Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor tradition; nor rumor; nor what is in a scripture; nor surmise; nor axiom; nor specious reasoning; nor bias towards one’s beliefs; nor upon another's seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, 'The monk is our teacher.' When you yourselves know: 'These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,' enter on and abide in them.
Shackled and chained
Desire is Imaginary
Cravings extinguished
Meditation fills the dawn
Dharma fills the mind
Tested daily on the yard
Shots don’t see me
Whistles don’t hear me
Shanks don’t feel me
Silence amongst the noise
Calm within is mine
Can’t take my peace
Drama rises and falls
Like everything else
Let it pass and it will
This is a poem I wrote for the Prison Sangha Newsletter that I co-edit, which is a newsletter that links the outer Vipassana Santa Cruz sangha to the inner prison sangha at Soledad and Salinas Valley state prisons where a number of us act as volunteer chaplains by going into the prisons to teach the dharma and sit with brothers in meditation.
ReplyDeleteIt is my hope that the poem will inspire the brothers that are locked up there to view their prisons as an opportunity to deepen their practice as though they were in a monastery rather than as a place that makes them suffer.
-Metteyya Brahmana
Your hope will come true.
ReplyDelete-Chandrika