Blog PostsFriends | Blogthe Buddha waythe Buddha way I think of the Buddha way as a life path that can, with a little effort, bring happiness into my life and the lives of those with whom I interact. the essence of the Buddha way is kindness. acts of kindness must first be practised toward myself before its positive effects can be focussed outward. I, like many others, yearn for a world where justice and peace prevail above all else. I believe that the practice of kindness in my daily life will stimulate all those I come into contact with to also be kind. here is a brief, unattributed poem that touches both my heart and mind. it is my wish that it also touches yours. "To cease from evil, to do what is good, to cleanse one's mind: this is the advice of all the Buddhas." notes from an ancient wayfarernotes from an ancient wayfarer I’ve been here a long, long time. I’ve felt the howling lash of icy cold winds as they whipped glacial peaks into shapes, and trodden cruelly hot grains of sand that melted into glass after each shallow, abyssal step. I’ve swum across deep, wet wastes so vast that empires rose and fell (as they pridefully danced in fineries too wondrous to behold) with each wide, broad stroke of shoulder, arm and kick of legs behind me. I’ve seen follies. oh yes! I’ve watched species come up and die; so often, to make essays about greeds versus needs lamentable in their frequency. and I’ve seen hungry mushroom-cloud maws that indiscriminately eat everything there is to chew and shit out painful, everlasting anti-life malignancies. if it’s all about sharing to survive, then you better look up and smell the carbon-stench of the ovens that cook the air you and yours and theirs need to breathe to live. species-jeopardy means that there now exist three immediate threats to the survival of your species. greed versus need created them all: radical climate warming does not support life; war does not support life; and over-population does not support life. the evidence seems clear to an ancient wayfarer: as a species, you do not wish to survive. I can say what I’ve seen but they won’t be sweet eulogies composed as threnody lamentations of who was loved or what was had and then lost. sorry, no! no way! from the very beginning it’s always been about fearing your endings. each one of you shivers at extinction’s awful finality! you evolved in paradise and proceeded to heedlessly piss on your own parade of accomplishments because you’ve always been too afraid of each other’s differences to live together as one species, indivisible by race or creed. only the lonelyonly the lonely maybe tomorrow a new friendship can start but that's not the only chance for no more sorrow you've got to take apart. only the lonely know the heartaches you've been through and only the lonely know how much I cry and cry for you. there goes your dream baby, there goes your dreaming heart they're gone forever and far apart, so let’s make a new start. only the lonely know why I cry for you the way I always do, because only the lonely always fear loneliness the way you do. only the lonely think they know the way you feel tonight; and when their hearts break they’ll know why this feeling ain't right. he or she who is really for you is part of a mystery but is also part of human folly’s greatest wish: to not be the only one who is lonely. |