[DailyDharma] PEACE IN ACTION: Sunday Evening Quote

[Guest guest]

Dear Gloria -

 

This is profoundly beautiful and I thank you for sharing it. I am

grateful to experience this miracle called life. We are blessed, are

we not, to come together in this wonderful space with all of these

fine friends?

 

namaste,

love,

joyce

 

, "Gloria Lee" <glee@c...> wrote:

> For all the little Joyces of the world...

>

> -

> anipanchen <tracy@b...>

> DailyDharma

> Sunday, January 19, 2003 4:00 PM

> [DailyDharma] PEACE IN ACTION: Sunday Evening Quote

>

>

>

> "For ten years

> we had a beautiful green garden.

> For twenty years

> the sun always shone on our thatched roofs.

> My mother came out and called me home.

> I came to the front yard

> near the kitchen

> to wash my feet

> and warm my hands over the rosy hearth,

> waiting for our evening meal

> as the curtain of night

> fell slowly on our village.

>

> I will never grow up

> no matter how long I live.

> Just yesterday, I saw a band

> of golden butterflies fluttering above our garden.

> The mustard greens were bursting with bright yellow flowers.

>

> Mother and sister, you are always with me.

> The gentle afternoon breeze is your breathing.

> I am not dreaming of some distant future.

> I just touch the wind and hear your sweet song.

> It seems like only yesterday that you told me,

> "If one day, you find everything destroyed,

> then look for me in the depths of your heart."

>

> I am back. Someone is singing.

> My hand touches the old gate,

> and I ask, "What can I do to help?"

> The wind replies,

> "Smile. Life is a miracle.

> Be a flower.

> Happiness is not built of bricks and stones."

>

> I understand. We don't want to cause each other pain.

> I search for you day and night.

> The trees grope for one another in the stormy night.

> The lightning flash reassures them

> they are close to one another.

>

> My brother, be a flower standing along the wall.

> Be a part of this wondrous being.

> I am with you. Please stay.

> Our homeland is always within us.

> Just as when we were children,

> we can still sing together.

>

> This morning, I wake up and discover

> that I've been using the sutras as my pillow.

> I hear the excited buzzing of the diligent bees

> preparing to rebuild the universe.

> Dear ones, the work of rebuilding

> may take thousands of lifetimes,

> but it has also already been completed

> just that long ago.

> The wheel is turning,

> carrying us along.

> Hold my hand, brother, and you will see clearly

> that we have been together

> for thousands of lifetimes.

>

> My mother's hair is fresh and long.

> It touches her heels.

> The dress my sister hangs out to dry

> is still sailing in the wind

> over our green yard.

>

> It was an autumn morning

> with a light breeze.

> I am really standing in our backyard--

> the guava trees, the fragrance of ripe mangoes,

> the red maple leaves scurrying about

> like little children at our feet.

>

> A song drifts from across the river.

> Bales of silky, golden hay

> traverse the bamboo bridge.

> Such fragrance!

>

> As the moon rises above

> the bamboo thicket,

> we play together

> near the front gate.

> I am not dreaming.

> This is a real day, a beautiful one.

> Do we want to return to the past

> and play hide-and-seek?

> We are here today,

> and we will be here tomorrow.

> This is true.

> Come, you are thirsty.

> We can walk together

> to the spring of fresh water.

>

> Someone says that God has consented

> for mankind to stand up and help Him.

> We have walked hand in hand

> since time immemorial.

> If you have suffered, it is only

> because you have forgotten

> you are a leaf, a flower.

>

> The chrysanthemum is smiling at you.

> Don't dip your hands into cement and sand.

> The stars never build prisons for themselves.

>

> Let us sing with the flower and the morning birds.

> Let us be fully present.

> I know you are here because I can look into your eyes.

> Your hands are as beautiful as chrysanthemums.

> Do not let them be transformed

> into gears, hooks, and ropes.

>

> Why speak of the need to love one another?

> Just be yourself.

> You don't need to become anything else.

>

> Let me add one testimony of my own.

> Please listen as if I were

> a bubbling spring.

>

> And bring mother. I want to see her.

> I shall sing for you, my dear sister,

> and your hair will grow as long as mother's."

>

> ~Thich Nhat Hanh

>

>

> From the book, "Learning True Love," by Chahn Khong, published by

> Parallax Press.

>

>

> ________________________________

>

> May all beings be happy. May they be free from suffering. May they

be at peace.

>

> _________________________________

>

>

>