Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Heart Sutra

Earlier today, in an attempt to help a friend on her path, I looked again to my center for answers. On the train home from Portland Friday last, I wrote a poem that seemed to apply to my purpose today:

Considering the past
As through a future filter
I see only impermanence.
As a tree is to a forest,
so is a building to the city;
my cell to my blood;
my blood to my body;
my smile to your laughter.
Wonder to possibility,
possibility to reality.
We're all one -
Connecting -
Inseparable -
Forever and never,
Permanent and transitory.

As I re-read what I'd written, it seemed clear to me that it was an attempt to express that which the Buddhist Heart Sutra expresses so eloquently. In searching for a concise and accessible form for my friend, I remembered how moved I always am by the scene in Little Buddha in which part of the Heart Sutra is recited. "Form is emptiness...emptiness is form."



"No hindrance of thoughts and therefore no fear..."

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