 |
Poems by Dr. David Brazier (Dharmavidya) …
Dr. David Brazier (Dharmavidya) is the founder and leader of the Amida-shu
Pure Land movement in England.
I, Gutoku
Gracious Genku,
I, Gutoku, do discern
Has made a startling turn
And found what’s true.
This is not a message for the few
But something all can learn,
But most will not concern
Themselves with something new
For long; therefore, my task must be
To build a bridge from ancient ways
To where my teacher found his tree
And on the morning star did gaze;
A work of love that all may agree,
And, in simple faith, the whole wide world amaze.
14 December 2007
________________________
It’s Nembutsu
“Residual karma is finite”
A storm does not blow all day
Take shelter for a while
Whether afflicted day or night
There is always one thing you can say
To make your guardian angel smile.
14 December 2007
(The quote is from the Buddhist saint Honen in a work called “Jodo-shu
Ryaku-sho.” The nembutsu is the practice of calling the name of the Buddha
Amida. This practice is said to encapsulate all other religious observances
in a single six syllable prayer.)
________________________
Kshitigarbha and the Dead Children
Kshitigarbha bodhisattva
Loves the children and their mothers
Even when they die.
It is easy, you know,
To slip back out of this world
Into the seductive comfort of death,
But seduction is deceptive
So Kshitigarbha is on guard
For the wraiths of children
Drifting toward the cauldron.
Like an anxious mother himself
He scurries ahead
Closing as many doors as he can.
Sometimes a mother is desperate or reckless enough
To send back her child
Even before it’s born.
These are a bodhisattva’s special concern -
Priority duty
In his eyes.
Kshitigarbha bodhisattva
Is full of compassion - he’s kind.
Modern medicine and contraception
Have given him some respite,
But the number of beings
Continues to spiral.
His heart is set
On a paradise for all
Where his services will be unneeded.
In that land
There will be no dead children
And Kshitigarbha
Will rest in peace.
14 December 2007
(Kshitigarbha is the Buddhist celestial being who protects mothers and
children, wayfarers, and those who have fallen into hell. In Japan called
Jizo, he is one of the most popular cult figures and small shrines to him
can be seen at crossroads and in cemetries all over Japan.)
________________________
The Mentor
When I come here I feel calmer.
When I came before
It made me drop
My bloodied knife, let go my armour;
Though I am still sore,
It made me stop.
When you listened, when you heard me,
Opened your heart and
Received mine too,
I felt a peace in which to be
Still, in which to stand
Still, as few do.
When you understand, when you know
Me and all my bale
And make it light,
It heals the bruise from any other blow,
Or sharp betrayal
That grips my sight,
Such as has held me in its
Slavery too long,
Sent me to ground.
You found the word, which, as it fits,
Transforms my dire song
To lighter sound.
So here we walk together in
Refound morning star light
Dawn’s silver soul.
You who know the depth of my sin
And think it slight
Have made me whole.
Date unknown
________________________
My Goodness
Why is it so hard to be good?
The straightforward mind is wonderful yet
As soon as I contemplate it’s simplicity
Urges instantly arise
Reminding me of my non-buddha nature.
My friends will say,
“Even this is buddha nature”,
For my friends are clever chaps,
But it cuts little ice with my victims.
Both think I should live
Discerning my shadow
Without acting upon it
- A tall order indeed!
Though I do my best
There is always slippage
And often enough
It is not my best anyway.
That’s why I love you
Honen old friend
For you are the only saint
Who ever understood me.
14 December 2007
________________________
Retreat
Up on and above Strine Moor
There seem a million grazing sheep,
White bundles in a desert of green.
This was the time
Of my ten day retreat
In December
After the public retreat was ended.
In the cottage
I am safe
From human contact.
Delicious days
Dining on emptiness.
Venturing forth
Along the muddy track
Leading to the lake
There’s not much risk.
I can avert encounter
By going down to the stream
To watch the brown water
Dance by.
Suddenly a man with a dog
Appears before me
Passes in haste
Greets me in passing
And is gone.
He was the only one I saw
Up on Strine Moor
Among the sheep
Who continue to erode
The green.
11 December 2007
________________________
Sage Invasion
I keep trying to stop reading
The words of the sages,
But they have moved into my space
In a big way and I can’t get them to go.
Old Shinran is cooking my dinner
With me while his master
Sits in the rocking chair
By my fire, beads in hand.
They have taken over my house.
Bencho is arguing about something
With black robed Seizan
Over by the door.
What a querulous lot they are too!
How many nembutsu
Are you putting in that soup, Zenshin?
One will do, don’t you think?
I must say, I thought
I’d get a bit of peace
But it was quieter before
This gang of chanters moved in.
So I’ve given them notice
Written in triplicate
But Ippen just shredded it
For fuda.
Well you can’t eat fuda, or can you?
Maybe it’ll be fuda noodles all round
From now on, until
We all go to see the boss.
Hell, they’re not too bad, I suppose.
I knew I shouldn’t have used that word
It’s just started them all going again.
It’s enough to make you take up
Religion.
Namo Amida Bu.
15 December 2007
________________________
Saint Honen and I
In the nembutsu
Time and distance disappear
Saint Honen and I
Are knee to knee
As I sing to him
He sings to me
All the day through
We hold each other dear
In the nembutsu
Amida is already here
Shoulder to shoulder
Saint Honen and I
Are happily singing
Ready to die
For every word is true
And there is nothing to fear
14 December 2007
(Based on a passage in “Juroku mon-ki” This poem and the previous one have
too many Buddhist allusions to explain them all in a footnote.)
________________________
Mandala Always Turning
The mandala of Buddha, it turns and turns and yet,
Yet turning all the while it passes silently unseen,
For silence passes far beyond the din of our regret,
Regret that strangles all that’s good with hands that are unclean.
With unclean hands we walk this world,
This world of strife and clamour;
With clamourous vices the straight becomes curled
And the curled are restraightened under fate’s hammer.
He too has a hammer whose fall is pristine
Whose fall is not our fall, but a call to abet,
To abet all that’s good, though our hearts remain mean,
For the heart has a meaning that will out even yet.
The mandala of Buddha, it turns and turns again,
It turns our folly into love, and makes us Westward gaze,
Gaze far into the West where dwells something entirely sane,
Its’ sanity, its’ charity, grace rising through the haze,
The haze of our delusions, suddenly to clear,
A clarity so shattering its distant light draws near
And nearly drawing to us it melts away fain fear,
The fear of shame, of loss of all the things that we hold dear,
So dearly do those graspings cost, with which we fill our days,
Days filled with aimless wandering along a winding lane,
A lane so wound that only He can fathom our malaise,
Malaise that stands but a fathom tall yet turns to Him again.
The mandala of Buddha they say quenches the world that burns
And I am burning with that world wherein there is scant calm,
For scant as my means I yearn to find the oasis where one learns
An oasis of respite in the desert of regret, a shade beneath the palm,
The palm, the promised cornucopia of bliss,
A bliss that’s ever so remote, a hint of a promise,
A promise of a promise of a promise of a kiss,
The kiss of the opening sea divine off the coast of Salamis,
Sweet Salamis whence goddesses come decked with soothing balm,
A soothing I am needful of, being one who nothing spurns,
But nothing needs more desperately than help in my alarm,
The mandala of Buddha it turns and turns and turns.
10 December 2007
________________________
25th January
Through Kyoto streets in the dark night they stride
A hundred black clad chanting priestly men
As if that olden time had come again
When great Amida’s Name could move the tide.
With all their strength of voice they now confide
The holy Name that means more than men ken;
A thousand times they call it, not just ten,
And march to mark the sage who died.
For this is the day in late January
When saintly Honen’s body met at last
It’s secret cremation amidst the wary,
For still the persecution had not passed
But all the gods and bodhisattvas came
To thank the sage and give him utmost fame.
19 December 2007
(In 1207, the practice of nembutsu -- worship of Amida -- was banned by
Emperor Go-Toba at the instigation of monks from Mt. Hiei and Saint Honen,
its advocate, was exiled to Tosa on Shikoku. Subsequently, he was pardoned
and returned to Kyoto. He died in 1212. In 1227, however, monks from Hiei
tried to exhume his body to desecrate it to prevent his resting place
becoming a pilgrimage site and so his followers took the body to Awano and
cremated it. On the night of 25th January each year nowadays
there is a ten kilometre pilgrimage along the route his body was taken.)
________________________
We Shall Rise Again
Our bodies are as enduring as mist,
Our love as stars;
Yet mist regathers at the kiss of morning
When the great star rises
Over the waters
Of that land.
15 December 2007
________________________
Queue at the Sage Door
“How are we to find
true faith in the nembutsu
when the mind is dull?”
“By saying nembutsu
and not worrying your mind.”
“How can I quickly
purify my stubborn heart
so my prayers are real?”
“Say your prayers and worry not
Whether your heart is sickly”
“Will I be heard?
How should I call out to Buddha
To be sure he hears?”
“Just know the hearing took place
Before you said a word.”
“But dare I mention...
How can I be quite sure that
I am not deceived?”
“It is your uncertainty
That attracts His attention.”
“When will my doubts cease
And my heart rise in glory?
When will I succeed?”
“We who are doubters are those
Singled out for the great peace.”
“By what sign or mark or show
Can I be sure of being saved?
How will I know that?”
“When you see that you are a fool
And ordinary, you’ll know.”
“Can I do for you
Something to win your respect?
Your affirmation?”
“Since I approve already
There is nothing you need do.”
“I am in your debt
For all your wise instructions.
I’ll do as you say.”
“Go your way in peace, my friend,
Don’t fret, just be glad we met.”
15 December 2007
(These eight verses, written after reading a translation of Gose
Monogatari kikigaki, are in tanka 5-7-5-7-7 form with, additionally, a
rhyme on last lines.)
________________________
Though You Are Gone
How I love you
You that hide from me
You who show yourself by hiding
Only confiding
That what I cannot see
Is love that’s true.
I cannot throw you off
Try as I do
For you are hiding everywhere
Even here within my stare
Hiding within me, not you,
Hiding even in those who scoff.
Frost this morning
Has turns the meadow white -
I appreciate the fire of logs.
Out there the old dogs
Fight
While pigeons sing.
Do they know you?
The raging beasts?
“No lower destinies are there
In that realm of tender care”
But only sumptuous feasts
For the true.
Yet were they not
“Expressly made
That the Dharma melodiously sound”
Around and around
The palisade
Of what I think I’ve got?
For love is also hid from me
Behind the shadow of my walls
Self-made
And paid
For with blood and balls
Until you set me free.
So I will carry on
This hide and seek
And trust myself to thee
For though blind, I see,
And peek
And know you...
though you’re gone.
12 December 2007
________________________
Muni Eyes
Flash your eyes for me
Old muni eyes
Ever young and lightning bright
You old lover of love
Flash your eyes
Like you ever did
When I was an old young thing
Of seven going on thousands
Recalling the brightness
Beyond the clouds
Flash your eyes
25 May 2007
________________________
Vulture Peak
The bodhisattvas came to Vulture Peak
Enlightenment for all the world to seek
They found the one who showed the light and truth did speak
Completely perfect Buddha
Om, Ah, Hum
They bowed and asked the Holy One to teach
What must be done by one who peace
would reach
With bated breath they waited then
to hear his speech
Completely perfect Buddha
Om, Ah, Hum
He saw their hearts were full of silent zest
His smile was warm as he praised their request
He is the one who can release all of us best
Completely perfect Buddha
Om, Ah, Hum
|
|
