A Poem On Compassion

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
Because even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second

To be a bud on a spring branch,

To be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,

Learning to sing in my new nest,

To be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,

To be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and cry,

In order to fear and to hope,

The rhythm of my heart is the birth

And death of all that are alive.

I as the man-fly metamorphosing on

The surface of the river,

And I am the bird which, when spring comes,

Arrives in time to eat the man-fly.

I as the frog swimming happily

In the clear water of a pond,

And I am the grass-snake who approaching in silence,

Feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child Uganda, all skins and bones,

My legs as thin as bamboo sticks,

And I am the arms merchant,

Selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve year old girl refugee on a small boat,

Who throws herself into the ocean

After being raped by a sea pirate

And I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving

I am the member of the politburo,

With plenty of power in my hands,

And I am the man who has to pay his 'debt of blood'

to my people, Dying slowly in a force labour camp.

My joy is like spring,so warm it

Makes flowers bloom in all walks of life,

My pain is like a river of tears,

So it fills all four oceans.

Please call me by true names,

So I can hear all my cries and laughs at once,

So I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by true names,

So I can wake up and so the door

Of my heart can be left open,

The door of compassion.

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Vietnamese Zen Master

Homage

Greed is the root of heedlessness,

A cause of strife is greed.

Greed into enslavement drags,

A hungry ghost one will in future be.

The Buddha who greed's nature fully knows

I worship Him the Greed-free One.

Hate is the root of turbulence,

And Ugliness results from hate.

Through hatred much destruction comes,

To an infernal world one will in future go.

The Buddha who hate's nature fully knows

I worship him, the Hate-free One.

Delusion is the root of all this misery,

Creator of all ills is ignorant delusion.

Mind's blindness from delusion stems,

As a dumb animal one will in future live.

The Buddha who delusion's nature fully knows

I worship Him, the Undeluded One.

(A Traditional,devotional Pali Text from Sri Lanka.Source unknown)

He is Omniscient

He Knows All

When the Buddha was on the way to Gaya to deliver His first sermon soon after His Enlightenment, Upaka, a naked ascetic having seen him asked:

'Your reverence, your faculities are quite pure,

your complexion is very bright, very clear.

On account of whom have you gone forth,

or who is your teacher,

or whose Dhamma do you profess?'

The Buddha replied:

'Victorious over all, omniscient am I,

Among all things undefiled,

Leaving all, through death of a craving freed,

By knowing for myself,

whom should I point to as my teacher?'

'For me there is no teacher,

One like me does not exist,

In the world with its gods (devas),

No one equals me'

For I am perfected in this world,

A teacher supreme am I,

I alone am all-awakened,

Become cool am I, Nibbana-attained.'

To turn the dharma-wheel,

I go to Kasi's city,

Beating a drum of deathlessness,

In a world that's become blind.'

Middle Length Sayings 1

Verses 214-215

The Six Perfections Defined

Subhuti: What is a Bodhisattva's perfection of giving?

The Lord: Here a Bodhisattva , his thoughts associated with the knowledge of all modes, give gifts, i.e. inward or outward things, and , having made them common to all beings, he dedicates them to supreme enlightenment; and also he instigates thereto. But there is nowhere an apprehension of anything.

Subhuti: What is a Bodhisattva's perfection of morality?

The Lord: He himself lives under obligation of the ten ways of wholesome acting, and others also he instigates thereto.

Subhuti: What is a Bodhisattva's perfection of paitence?

The Lord: He himself becomes one who achieved paitence, and others also he instigates to paitence.

Subhuti: What is a Bodhisattva's perfection of vigour?

The Lord: He dwells persistently in the five perfections, and also others he instigates to do likewise.

Subhuti: What is a Bodhisattva's perfection of concentration?

The Lord: He himself, through skill in means, enters into the trances, yet he is not reborn in the corresponding heavens of form as he could; and others also he instigates to do otherwise.

Subhuti: What is a Bodhisattva's perfection of wisdom?

The Lord: He does not settle down on any dharma, he contemplates the essential original nature of all dharmas; and others also he instigates to the contemplation of all dharmas.

Pancavimsatisahasrika