Lojong Poems: Seven

[Introduction]

Lojong Poems: Seven

As you breathe in, take in and accept all of the sadness, pain, and negativity of the whole world, including yourself, and absorb it into your heart. As you breathe out, pour out all of your joy and bliss; bless the whole of existence.

I. I have grieved long enough

I breathe in dust, cobwebs, air that stings
of chemicals, of pain, all of my sadness
and all of the bodies broken and burned

an empathy for the suffering of beings
I have never met, children in Darfur,
in any place where hunger and pain
cause people to regret their birth

but the root is in me, cells closed
to emotion, a heart encased in granite,
hidden from anything that might touch
its tender core, open it to the vicissitudes
of being a soul wrapped in flesh

I took to the cushion for healing, never knowing
I would have to inhale flames, walk across
hot coals, nail myself to a cross :: all of that
seemed so much a fairy tale, not my path

yet here I sit, fire ants of awareness
consuming my flesh, moths in my hair,
beetles appearing from nowhere to pick clean
the bones, as I sit, inhaling all this pain


II. I have grieved long enough

recomposition of elements :: the flesh made
whole in decomposition :: on the out breath
I exhale the light of bliss, cellular
wisdom given in the inheritance of DNA

holding maggots, beetles, and worms
in my hand, I know the origin of suffering,
the fear of death, and I am no longer its prey

a thousand deaths on each in-breath,
but a thousand and one rebirths
on each out-breath

the mathematics of compassion

Tags: Lojong Poems, Seven, poetry, Buddhism, tonglen, breath, suffering, pain