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Meditation news and articles will be posted
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In the meantime, this is one of our favouite
Dharma poems from a great dharma bum -
Rick Fields
THE VERY SHORT SUTRA ON THE MEETING
OF THE BUDDHA AND THE GODDESS
Thus I have made up:
Once the Buddha was walking along along
the
forest path in the Oak Grove at Ojai,
walking
without arriving anywhere or having any
thought
of arriving or not arriving
and lotuses shining with the morning
dew
miraculously appeared under every step
soft as silk beneath the toes of the Buddha
When suddenly, out of the turquoise sky,
dancing in front of his half-shut
inward-looking
eyes, shimmering like a rainbow
or a spider's web
transparent as the dew on a lotus
flower,
-the Goddess appeared quivering like
a
hummingbird in the air before him
She, for she was surely a she
as the Buddha could clearly see
with his eye of discrimininating awareness
wisdom,
was mostly red in colour though when the
light
shifted she flashed like a rainbow.
She was naked except for the usual
flower
ornaments Goddesses wear
Her long hair was deep blue, her two
eyes
fathomless pits of space and her third eye
a
bloodshot ring of fire.
The Buddha folded his hands together
and greeted the Goddess thus.
"O Goddess, why are you blocking my
path?
Before I saw you I was happily going
nowhere.
Now I'm not sure where to go."
"You can go around me," said the
Goddess,
twirling on her heels like a bird darting away,
but
just a little way away, "or you can come after
me.
This is my forest too, you can't pretend I'm
not here."
"Perhaps we should have a chat," he
said.
After years of arduous practice at the
time of the
morning star I penetrated reality, and now
..."
"Not so fast, Buddha.
I am reality."
The Earth stood still, the ocean
paused,
the wind itself listened - a thousand
arhats,
bodhisattvas, and dakinis magically appeared
to
hear what would happen in the
conversation.
"I know I take my life in my hands,"
said the
Buddha. "But I am known as the Fearless One
-so here goes."
Light rays like sunbeams shot forth so
bright that
even Sariputra, the All-Seeing One, had to
turn
away.
And then they exchanged thoughts and
the
illumination was as bright as a diamond
candle.
And there was a great silence as vast as
the universe
that contains everything
And then they exchanged bodies
And clothes
And the Buddha arose as the Goddess
and the Goddess arose as the Buddha
and so on back and forth for a hundred
thousand
hundred thousand kalpas.
If you meet the Buddha you meet the
Goddess.
If you meet the Goddess you meet the
Buddha
Not only that. This: The Buddha is
emptiness
the Goddess is bliss, the Goddess is emptiness
the
Buddha is bliss.
And that is what and what-not you are.
It's true.
So here comes the mantra of the Goddess
and the
Buddha, the unsurpassed non-dual mantra. Just
to
say this mantra, just to hear this mantra once
makes
everything the way it truly is: OK.
So here it is:
Earth-walker/sky-walker
Hey, silent one, hey, great talker
Not two/Not one
Not separate/Not apart
This is the heart
Bliss is emptiness
Emptiness is bliss
Be your breath, Ah
Smile, Hey
And relax, Ho
And remember this: You can't miss.
By
Rick Field
From Risking Everything - 110 Poems of Love and
Revelation
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