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Tag: emptiness

Published July 9, 2025

The Diamond Sutra: sonnet (Spencerian)

What is an unexcelled and perfect light,
and who would recognize that state as such?
To judge it by comparison’s not right,
and once you’re past that point, there’s just not much

to measure with. No real yardstick or crutch
would be of too much use out there, beyond
the realm of seeing, hearing, and of touch.
How could you catch a ripple in that pond?

Quite honestly, too many saints are fond
of these imaginary turns of phrase.
The truth is out there past such simple bonds,
quite empty of both struggle and malaise.

Enlightenment? What do you hope to see?
Once there is no more seeking, you are free.

09 JUL 2025

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Published May 20, 2025

Anybody’s Anything: droighneach

Nothing that is temporary becomes infinite;
each thing’s just a project. It starts and it finishes,
simply an effect of a cause, made of composites
that wax and wane. Being comes and then diminishes.

Everything is empty – it is not separated
although it seems to be neatly subdivided.
It is only by illusions it is frustrated;
in that shadow state nothing feels it is united.

Anything that’s trapped in time’s grip stays motionless;
it is not really living, merely an appearance.
A thing grows to another thing, not quite motiveless,
but only what whole contains it maintains coherence.

Something doesn’t come into being from emptiness;
our busy minds create those lines of separation.
While we glorify our own sense of great sentience,
the world is otherwise engaged in all creation.

20 MAY 2025

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Published February 17, 2025

Emptiness

Our entire lifetime:
a short line drawn in water;
soon nothing remains.
It doesn’t matter what ink
or how much pressure you use.

What seems important
doesn’t leave an impression
in time’s vast ocean.
Each of us is a mirage;
Not even wetness is real.

17 FEB 2025

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Published January 22, 2025

The Lineage of Fog

Grasping our nothing
we try sharing everything;
we are all alone.
Wholeness disguises itself
in the mirror’s reflection.

We hold our nothing
like a vast, sacred treasure;
our fingers give out.
Beyond the edge of owning,
true experience begins.

22 JAN 2025

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Published December 6, 2024

When You Want

When you want to learn
don’t start with what you don’t know;
examine yourself.
Remember, your ignorance
begins at the beginning.

When you want to grow
don’t start seeking the sunshine.
Connect to the ground.
Until your roots are dirty,
you won’t need much chlorophyll.

When you want to love
don’t start with the external.
You won’t find much there
only the same emptiness
reflected in the mirror.

06 DEC 2024

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Published December 3, 2024

So Many Words

So many words for such a thing so small
it barely leaves a ripple at the shore,
and all its no-so-grand comings and goings
are little noticed after, or before.

So brief an episode is this thing life:
a moment’s breath in an eternal now
that being full, is emptiness itself,
containing neither what nor who nor how.

What good is such a nothing span of time?
What works can be accomplished end to end?
Alone, it has no substance to speak of;
it makes no mark to show that it has been.

And yet without it all we have is words;
just rocks that never grow to become birds.

03 DEC 2024

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Published November 27, 2024

Without a Trace

Without gratitude
to season today’s living,
the soup of being
has little or no flavor.
Who would eat such a bland dish?

Without noticing
the beauty of this moment,
a colorless world
clothes our life in only gray.
Who would want such a sad view?

Without compassion
leaking from our open wounds,
life’s armor will rust,
making any movement stiff.
Who enjoys such a forced dance?

Without awareness
of the truth of emptiness,
we become so full
of our own self-importance.
Who finds joy so all alone?

27 NOV 2024

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