(“Original Sin”, 2016, original pen and ink, acrylic and oil)
Buddhists don’t talk of original sin The way Christians do, But they both talk about the same thing; That in the beginning there was light And the Word, and the missing of the mark. For Buddhists this “sin” is basic ignorance, The ignoring of who and what we are. For Buddhists experience is divided Into two basic categories; Enlightened, or Nirvana, and Deluded, or Samsara. Nirvana is peace. Samsara is suffering. The experience of each are thus polar opposites, But the simple original sin, The fundamental deviance, Is that Samsara arose from the desire To improve Nirvana, our original nature. So Samsara is Nirvana plus desire, The desire to personalize it, Put our mark of identity on what was Already always perfect. To extend the cross cultural metaphor You could say we wanted to give it The mark of the beast. And that’s how we lost the light. (8/16/26)
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