A poem from Monk Ryokan ( 良寛 )

    Yo no naka wa

    nani ni tatoen

    yamabiko no

    kotauru koe no

    munashiki ga goto

    Our life in this world -

    to what shall I compare it?

    Its like an echo

    resounding through the mountains

    and off into the empty sky.

Translation by Steven D. Carter:

Half Empty of What?

If I am holding a cup of water and I ask you, "Is this cup empty?" you will say, "No, it is full of water." But if I pour out the water and ask you again, you may say, "Yes, it is empty." But, empty of what? . . . My cup is empty of water, but it is not empty of air. To be empty is to be empty of something. . . . When Avalokita [Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion] says that the five skandhas are equally empty, to help him be precise we must ask, "Mr. Avalokita, empty of what?"

The five skandhas, which may be translated into English as five heaps, or five aggregates, are the five elements that comprise a human being. . . . In fact, these are really five rivers flowing together in us: the river of form, which means our body, the river of feelings, the river of perceptions, the river of mental formations, and the river of consciousness. They are always flowing in us. . . .

Avalokita looked deeply into the five skandhas . . . and he discovered that none of them can be by itself alone. . . . Form is empty of a separate self, but it is full of everything in the cosmos. The same is true with feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.


--Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding

Awake awhile.  

It does not have to be
Forever,
Right now.  

One step upon the Sky's soft skirt
Would be enough.  

Hafiz,
Awake awhile.
Just one True moment of Love
Will last for days.  

Rest all your elaborate plans and tactics
For Knowing Him,
For they are all just frozen spring buds
Far,
So far from Summer's Divine Gold.  

Awake, my dear.
Be kind to your sleeping heart.
Take it out into the vast fields of Light
And let it breathe.  

Say,
"Love,
Give me back my wings.
Lift me,
Lift me nearer."  

Say to the sun and moon,
Say to our dear Friend,  

"I will take You up now, Beloved,
On that wonderful Dance You promised."  

~ Hafiz ~      

(I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz -- Daniel Ladinsky)      

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