For Dec 8th

death of suffering

enlightenment renewal
bodhi re-birthday






Dec 8th is the celebration of the day of enlightenment of Buddha.  Happy Bodhi day coming up to Buddhists out there.
In this picture is a huge black sea lion, and a tiny young white one.  My 16 year old son took his two friends and I on a grueling hike 4 miles up the canyon above this coastline. (see "Take Me", last post).  At 50, I found for the first time my knee failing me on the way down.....
hopefully just a wake up call to build up to this by staying in shape.
enlightened,
peace.

photo: P. Spaulding

Rapping with Buddha

What I want now

has nothing at all

to do with anything more

I can do for anyone else

other than myself.

And it has to be more
and it has to be now
and it can’t be for nobody
but for myself.

What I wanted was
never a reality
and never received
and never even asked, for
fear of disappointment.

I've always asked less
and hoped for less
and expected less
to be happy with less…
than what I ever wanted.

Now what I want
is connected to everything
and connected to nothing
but that which I hunger for
and am driven to want.

What is satisfying?
…addiction to wanting
fuels the hunger for wanting
for more than enough,
when life ain’t so fulfilling.

And it will be more
and it will be now
and it won’t be for nobody
but for myself.

Or else I’m not alive,
and I won’t find my path
and I won’t feel like anyone
and I won’t be myself.


Still seething from the turmoil in our community, but keeping my writings to myself.  Here is an older poem filled with agressive drive.  I'll need all the drive I can get, to leave behind Macbeth's "Gentlewoman" and find my center with the Buddha.

To the Point

To the Point

Fog obscures horizon, drawing close the stone arches in surf
-accept struggle for what it is

Ocean waves crash in a sinkhole, splashing like a creature in a vast bathtub
-take joy in the unexpected

Rocky coves precede a rare virgin beach
-love without attachment

A big boulder cupcake
-fill to satiation

Peaks of petrified pilings
-peaceful

Cracked columns form castles
-contentment

Arched caves of symmetrical repeating doorways
-offer compassion for all living things

Confetti flowered hazel hills
-in afterglow

Leave bare skin exposed on paper to the mountain’s clouds
-cool fever burned hands
-
-
(photo by Jillian Standish)