These poems are small teaching of the way of the Buddha
Out from the north of India
The way was cleared, by
The awakened one
Gautama.
Life is what it is.
Giving birth to emotions
like winds that topple
or if harnessed fill the sails
Of the ship of the eight
Fold path –
Right
Views
Thoughts
Speech
Actions
Livelihood.
Mindfulness
Meditation
Turing the wheel of the teaching
Taking us to the other side.
2. Buddha Statues
Showing the way
Buddhas on the altar
– sill just stone.
3. Incense
Before the altar
Deep bow
A blue ribbon of incense
Rises in front of my eyes –
Namo amitabhaya
4. Flowers
children chasing
butterflies, little Buddhas
In a field of poppies.
Soon to be covered in snow
5. Candles
I light a candle
Place it on a table
By the window
-Dark windy night.
6. Hands together
Hands together in gassho
All beings one with me
Bowing
Namu amida butsu
Namu amida butsu
Namu amida butsu
7. Buddhist Beads
Mother, father,
Brother, sister,
Friend, stranger
Flower, tree,
Mountain, Ocean,
each a bead passed
through my fingers
One at a time,
One with me
while chanting
The Buddha and we are one.
8. Lotuses
From the mud
the white lotus
even whiter.
9. No Sin
Missing the mark
Or Off center,
Buddha centering
wisdom.
10. Impermanence
Falling blossoms
Feed the trees roots-
Children picking cherries
Shits stained red
like their parents’ were
not so long ago.