Blossoms do their pretty thing:
stones stone, bugs bug, trees testify.
But somehow we tend to serve two masters.
So which wears the mask that hides the other?
*
To teach “Already it is Perfect”
the Master simply moves his teacup.
His students understand: breath out,
breath in.
*
Many, in plenty, die of hunger;
some among heroes hope to die standing.
How to cross the Great Divide?
Crazy Wisdom, Crazy System.
Where is the jewel? (In the lotus).
Root of the lotus? (Deep in the pond’s mud).
Our Buddha-nature?
quick: please answer.
*
Poet Al Young sez he took himself over,
years ago, from wanting
to giving.
Likewise I tell my baffled students:
“Disappear, you’re in the way—
Everything can’t come right through!”
Hilarious, how they gaze at me.
*
It would be good to start a new project,
say polishing silence an eon or so.
Ah, these occasional Gaps of Unself.
This life-long process of Un-self-ing ourselves.
To be Everything
instead of just One.
Brava, Bravo,
so to solve the problem.
(From Shaping Water by Barry Spacks)