EachOther

[Guest guest]

And Now For Something Completely Different. Recently I saw this

interesting poem in the book Dharma Gaia ..

 

Hope my friends enjoy this tongue in cheek, but deeply meaningful

poem below ..

 

love

 

Col

 

The Very Short Sutra on the Meeting of the Buddha & the Goddess

 

by Rick Fields

 

Thus I have made up:

Once the Buddha was walking along the forest path

In the Oak Grove at Ojai, walking without arriving anywhere

Or having any thought of arriving or not arriving

 

And lotuses shining with the morning dew

Miraculously appeared under every step

Soft as silk beneath the toes of the Buddha

 

When suddenly, out of the turquoise sky,

Dancing in front of his half shut inward looking eyes,

Shimmering like a rainbow or a spider's web

Transparent as the dew on a lotus flower,

 

-The Goddess appeared quivering

Like a hummingbird in the air before him

She, for she surely was a she

As the Buddha could clearly see

With his eye of discriminating awareness

 

Was mostly red in color

Though when the light shifted

She flashed like a rainbow.

 

She was naked except

For the usual flower ornaments

Goddesses wear

 

Her long blue hair was deep blue,

Her two eyes fathomless pits of space

And her third eye a bloodshot

Ring of fire.

 

The Buddha folded his hands together

And greeted the Goddess thus:

 

'O Goddess, why are you blocking my path.

Before I saw you I was happily going nowhere.

Now I'm not sure where to go."

 

"You can go around me," said the Goddess,

Twirling on her heels like a bird darting away,

But just a little way away,

 

"Or you can come after me.

This is my forest too,

You can't pretend I'm not here."

 

With that the Buddha sat

Supple as a snake

Solid as a rock

Beneath a Bo tree that sprang

Full leaved to shade him.

 

"Perhaps we should have a chat," he said.

"After years of arduous practice

At the time of the morning star

I penetrated reality, and now .. "

 

"Not so fast, Buddha.

I am reality."

 

The earth stood still,

The oceans paused,

 

The wind listened

- athousand arhats, bodhisattvas, & dakinis

Magically appeared to hear

What would happen in the conversation.

 

"I know I take my life in my hand," said the Buddha

"But I am known as the Fearless One

- so here goes."

 

And he & the Goddess

Without further words

Exchanged glances

 

Light rays like sunbeams

Shot forth

So bright that even

Sariputra, the All Seeing One,

Had to turn away.

 

And then they exchanged mind

And there was a great silence as vast as the universe

That contains everything

 

And then they exchanged bodies

 

And clothes

 

And the Buddha arose

As the Goddess

And the Goddess

Arose as the Buddha

 

And so on back & forth

For a hundred thousand kalpas.

 

If you meet the Buddha

You meet the Goddess,

If you meet the Goddess

You meet the Buddha.

 

Not only that. This:

The Buddha is the Goddess,

The Goddess is the Buddha.

 

And not only that. This:

The Buddha is emptiness

The Goddess is bliss.

 

And that is what

And what-not you are

It's true.

 

So here comes the mantra of the Goddess & the Buddha, the unsurpassed

non-dual mantra.

Just to say this mantra, just to hear this mantra once, just to hear

one word of this mantra once makes everything the way it truly is: OK.