Like a Buddhist

[revolutionR]

a poet is like a Buddhist
but what is like that
what in this world is like sitting
in a zero, I will start in the middle
of the nothingness and begin the poem

if you were a follower of the Buddha
and you sat in his circle and listened
to his words, the ones nobody wrote
down until years after he passed
try to imagine how the universe
flowed from his words

how did we get from there to here
do we get the words of the Buddha
from a book, on any case the word
illusion how ever it is translated
from the language Buddha spoke
is at the center of his message
or this is what we must consider

if we start from the notion that all
is illusion, we can then begin to shed
light on the distortions and convolutions
that have plagued the human race
poetry comes into this situation
to try to show us how illusion works

poetry is not a religion nor is it propaganda
poetry is not the teaching of Jesus or Buddha
because these teachings have been around
for awhile now, and religions have not saved us
and propaganda is thicker then ever

poetry is not trying to save us, we really don't
want to be saved to only be enslaved again
the Buddhists are not trying to save us
but they are trying to teach us about our condition
so we may remove the obstacles to enlightenment
the poets do not subtract from that project
but the poet is about the revolution of words
going around and coming around
eternally

[Doreen Peri]

Yes! Poetry is a Way .. just like Buddhism. This is terrific, Craig!

[saw]

I agree with Doreen....astute connections are made that warrant consideration....perhaps Buddhism and Poetry are merely different approaches to tapping into the collective consciousness.....

[revolutionR]

Well, the Beat poets were attracted to the Buddhists, Allen Ginsberg thought of himself as a Buddhist. The thing about Buddhism is that it's not the western religions that are at each other throats in the name of God. I'm not sure if Tibet was better off before Buddhism or after it, but the Buddhist teachings to me seem to me to be coming from a deep connection to nature, like the natives of this planet. It is very complex to understand how all the different Buddhist sects evolved, but they seemed to have very profound knowledge about what was healing and liberating to humans.

[Arcadia]