rubbed, worn and
blistered, in risk of rot
if you let it fester like
resentment –
                    you can’t
I was here first          your way
in or out of this one

it’s not yours, except
you lay claim to its
disappointment
as though it could have been
if it could have it would have
and it didn’t so it won’t

and you think

acceptance
the sweetest fruit,
sometimes the heaviest to bear
laid at your feet as you risk despair
only having to pick it up, lift it
with legs of wisdom,
but no –
                    I chose
to disappoint       myself

yet, hope

hope is here too
blossoming as a new bud
for disappointment
could not create sorrow
where love and compassion
had already taken root –
my mind protected by a gate of
incredible goodness, the only pleasure
I’ll happily increase in samsara’s garden
where running never yields escape
for the iron fence is the nature
of the mind – presently misunderstood

so hope,

hope that yields to faith
is what transforms my dream
because I must believe that
change is possible, is real
to make progress, effort, heal
I trust my Spiritual Guide’s instructions
for I put them to the test
and when hope transformed to purest
Faith, I see they are the best
and still my foolish mind cannot
afford to rest

because I was the mind of
unnecessary disappointment today
the utmost waste of breath
when each and every thing that’s ripened
has been for my swift path’s benefit
          so this too I will transform
and birth love so great it shall
become the norm, even if time be brief
we have so little to work with,
yet there’s so much we can achieve
if we hold correct belief

so, still I see the disappointment
my mind claims as mine – though truly
I could do without, here, add to that list
my deluded doubt
                    I know my happiness doesn’t lie here,
and still I mourn a temporary loss –
                    so instead, I donate
these mistaken minds to the cause,
the cause of the effect, the only one
I wish to possess, the greatest mind
of precious Enlightenment

(for others’ benefit, may I forever cease
these horrible, painful minds of suffering)

Categories
Poetry Video

On and On | V3

I should sleep
but time is fleeting
so when visions creep
I bow in greeting

the storms have come
and the rain it pours
what little I get
leaves me wanting more

I thought I found freedom
but only suffering comes
I long to escape —
but the feeling goes on, and on


Music: “The Feeling” by Lost Frequencies
Video & Editing: K. Samways

Categories
Buddhism Poetry

the Runner

smart mouth, ignorant mind
quick to speak, quick to die
life too brief, running out of time
creating causes to ever find

   endless suffering

          why me?

fast talk, soft skin
feel without, see within
fast decisions, a life of sin
feel samsara hook you in

   with attachment

           why not me?

as I seek the highest highs
I learn the lowest lows
then suddenly sink lower
than I’d ever thought I’d go

   the lower realms

          not again

yet always I’m forgetting
the causes of my pain
making all escape attempts
nothing but in vain

   putting me to shame

          again

the blue of Mount Meru
reflects into our sky
all the flesh and bones
of all my lives gone by

     exceed its mass

         and still, again,
                 I try

Categories
Poetry

Waiting’s Confusion

I wait for peace, but it does not come.
I throw myself into old enjoyments,
searching for happiness, but finding none

I am desperate, not a wise guy
so I’m never comprehending why
ever turning a blind eye to the truth

a truth delivered directly to my hands
and firmly ignored, as I close and lock
freedom’s door, I choose confusion

                          did I choose my slavery?
and now I wonder how the children cry
why me?

Categories
Poetry

Obscure Escape

I

I cannot find the quiet
I cannot drive far enough away
I cannot abide in place
I cannot fight the fray
I cannot find the space
I cannot prance nor play
     I am held within a cage,
          a dream that will not fade away

I cannot find a peace
I cannot dwell in lonely caves
I cannot energy release
I cannot ride the waves
I cannot tame my inner beast
I cannot for patience save
     although I know this is a dream,
          I struggle to be brave

I cannot find the silence,
I cannot fight my demons off
I cannot give up hope
I cannot be still with worries fraught!
I cannot skate this slippery slope
I cannot miss my shot
     if in samsara I can’t cope,
          then escape I keenly plot

I cannot give up now
though many challenges I face
I cannot give up now
the pain grows stronger every day
I cannot give up now
because I’m closer yet than e’er before
     I cannot give up the path,
          I can bear suffering no more!

II

I regret all my bad actions
that have led me to this point
I can hardly fathom how
I caused such a fruitless plight
the minds I held divide and fraction
now with familiarity I fight
     aeons of evil habits
          will see their last midnight

I rely upon all beings
to train my mind to right
I rely upon all Buddhas
to correct my mistaken sight
I apply opponent action
best temporary relief
     I make a sincere promise
          to keep delusions brief

I cannot deny the karma
that has brought me to this place
I cannot ignore the causes
turning to virtue, my only grace
I cannot be separated
from my Holy Spiritual Guide
     inseparably at my heart
          my secret Divine Pride

Categories
Dreams Poetry

Possession

I

throat has seized
and body lusts,
reach out to grasp
man built to thrust

yet nothing there
for me to reach
and absent trust
rendered release

I cannot help
but ask and plead,
what dread clasp
robbed me of peace
?

II

such a force came over me
I could not name
I could not tame
without remorse
my mind possessed
cut him down
to see him bled

III

a piece of mind
it held me back
so his murder
I did not commit
but the urge arose,
as I now recall,
to myself hard to admit
the need for me to train my mind
before I face the nearing times
when all are tested
most will fail
as they trained their minds
to no avail

Categories
Buddhism Poetry

The Unforgetting World

We live in the Unforgetting World

Unforgetting

You hear the word
you ask what it means

A man in a dress tells you it means
we never forget our attachments

What’s an attachment, you wonder
as your background in sales leads you to believe
it’s an item you attach to your primary sale
in essence, you should upsell three attachments
with each cell phone (case, cable, warranty)

There are no guarantees,
the man in the robes says
except that you won’t forget
your attachments

You learn:

Attachment is the mind that exaggerates
the positive qualities of an object
(attachment loves ignoring red flags)
attachment spins a deceitful fairy tale:
it claims the object is the source of your happiness

And we believe this tall tale
despite all contradicting evidence
we love to ignore evidence
when it does not corroborate our stories

You walk away

You begin to forget
what the wise man said
almost immediately

You think:

I am forgetting
I must live in the forgetting world
I have forgotten what I ate for breakfast
I have forgotten what I did yesterday
god only knows what I did last month

I only remember things I’ve labelled special
I only remember what I’ve done
in accordance with its repetition

When you ask me who I love,
I say friends and family
because they are familiar, and the answer
is engraved on our hearts over lifetimes, infinite

I have forgotten almost everything about my life
who I was, who I’ve been, the characters I’ve played
and the friends I used to have

All I have is the present
and if I think about what I can remember
at any given moment

it is my attachments

It seems it is the only thing
I can remember

Like some sick joke on our weak human minds
that a mental factor could purport such wicked lies
and how could we not remember that
we’ve fallen into such traps before!?
How can we keep forgetting
we are betrayed forevermore?

Until the cycle, the pattern ends
until disrupted, samsara bends
and finally breaks

You remember the man,
in the dress, in the robes
he gave you a liberating gift
an opportunity to see the truth

By seeing differently and remembering
I am ever unforgetting


The Unforgetting World (podcast)

Categories
Buddhism Poetry

Somewhere an Indestructible Heart

Often I find myself liking something
or labeling an experience as pleasant
for the enjoyment of making a kind
connection with another, a friend

We yearn for that connection
with another soul out there, out there
separate and halved like an apple, pear
fruit plucked unripe from the tree
while a love fell too soon
from her own broken branch —
will they rot together in the after?
They will rot in this life nonetheless

We strive for connection
by rearranging external circumstances
just so, so we can reach out
touch another, their heart, their skin
we yearn to touch another’s
separate skin, slick and spoiled, soft
so soft and external as smells and sounds
of summertime’s sadness, smooth as
Regina Spektor’s Russian indie blues

We say to our lonely, ignorant selves
it just couldn’t be my vast mind,
ocean-like and empty,
as all phenomena which appear
from this root mind, mixed with
all sentient beings, and Buddhas

Knowing this! while knowing this
and believing this, part-heartedly,
I gather the search party — a fellowship
on a journey to happiness — ever-forgetting
the story of the ring was this:

Goodness is in all men, all beings.

The ring — rather, the desire for the ring corrupted the hearts of men, and the hearts of other beings. In an attempt to attain this dark power, unthinkable negative actions were committed in unimaginable numbers which led to the destruction of peaceful existence, threatening to pitch everyone into the hellish suffering of Mordor’s merciless rule.

The protagonist’s goals never encompassed creating goodness — that already exists within all men. The goal was rather to overcome evil, to strive to be virtuous and honorable, to protect good at all costs. Because it is the right thing to do and yields the best results for other beings, beings we love.

The goal is to sacrifice the individual self that cannot attain happiness alone (and that will eventually steal happiness from others). The goal is to simply destroy the evil within.

When evil is destroyed, all that is left is good.

Knowing this! while knowing this
and believing this whole-heartedly
I change my external actions so
I cease grasping at the imagination
of my dreamlike reality and instead
create the internal causes to
evolve my mind completely,
to experience the truth directly
and to help all living beings in turn
completely inseparable from me
at my invincible heart

Categories
Buddhism Photography Saturday Expressions

Words haven’t been invented yet | Session 14

I sit
in what should be peace
I have a mostly happy mind and yet
not knowing how to feel
amongst constant mistaken discrimination
I stare longingly into the sky
cold press of flat rusted metal bars
under my calves
lukewarm Bengal Spice on my tongue
splashed on my knee
messy me

dark periwinkle birds, raptors
highlighted in pink and gold
dance and dive, painted as clouds
across the sky
part of me wants to cry
and that’s the seeds of delusions for you

because in reality
my mind is peaceful and content
and I have no problems

Oh! How I long for a problem!

so my mind searches and searches
and it detects a sadness that was only a seedling
and I tendered the seed of sadness until
now I could pluck at any time a flower
with each its own story of sorrow
and right now my mine is one of loneliness
the most stupid delusion of all because,
rooted in self-grasping ignorance,
it pushes me toward attachment along
a line of inappropriate attention
here now I’m hooked
on something I’ve never known, never seen
another unfulfilled desire has its evil hold on me
in another I cannot find, I can’t foresee
here I’m hooked
on suffering – making a terrifying joke
out of another precious lifetime

so while I sit and wish and wait
on Dharma I will meditate
knowing with blessings karma’s Fates
will be only kind
I dedicate my merit
feel sad, feel compassion
and with only bliss now cry


Categories
Buddhism Poetry

Such Silly Suffering

Why do I feel so sad 
to release my suffering?

I know its source! And still!
I cling like stickseed 

burred burdens born
impossible to remove

without wisdom realizing
the true nature of all things

impermanent
not existing inherently

so what does that mean
when I cling so

to this suffering
inborn familiarity

infinite lifetimes old
makes 21 day habits

impossibly young
and still, we must

abide by these present
physical laws in order

to attain the higher 
understandings and escape

of ultimate Enlightenment
for the benefit of

all living beings
the only way to make

any meaning of my
present suffering