Suffering - A Buddhist Perspective

Suffering

Attachment moves like a river that wavers from its middle clinging to stones

swelling pools, which cause the riverbed to crumble.

Being imprisoned in a body and enslaved by thought the seeker presses inward,

asleep unawakened missing the now by the slimmest moment.

Craving sensations absorbing stimulus like a sponge appears to fill the void,

Hollow-eyed wanderer haunted by ghosts of non-existent past and endless future.

Divorcing someone you love, walking away carrying a bucket of broken promises.

Watching a loved one suffer attached to form praying for formlessness,

Lost children interrupted slipping away in a vacuum.

Who’s to blame for raping the virgin, the maiden, the crone allowing them to live?

Despair and joy of letting go has two faces in the mirror,

Starting over imagining something has ended and one must begin anew.

Believing fear seeing a snake in a rope solidifying the discorporate with a concept.

Painful body, heart, mind and spirit begging detachment,

Afraid to die afraid to live attached to the internal solace.

Losing anything not being or having enough, delusions, illusions of grandeur,

Prideful gaining winning succeeding swelling ego thinking I am the Doer.

The sleepwalker suffers off the blindfold so slowly! At what mercy?



Rose Kopp
September 21, 2008