Monday, July 14, 2014

BODHI OF BUDDHA



THE LAST LOTUS

Unable to reach for the lotus throne any longer
I wake from my meditation to see I am ringed by fire.
I wonder how much life has been consumed
to bring this fire to me while I was

deeply touching the cool universe

A prefect circle of flame consumes more life still
as it draws nearer to my soul,
my body feels the heat without concern.
Slowly the flame circles me, touches me,

crawls up my skin.

I feel the pain within the licking fire of all it has squandered
before it chars my mortal flesh, burns my breath as I inhale.
Wick like I burn from the outside in; without smell
my skull bares itself and I rise in my karma to see

from where the fire has come.

I see the earth fully blistered,
a deeply scorched wasteland
I understand that the flame
brought its ring of death

to me last of all.

My punishment is fair and true.
I am left with my sight dying
to see the end of all that was adored by me
destroyed by me and my indifference

to all but my own growth.

Smoke am I now, looking down on ash.
No breeze to move me away from this sight
of my love gone away before me.
I have lived my life, eyes closed believing

that harmony ruled all as it once did my spirit.

I rose from
my past enlightenment.
I am now.
I see now.

Before my birth I began the fire that consumed my mortal world.


I am now nothing
but
the smoke of life
wasted.

© M Durfee
7.14.2014

10 comments:

  1. so that is where you have been...meditating...

    well, i think you have showed a lot less indifference than most actually..but it is our careless-ness that will burn the world...and i think most all of us can take part in that blame....

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  2. Very nice piece, man. Your lyricism showing through here.

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  3. Your words, your life, are the farthest thing from wasted, dear!


    ALOHA from Honolulu
    ComfortSpiral
    =^..^= <3

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  4. You are much like me ... i too studied and studied and still study ... you with me, my lovely detroit man? Attachment is the root of all evil ... i know that if i'm not attached to anything, i am dead ... but still even then my physical remains will stay attached to this earth in some shape or form ...

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  5. So many wasted lives, lives doing nothing, producing nothing, contributing nothing! Great to hear your fine words again!

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  6. There is a fire that burns and one that cleanses for a new life ~ If all we do is just light and burn away, then one day we will be consumed as well ~ Happy week Mark ~

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  7. I dig it, man ~! This triggers a memory of another Buddhist dude, Jim Sanford, in Tar Heel Land, his doing demos with candles ~ where does the flame go once put out? And, where does the flame come from before it's lit? Pretty cool demo, I thought. Ashes, fuel, light . . . moksha, nirvana. repeat

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  8. Mark, I seem to meditate most successfully on the boat. It is my tree house. Clearing my mind is much easier now that I am no longer actively working in my career. Yet, I am still bombarded with stuff. Going off the grid fully seems to be getting harder and harder these days. Yet, that is where peacefulness lies.

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  9. You, and Johnny Cash, and the Carter Family.

    But I don't think you own an Appalachian dulcimer. :)

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  10. Mark, meditation can be an escape or open more doors of thought. What you think of just amazes me. You draw conclusion where I would never be able to! xo

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So Walking Man I was thinking...