Samsara and the Circle of Life
The Asian version of Life
Is of a wheel that endlessly spins
Rotating in kaleidoscopic scenes
Of beings in realms
Trapped by their karmas in endless suffering
Endless until it, of course, ends
Which is what all things must eventually do.
In the West the dominant view is now
Of an endless cycle of Life
Where we don’t actually become anything
After we die, just a nutritional building block
In the ecological web of growth and decay.
It’s a rational seeming world view,
But one devoid of soul.
On the whole these two views compliment
And complete each other;
Soulful and soulless
To give a sense of life on the wheel.
But the truth is neither are complete,
Together or alone
Because neither sees what lies beyond the wheel.
Of course, they say eternity and annihilation respectively
But what is the it that endures or dissolves?
And if it endures was it ever really trapped?
And if it dissolves was it ever really existent?
Somewhere between is the middle way
Free of extremes and labels,
Free to simply be, what is, inherently ineffable.
(10/12/25)
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