‘The burning flames of anger have parched the stream of my being. <br />The thick darkness of illusion has blinded my intelligence. <br />My consciousness drowns in torrents of desire. <br />The mountain of pride has flung me into the nether worlds. <br />The driving blizzard of envy has dragged me into samsara. <br />The demon of belief in the ego has me firmly by the throat.’ <br /> <br />(Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche) <br /> [samsara = the flow of the world] ] <br /> <br />* <br /> <br />Oh Dilgo! You too? And you, <br />high in the snowy mountains, in a thriving monastery, <br />surrounded by devotion, love, study, meditation, prayer… <br /> <br />what hope for me and us, if this is what you find in you? <br /> <br />Then I remember your serene and smiling face, <br />untrammelled, unaffected, giving, and compassionate; <br />your first thought, before and after meditation <br />and the seeking of those light-clouded inner worlds, <br />compassion for the world; as you in turn were taught.. <br /> <br />what hope for me and us, what can we do – <br />but, read this… not with self-loathing, but compassion, <br />the compassion that brought you, too, to write… <br /> <br />and I recall how snow, hanging from a mountain ledge, <br />forms drops of water sparkling in the sun and mountain air; <br />now and then, they drop; join together in a trickle; <br />a little way below, a mountain stream <br />gurgles, laughs upon its way; <br />makes a channel in the rock, splashes from the overhangs; <br />further down below (silent and still from up here, but for <br />a single bird, wheeling, gliding, in the lower air) <br />down below – a mighty river plans to form; <br />how pure its water tastes.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-buddhist-speaks-a-man-listens-drinks/
