Reflective Glory

(sent to Luang Por [Sumedho] from Thailand in June 2007)

When the one who knows still listens
Like a still jewel that glistens
Turning the light of awareness back within
It fills the present full to the brim
With richest, silent meaning

Past and future are no more
Virtue steps to the fore
And suckling turns to weaning
For craving’s children

They will try to drive us on
Or pull us back
Until we take up the slack
Finding again the gold thread
The meaning both of the dead
And of the living
Both of loss and of giving
Shame and forgiving

For there is the hope of eternity
For the purest spirit
Forever beyond past and future
Securely in the refined pasture
Of the love and space
Of the grace above

There we give up all we have
And no longer desire
To quench the fire
Of need
The seed
Of suffering
Such is our release from form
The cramped focus
With its binding hocus-pocus
The unholy thinking
That is forever sinking
To gather like glue
And stick us into the zoo
Like a petty crook
Into a boring book

And when there is no need
We sow no further seed
To grow and fade
In this perilous glade
And we live not on need
That spinning wraith
But on faith.
The collective Glory
Of the Lord Buddha.

This reflection by Ajahn Kalyāno is from the book, Devoted to Luang Por, (pdf) pp. 10-11.