Tag: contemplative verse

• 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—…

  William Altig

  October 9, 2025

  Chapter 23, The Great Teachings of the Lotus of the True Law

  body as temple, Buddhist modernism, Buddhist Poetry, contemplative verse, contemporary religious poetry, daily devotion, doctrinal poetry, East Asian Buddhism, embodied practice, endurance, Enlightenment, faith under persecution, Gratitude, human resilience, Karmic Transformation, Lotus Sutra, Mappō, meaning in suffering, metaphysical poetry, mundane as sacred, Nichiren Buddhism, Perfect Offering, perseverance, philosophical poetry, religious philosophy, sacred ordinary, sacrifice reinterpreted, Shikidoku, Soteriology, Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Resilience, spiritual struggle, suffering and transformation, theodicy

• 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…

  William Altig

  October 6, 2025

  Chapter 2, Chapter 26, The Great Teachings of the Lotus of the True Law

  accessible dharma, acoustic spirituality, awakening poetry, beyond language, beyond words, body speech mind, bridge metaphor, Buddha wisdom, Buddhist modernism, Buddhist Philosophy, Buddhist Poetry, chanting, conceptual attachment, contemplative verse, contemporary Buddhist poetry, daimoku, devotional poetry, dharani, direct experience, Eastern philosophy, Ekayāna, emptiness and form, enlightenment poetry, esoteric Buddhism, Faith and Practice, ineffable truth, interfaith spirituality, liberation poetry, linguistic transcendence, Lotus Sutra, Mahayana Buddhism, mantra poetry, Medicine King Bodhisattva, meditation poem, mindfulness verse, mystical poetry, Nichiren, Non-conceptual wisdom, non-dual awareness, One Vehicle, philosophical verse, protective incantations, provisional and ultimate, Religious Poetry, ritual poetry, sacred sound, sacred syllables, samadhi, silence and sound, Skillful Means, sonic meditation, sound as path, spiritual folk wisdom, spiritual poetry, Spiritual Practice, spiritual resonance, teaching beyond teaching, Three Karmas, Tiantai, Transcendence, transformation poetry, Upaya, vibrational teaching, wisdom tradition

• 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…

  William Altig

  October 2, 2025

  Chapter 17, poems, The Great Teachings of the Lotus of the True Law, Uncategorized

  awakening poem, blues folk influence, Bodhi Tree, Buddhist Poetry, Chapter 17, contemplative verse, Dharmakaya, Immediate Enlightenment, inherent buddha nature, inspired by lotus sutra, Lotus Sutra, maitreya ajita, Mappo, meditative poetry, modern dharma poem, Nonduality, poem, porch front wisdom, spiritual poem, World of conflict