The kind of spirituality I value
is one in which you get great joy
out of contributing to life, not
just sitting and meditating,
although meditation is certainly
valuable. But from the meditation,
from the resulting consciousness,
I would like to see people in
action creating the world that they
want to live in.
~ Marshall Rosenberg
I saw, in the twilight of flagging consciousness,
My body floating down an ink-black stream
With its mass of feelings, with its varied emotion,
With its many-coloured life-long store of memories,
With its flutesong. And as it drifted on and on
Its outlines dimmed; and among familiar tree-shaded
Villages on the banks, the sounds of evening
Worship grew faint, doors were closed, lamps
Were covered, boats were moored to the ghats. Crossings
From either side of the stream stopped; night thickened;
From the forest-branches fading birdsong offered
Self-sacrifice to a huge silence.
Dark formlessness settled over all diversity
Of land and water. As shadow, as particles, my body
Fused with endless night. I came to rest
At the altar of the stars. Alone, amazed, I stared
Upwards with hands clasped and said: ‘Sun, you have removed
Your rays: show now your loveliest, kindliest form
That I may see the Person who dwells in me as in you.’
Consciousness is like a mirror; it reflects. A mirror reflects – it doesn’t just reflect the beautiful or the ugly. If you really look into a mirror, it’s reflecting whatever: the space, the neutrality, everything that is in front of it. Usually you can only notice the outstanding ones, the extremes of beauty or ugliness. But to awaken to the way it is, you’re not looking at the obvious, but recognising the subtlety behind the extremes of beauty and ugliness. The sound of silence is like a subtlety behind everything that you awaken to, because you don’t notice it usually if you’re seeking the extremes.
Beyond
The
Change
Appeared
And left behind
What we had feared
And in this quietness
There is a cloudlessness
That lets us see
Beyond
Our years
~silent lotus
* * *
Celestial
If
You
Had
Known
How we
Would
Have
Grown
Had you
Still wandered
All those years alone
And left me here on my own
For when i looked into your eyes
It was so apparent that we were home
And together as bright as celestial skies
Yet you took a travelers path to find
Silence which remained behind
Was nothing other than
This love which
Is divine
~silent lotus
* * *
Consciousness
In
The
Few
True
Moments
Of worldly loneliness
Do you still perhaps possess
Loves sweet silent consciousness
To calmly wait for life to pass by
For all those who are still battling
The questions and worries of why
~silent lotus
* * *
Divorce
As
Our
Hearts
Divorce
From a chaos
Of the wandering
Worries of the mind
We enter into this
Sweet sanctuary
Of freedom
Where
The
Silence
Of love
Is a
Wisdom
Which is so
Divine
~silent lotus
* * *
Embracing
Yes
For
Certain
When i am
No longer here
My heart shall still
Gently whisper
As the sweet
Sweet
Silence
Appears
Healing
And embracing
The fear you may be facing
In moments of tears
Yet you will find
That this love
Is truly
Divine
~silent lotus
* * *
Eternity
The
Holy
Silence
Of serenity
Is as the love
Of eternity
~silent lotus
* * *
Gentle Wisdom
Has
Your
Honor
Lost all
Its illusions
Have you been
Able to place
Humility
Upon its
Face
For
Love is
Timeless
And knows
Divineness
Has no haste
So let us listen
To the silence
Of its gentle
Wisdom
~silent lotus
* * *
Infinite Heavens
The
Vast
Infinite
Heavens
Call out to me
With the serenity
Of divine love
And its
Wisdom of
Our eternity
As we bathe
In the light
Of silence
And rest assured
That shadows of night
Shall be devoured by
The stars that are
As loves children
So gentle and
Bright
~silent lotus
* * *
Like Weeds
The
Poverty
Of our greed
Grows in the fields
Of wisdom like weeds
And shall never perish
Until the will to refill
The hour of the illusion of power
Is no longer what we so desperately
Choose to cherish
~silent lotus
* * *
Love Awaits
Are
You
Now perhaps
The great cavalier
Who is for certain ready my dear
To relinquish all your fears
For in this silence
Love awaits
Right
Here
~silent lotus
* * *
Meeting
Is this
A chance
First meeting
Or have we known
Each other somewhere before
Are you the silence from within
The love of my core
~silent lotus
* * *
Our Beliefs
Who
Knows
Innocence
What have
We found
To take
With
Us
Other
Than our beliefs
And where shall we meet
When we are beyond time
Regardless if we are
Awake or
Asleep
For in
The one
Vast ocean
Of our hearts
Omniscience
There is no
Beach
Yet
From this
Crows nest
We share the
Pure sweet silence
Of eternal divine love
In the wave of serenity
Which is now within
Our reach
~silent lotus
* * *
Prism
When
We gaze
Into a prism
We shall discover
The light that opens
The door of our prison
And we will infinitely see
With a rainbow of serenity
That love is the essence
Of our core
~silent lotus
* * *
Regardless
My
Child
Is an
Infant
Of creation
And we are all
Regardless of
Small
Or tall
Only
Moments
Of the vast
Sweet silence
Which whisper
With its wisdom
While we listen
To share the
Vision of
Divine
Loves
Call
~silent lotus
* * *
Simply Divine
When
All our
Beliefs are
Simply divine
It shall be one love
That our being defines
~silent lotus
* * *
Sweet Silence
All
The
Faces
Had so
Many
Traces
Yet it
Was
The
Reflection
In the sweet silence
Of my meditation
Which brought
Me here
~silent lotus
* * *
The Bowl
The
Hole
At the
Top of
The bowl
Does not say
In any which way
That it is not
Whole
~silent lotus
* * *
The Key
While
We waited
For freedom
To take us away
From our fear
We searched
The earth
For love
As we
Knew
The
Key
To be
Is the
Silence
Which
Led us
Here
~silent lotus
* * *
The Portrait Of This Passage
As
The
New dawn
Dances silently
Upon the gardens
Of the dew doused
Morning lawn
It draws
With
Its
Light
The portrait
Of this passage
To which we are drawn
For it is loves celestial sight
The timeless wisdom
That is never
Worn
~silent lotus
* * *
Time To Blend
There
Always
Arrives
In all of
Our lives
A joyous
Moment of
Sweet silence
Which notifies
It is time to blend
Into the vast horizon
Of the palette painting a days end
And there we find again our gentle loving eyes
Waiting as these divine peaceful skies
Of the eternal sunrise that is just
Around the bend
~silent lotus
The bell tolls at four in the morning.
I stand by the window,
barefoot on the cool floor.
The garden is still dark.
I wait for the mountains and rivers to reclaim their shapes.
There is no light in the deepest hours of the night.
Yet, I know you are there
in the depth of the night,
the immeasurable world of the mind.
You, the known, have been there
ever since the knower has been.
The dawn will come soon,
and you will see
that you and the rosy horizon
are within my two eyes.
It is for me that the horizon is rosy
and the sky blue.
Looking at your image in the clear stream,
you answer the question by your very presence.
Life is humming the song of the non-dual marvel.
I suddenly find myself smiling
in the presence of this immaculate night.
I know because I am here that you are there,
and your being has returned to show itself
in the wonder of tonight’s smile.
In the quiet stream,
I swim gently.
The murmur of the water lulls my heart.
A wave serves as a pillow
I look up and see
a white cloud against the blue sky,
the sound of Autumn leaves,
the fragrance of hay-
each one a sign of eternity.
A bright star helps me find my way back to myself.
I know because you are there that I am here.
The stretching arm of cognition
in a lightning flash,
joining together a million eons of distance,
joining together birth and death,
joining together the known and the knower.
In the depth of the night,
as in the immeasurable realm of consciousness,
the garden of life and I
remain each other’s objects.
The flower of being is singing the song of emptiness.
The night is still immaculate,
but sounds and images from you
have returned and fill the pure night.
I feel their presence.
By the window, with my bare feet on the cool floor,
I know I am here
for you to be.
This poem is about an insight related to vijnanavada. It is a difficult poem, fit to be explained in a course on vijnanavada. You are there for me, and I am here for you. That is the teaching of interbeing. The term interbeing was not yet used at that time. Although we think of the Avatamsaka when we hear the term interbeing,the teaching of interbeing also has its roots in vijttanavada, because in vijnanavada, cognition always includes subject and object together. Consciousness is always consciousness of something.
From Call Me By My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh
Read more poems from Thich Nhat Hanh