Sunday, May 13, 2012

A Poem: Choreography of Negative Space ...& the Four Vows





Choreography of Negative Space


What is this dance if not a whisper of shape
Tracing words in the dark. A trail of light on film.
A shift of air, as gentle as...

Silk.

Imagination is endless. The shadows we are
Cast ten thousand resolutions, each more beautiful,
Or terrifying, than the last -- wisps that escape
Our confinement.

We sit the universe and the universe moves --

Ancients rise up, stretching
Skin over the drums of time and the bones
Of dreams spent in the building of this

Space.

Without space, the forms collapse
Themselves, themselves unseen.

Each night I light a candle and sit for you.



These are the Four Vows:

Beings are numberless, I vow to free them.
Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them.
Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them.
The buddha way is unsurpassable, I vow to realize it.


...Noticing I'm still walking in circles these days.











Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Shobogenzo Ch20 - Kokyo: Haiku and a Gatha


Eternal mirror —
The caul of our birth replaced
By separation.

The great round mirror
Neither wisdom or reason —
Virtue of buddhas.

The mirror shattered —
Somersaulting, then landing
In the clear-clear state.



At each sound of the bell
Self appears, walking the concrete,
Each step a clear note —
Unobstructed and traceless.