a little piece of truth

i really love this poem — and it is the truth. and maybe you aren't a buddhist — it doesn't matter because these things can be true for all people, all faiths and all-non-faiths. whatever comes into your life to WAKE YOU UP and exhault in your LIFE and all of the wonderful, magical, miracles that surround you EACH AND EVERY DAY — let these things permeate your soul to the point where it is difficult if not impossible to shout hallelujah to your surroundings, to the sky which may be gray and bulging heavy with water or blue and carressed with light clouds. or the light post that stands duty in your parking lot. or that hawk that adds grace and wonder over the field as you drive to work. or the amazing people you have the luck and grace to know in your every day life. there is so much all around us at this very moment. go right up to it and wrap your arms around it tight and thank your lucky stars.

Six Ways to Reconsider Your Misfortune

When illness leads you to practice the Dharma
it makes you more healthy than
any Olympian champion.
Necessarily alone, without distraction, you can see
this unbearable body is really a prize-winning dream,
as first-rate as any illusion can be.
So reconsider your misfortune.
Your illness can be the unbeatable muscle
that wins you the fortune of fortunes.

When poverty leads you to practice the Dharma
it makes you more rich than
any king or tycoon.
Without the false lure of a lot of possessions
to lead you on an endless wild goose chase,
you can find the lost vault of your own naked awareness.
So reconsider your misfortune.
Your poverty can be the golden key
to the natural supreme fortune of fortunes.

When grief leads you to practice the Dharma
it brings you more bliss than
any goddess or god can.
Roused to the melting-down climax of tears
you can swim in the natural flow of great bliss
with no effort at all.
So reconsider your misfortune.
Your grief can be the lover's touch
that turns you on to the equality of pain and pleasure.

When trouble leads you to practice the Dharma
it brings you more peace than
any opium or pardon.
Looking elsewhere for peace you can walk a long road
and not get to the end for a lifetime of lifetimes.
Looking right at the nature of trouble, you're already there.
So reconsider your misfortune.
Is it easier to polish a million mirrors, or shatter one,
to see through an illusion and relax?

When old age leads you to practice the Dharma
you turn out far younger than
a child newly born.
A body acquired in confusion
is old before it ever emerges, while a wisdom body,
never emerging, never ages at all.
So reconsider your misfortune.
Your wrinkles and your hair that fades and this and that that sadly sag
are simply unwrapping the gift of miraculous freedom from birth.

When death leads you to practice the Dharma
you turn out alive in a world of misfortune
again and again.
Having reconsidered misfortune, however,
the prospect of endless rebirth is delightful.
So many beings! So much reconsideration to be done!
So reconsider your misfortune.
It can shine through self-concern like the sunlight through clouds, or dawn through dark.
Happiness, emptiness, no longer two, what a bloody miracle!

— Jim Lindsey
9 November 2003