(“Citadel of Light Merit Badge”, 2016, original pen and ink)
The Great Debate
The great debate in buddhism
Specifically in ancient Tibet,
Was between the sudden and gradualist schools.
Even though the event is apocryphal
And never actually happened,
It’s a good and relevant story
Because it is the debate that happens to this day
Between students and teachers,
Dharma brothers and sisters
And within our own heart,
Because it concerns the nature of actual enlightenment.
You see,
The two schools view and conceive
The nature of reality,
And thus nature of ourselves,
Fundamentally differently.
The gradual school says life is like a dream
While the sudden school says it is a dream.
Disregard for a moment
The popular row row row your boat song
Which somehow inexplicably
Gave us all in the West
The sudden school lesson,
The vast majority of spiritual aspirants
Are of the gradual path
While only the very few are sudden types.
But the bottom line
Is that everyone is a gradual path type
Until they are a sudden enlightenment type.
(8/11/25)
?A grumpy grandpa (from Greece), gruff and gray,
is grazing on a grain of grass, graceful.
He’s grumbling that the grim grave is growing
greater and greedily greeting his grasp.
The safest road is not always fast,
It will appear sometimes as a blast,
Disguised wolf in sheep's wool,
Naive destination is for the fool,
Journey's end is loss for one's soul,
For it is the fee for the roads toll,
You've made it, you've reached this place,
Dark, desolate and without heaven's trace,
Now you may realize what you've done,
The safest road to hell is the gradual one.
Restless.
Gradual,
Haphazard,
Graced with the dexterity,
With jabs to its sides in the still wind,
With the dance of grey smoke from a pot of incense.
It breezes in the descending direction unto a platter.
A mass of saltwater–as it'd find out later.
The roars of the tides,
The whistles of the wind kissing the oceans surface,
The spirited slaps of the waves,
The ominous boilings in the under caves.
All and all– music of restlessness!
On and on,the dancing leaf on the ocean.
So many of us have been through so much
in these recent years of covid, its been so hard
personally been horrendous with my stammer
so difficult not getting out feeling so barred
It seemed I was stuck in a rut
even when restrictions lifted, words block
but continue to seek the Lord for release
nothing was coming as I continued to knock
When mask wearing was last to go
people didn't make out what you say
it seemed so difficult to be free
crying Lord help me to with you stay
Then in April '22, the Lord came down
in Ireland on holiday touched my tongue
among others there in our hols group
felt ease and calm deep in my lungs
Since then speaking has been nearly new
getting out again to the coffee shop on my own
the gradual loosening of my tongue had came
blessed be my great God, answers my very groan!
(My thoughts on recent personal answered prayer that has turned my life around again by the merciful grace of God.)
everything is eventual then it's happening --
we're moving in circles at a steady pace
the city got new search-lights pointing at the sky
looking for a miracle in the clouds hanging there
worried about the things they've got to do,
like the war on terror, H1N1, your money and it's true
everyone wishes the rain would break
the high tide, the flooding for god's sake
what are we going to do?
with a predilection for an immediate look
from any third eye cave -
i am in that tunnel
i am the rave...
rolling down the main streets
rolling down past the ignored miracle you are
rolling down where you can buy everything
from a gun to a slave
what are you supposed to do at the dead-end
of our collective mind
round and round
neutral flowing and changing every lil' bit
suspended precariously like a platter on a hardrive
a hard hard drive
The rising of April has made its rouse
As the clattering song of a mating grouse
Sweet gentle breezes echoing spring
The morning dove wistfully sings
Sepia fields of unmade soil
Waiting patiently to be toiled
Sleeping bulbs awake to treasure the sun
A new journey of life has began
New born wildlife greet the day
A new generation struggle to stand and sway
Creeks emerge and glisten while passing on their jaunt
Dancing tulips smile with grace and flaunt
A time to cast off a shivery flavor
And salute a season that can be savored
Cold turkey
I bounce off the wall before I step through
Seep through brick
A sudden stop is shocking
And a sudden stop is harsh
The first day is the hardest
It goes on forever
The second day is the hardest
It goes on for ever
Slowly I am wont to slip
And the itching never stops
Slowly moving through this wall I’ve hit
Until I reach the other end
So I can leave my stripes behind
And run
But no matter what, I can’t outrun myself
The third day is the hardest
And the stripes are always there
But once I get past the gradual slow
After the sudden stop
I’ll go faster than before
And maybe I’ll catch up to you
Sweet chunks of sugar,
dissolve inside gradually,
It is nature to do so,
all good things in life must be taken,
as if you were laid back and had them long forsaken.