I awoke at 10: 55 Pm <br />I would have preferred 4 AM <br />because then I could have stayed <br />awake <br />and experienced <br />the coming of the dawn, <br />and heard the birds sing. <br />When I hear the birds sing <br />in the darkness <br />before dawn <br />I feel connected <br />to elemental indestructible nature. <br />I become extremely <br />happy at that time. <br />But since it was only 10: 55 PM <br />it was too earl; y to wait <br />I felt the approach of sleep <br />and said: what is better than sleep? <br />and then I became euphoric <br />and thought of infinity. <br />What is there to fear? <br />Not longing for death <br />but no fear, <br />and it was lovely; <br />the cool breeze blowing on me <br />and the groggy eyes. <br />Enlightenment again. <br />Birth, death, infinity- <br />all one like a secret lullaby. <br />I started to laugh out loud <br />Bursts of laughter out loud, <br />over and over <br />and then a word came into my <br />laughter: <br />compassion. <br />And I started to laugh <br />at the sound of that word <br />as if I should have known <br />all along and now that I did know <br />it was all so simple and incredibly <br />true. <br />No doubt <br />And I wondered <br />why I had taken so long. <br />Laughing. <br />Hysterical. <br />Without abandon <br />And the word compassion <br />repeated again and again, <br />fusing with laughter. <br />And then <br />the laughter <br />stopped <br />and I knew <br />when the dawn came <br />I could not keep it, <br />I mean, Enlightenment, <br />the no fear of death, <br />the laughter erupting, <br />the word compassion <br />intimate <br />with every cell of my body.<br /><br />Charles Chaim Wax<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-meditation-on-emptiness/
