The Way Of Buddhism Poem by Saiom Shriver

Poems To Buddhists Or The Buddha Nature

ISSA

Issa saw from
the great Buddha's nose
a starling fly
Perhaps in the desert
Jesus saw a scorpion crawl
from a skull's eye socket.
An ancient warrior witnessed
a beehive in a lion's dead body.
Woodpeckers live in
selfcarved caves in deceased trees
while birds have replaced
cannons in the windows of the
seaside fortress.
Pigeons of life reside
on the heads of generals
who caused death.
Vines grow out of abandoned
tanks.
Sunlight
clothes a cemetery cross
with resurrection radiance.



A PLACE OF PERFECT PEACE

A place
of perfect peace
slows
world's fast pace
which touches bluefires
of peace
and comes closer
to perfect peace.

All are somewhat
or wholly changed
who enter the
infinite space
in such a small place




BUDDHA IN CHINA

He walked toward
us.. this man born
in 1963 under Aquarius..
.. there was a cloud
of peace around him...
which lifted us slightly
above the ground..
severing our magnetism
with Mother Earth..
so that things of
the world receded..
we knew that he
cared for all beings..
we knew that he cared
for us as well.
He served us in
a restaurant..
the tofu with berry tea
became
bread and wine
in an ancient
sacrament of
initiation.

Some are stars
shining beyond
the cyclone..
the dry place
within the monsoon
.. the warm shelter
in the hurricane
.. the calm center
.. of the typhoon

but Buddhas reveal
to us
that we are all.

ANGKOR WAT

Because he was
truly a follower
of the Buddha..
he valued living
creatures more than
stone deities..
he thought it a greater
sacrilege to remove
the vines which
covered the ancient temples

Because he was truly a follower
of the Buddha..
he would not repair the
roof of the Tibetan temple
.. with the felled pillars
of once living trees

THE WIND'S PRAYER WHEELS

The Buddhist saw that
when his wrist was tired
the Wind came and moved
his prayer wheel for him.

Spirit Breath comes and
goes
and the lung prayer
wheels
move to and fro.


(to Jim Gibbons)

KINDNESS RISES EVERYWHERE

The Tree and Bird Protectors
saw that
windmills and wind
dynamos were prayer
wheels moving in
divine current
.. and that more
and more were making
these dynamos birdfriendly

BUDDHIST WOMAN

Her meditation
brought streams of light
from her atma
.. with them was she
healed
... and auric holes
healed..
from then on her own
aura
was her shield

BUDDHA'S BEGGING BOWL

Buddha's begging bowl
was able to hold juice
because it was not
harmed by desire leaks.

PALI ANNA

In one life a Polyanna
In the next.. polyandry
.. In the next Pali Anna

* (Pali: language of Buddha's
stotras.. Anna: Sanskrit for
food)

MS TRUONG

Oh Ms Truong
floated down Mekong
past jungles King Kong'd
in pinkest sarong

to entempled Angkor Wat
As evening grew long
heard ancient priest Wong
pull torquoise jade tong

to start the bells..
little chimes pingponged
medium bells dingdonged
great drums bingbonged

and sparked memory
of most ancient lovesong
and she remembered
'here once I belonged'.

THE POWER OF EMPTY SPACE

The actionless beauty of
the honeysuckle sparks the
actions of the bees.
The blankness of the page
.. the emptiness of the canvass
.. inspire the pen and the brush.
The desirelessness of the Buddha
awakened the love of his disciples.
The matterless space of the
seashore sky
creates the flow of healing.
The charity of the bighearted one
causes the miracle of resurrected energy.
The release of unneeded possessions
molds a vacuum in which solutions come.


BEGGING BOWL HEART

In the begging bowl
heart of the disciple
of Buddha there are no
written prayers,
for Kuon Yin fills
all his needs without
his asking.

FEATHER BROOMS

Day by day the vine
has crept
While others slept
.. up the trellis
she has stepped..
and where climatis
has for joy
her petaled blooms wept
Buddhists have only
with feather brooms swept


CALYX

The tree is dead
and now its logs
are calyxed
where the firetongues
have licked..
as jewels are by
settings, as
rosebuds are
by green petals.

WRITING ON WATER IN VIETNAM

Those who attempted to
conquer Vietnam's daughters
have cut moonbeams
have written on water.

BUDDHIST CHRISTMAS GIFT

The Buddhist
gave his nonBuddhist friend
a Christmas gift
..a present in wrapping
of maya, with
dawnribbons of streaming
light..
inside was nothing..
the void which births
all wishes
the emptiness containing
all


MOON RESCUE

he thought the moon
was drowning underwater..
he dove in
so great was his faith..
he ascended with her in his
dripping hand









BURIED IN CHICKEN FEATHERS

the statue of the
Buddha Compassionate
is buried
in chicken feathers

(Thailand has killed 34 million chickens
in avian flu campaigns
Thailand is one of the 5 biggest
exporters of chicken bodies
in the world.
It is a 1.5 billion dollar business
Thailand has banned logging.)





TIBETAN INCENSE STICK

Plumes of snow were smoking/
off the high peaks of Tibet..
incense sticks on the mountain
altars to the Buddha.
Eddies swirled in the
mountain streams..
eternal prayer wheels
actualizing dreams.

(to all Dalai Lamas)

SAPPHO WEARS SAFFRON


The white orange blossom
has become the orange orb fruit
and reborn, like California poppies,
Sappho wears monks' saffron



BUDDHA NO PEST

No creature is
thought a pest
in compassionate
Budapest..
so great there
is Buddha's Spirit
in allembracing Budapest.


THIRSTY DEER

The thirsty deer looks
for water.. caring not
for the shape of the brook
nor the size of the pond
.. so the weary soul
looks for love
.. caring not
for the externals
of the cup of the heart



(to all those involved
in the making of the movie The Cup..
a swwet tale of the simplicity,
discipline, love, prayer power,
and nonviolence of Tibetan Buddhist
monks living in India)


PATRICK DUFFY

The film star was approached
and asked
if he would go to a summer
camp nudist..

'No but thank you'.. he said..
' I follow
the dharma path of
saffron clad Buddhists'

(to Patrick Duffy)

DARSHAN OF THE HIMALAYAS


Below the Himalayas..
mountains pure, cool,
detached, clarified is
nestled the monastery of Lhasa
a home of infinite mansions..
and in them live masters
and monks
whose eyes are pure, cool,
detached and clarified.

ORANGE SHOOTING STARS

Looking down from the little bridge
upon
the lotus-spangled goldfish pond
one sees orange shooting stars
and gold comets
as the fish dart beneath
the green lilypad clouds in
the watery unfirmament.

May the waters of the streamfed
pool be very deep
that in winter the fish and frogs
not freeze.

ALL PATHS LEAD TO THE CENTER

All paths
rise and converge into One.
Arriving in the Center
.. those who have no
desire...who love all beings






© Saiom Shriver

to Thich Nhat Hanh Baba said that Buddha discovered 1/2 of truth.. that desire causes suffering, but did not in that life see that ananda or joy permeates all. There is worldwide Buddhist opposition to the violence of the Ariel Sharon regime which is contrary to the Buddha's teachings of ahimsa, or nonviolence to every being. In addition there are Buddhists who take no stance on any political subject. http: //www.dharmanet.org http: //www.ahimsanet.org - End forwarded message - There is debate about the meaning of the Pali sutras as to whether Buddha died of pork in his begging bowl (pig flesh) or pig found flesh (truffles or mushrooms) Maryland prison officials reported on NPR a reduction in violence when vegetarian loaves were given to prisoners...16 million birds in Ohio are imprisoned in Buckeye Egg Farms.. many are featherless or semi featherless. Especially at this time of year when the electricity goes out some freeze to death. They are kept 6 to a cage,3 ft by 1 ft. They live in the constant smell of their own waste.. which has accumulated to the point it nearly killed an Ohio EPA worker. Their stolen eggs represent each one 32 hours of chicken jail, as well as 300 mg of cholesterol, food poisoning generating salmonella, passed through the mother to the chick..120 gallons of production water, ecoli in Ohio streams, toxic insecticides in Ohio streams, unnatural fly breakouts as these insects attempt to deal with the colossal tonnage of defecation. A year ago 1 million died.. half 9 days without food or water survived.. before they were bulldozed alive into graves.. similar to what happened to the humans in Jenin. Millions of chickens have been suffocated alive in summer time from electricity failures which turned their metal sheds into ovens. Please contact the Ohio AG, the EPA, and senators and reps. to shut down Buckeye now.. not allow it to be sold to another abuser. Footnotes: The Dalai Lama: The Only Religion Is Kindness A Place of Perfect Peace is to Thich Nhat Hanh Prayer Wheels is to J Gibbons