Tag: Buddhist Poetry
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The Perfection of Patience
A Poem When swords and sticks and stones arrive, And cruel words cut deep, The ancient Buddha taught a way For strength that we can keep. They call it Kṣānti—patience— But not the quiet kind, It’s not about just taking abuse Or being meek and blind. It’s “determined refusal to be beaten down,” A fire…
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The Body That Burns Without Burning
They said the old saint lit himself on fire, Twelve hundred years of light, arms ablaze, And I thought: how can I match that pyre With my small hands and ordinary days? The Sutra promises we all can wake Right here, right now, in skin and bone, But if the price is everything I break—…
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The Unspoken Teaching
Beyond the boundaries of thought, where words collapse like waves, the Buddha rises from his samādhi—eyes opening on what cannot be said. Infinite, immeasurable, bottomless—the wisdom that defeats all measure. The śrāvakas stand at the transformed city, satisfied with their small escape, calling provisional shelter “home.” But the depths call deeper still. What skill could…
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The Threefold Crown
A parent’s heart, warm as dawn,But lacking skill, the path goes wrong.A teacher’s mind, sharp as flame,Without compassion, it twists to blame. A ruler’s hand, strong and sure,But without wisdom, power is cruel.Each fragment shines, yet none complete—The fractured crown leaves souls in need. But here within this world of pain,The Buddha walks, the bond…
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The Bow That Sees
I bow to the wanderer, ragged and worn,To the scornful eye, to the heart forlorn.For within your silence, within your pain,The seed of the Dharma sings its refrain. I will not call you lazy, nor lost,For the lotus blooms where the waters are tossed.Your path may stumble, your steps may fall,But the One Great Vehicle…
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The Bodhi Tree Within
In an age of dust and noise,where old roads crack and kings forget,the Eternal Voice whispers—You are not small, nor late. The Buddha is not a fading star,but a sun without horizon,rising through the marrowof those who keep the wondrous law. Sit, friend, beneath the tree already grown inside you.The place you stand is holy…
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🌸 “Rare as the Moon in Still Waters”
I awakened once,when vinyl spun hymns and headlines burned,when the future whispered through wiresand Dharma hid in dusty books.The 70s cracked open my soul—and the 21st century blinked back. Now, here I am,older, stranger, truer—and the Buddha’s words ring louder than ever. He said:“Like a blossom seldom seen,this Teaching blooms once in countless eons.”And I…
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Chapter 7–Journey of Devotion: A Visual Exploration
Then, monks, the great Brahma angels from fifty hundred thousand myriads of universes gathered together, each one mounting their own divine aerial car. They carried with them divine bags filled with celestial flowers, each bag as large as Mount Sumeru. They journeyed through all four quarters of the universe, finally arriving at the zenith. At…
Mr. Altig’s Overview of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sutra 