Samsara Poems - Poems about Samsara

(Dzachuka Tibet, summer of 2017) The Madness of the Crowd and Other Popular Delusions The crowd is always prone to madness Since reaction as a herd in danger Demands conformity without reason. The fact we live in a time of madness Is nothing new or unusual, Relative Reality after all being Merely a conspiracy of relatives. But sometimes it seems it’s all now extra...

Continue reading...

(“Original Mind”, 2017, original mixed media encaustic) Tathagata and the Paradox of Being There is no death in samsara Unless you are in samsara… Mind is free and always has been free to bind and enslaved itself Perhaps first in play or accident But then eventually in habit. Mind is like the sky Open and accommodating And ultimately unhindered or blemished In any way by...

Continue reading...

The day after my Aunt Ro died a doe approached within a few feet as if confused about where she was and what she should be doing. I could neither comfort nor advise her. I let her be not considering until later maybe I had witnessed the transmigration of a soul. But in the end I applied Ockham’s razor— you rarely see what...

Continue reading...

("How to Hold Love", 2019, original oil) Carpe Diem This life Precious from conception Right on through till death; Each moment a chance to break on through To the eye within the storm The center of a cyclone Of endless delusion and confusion, Struggle, and despair, The heart of peace That is only, always, peace. Seize it now With a mind of joy; The simplest action The...

Continue reading...

("Exploded View", 2011, original oil) Complicit in the Lie Everyone you meet Is complicit in the lie That this is what’s real (12/29/23) ...

Continue reading...

("Conceived in Light", 2017, original encaustic) Conceived in Light On this wheel of life The man of constant sorrow Plays illusion's game (11/4/23)...

Continue reading...

("I of the Beholder", 2014, original pen and ink) The World Is Changing Quick as thought The world is changing Right before our eyes Everywhere People waking up To what needs to change What can be done Because finally We have the means To do Or at least try. Quick as thought People waking up To the need to correct Age-old injustices To the disadvantaged...

Continue reading...

Feeling something’s not right a general dissatisfaction or persistent fundamental flaw I look inward for a cause. Dr. Hubris, at your service! Self appointed, to discover, diagnosis and cure the very footsteps he makes in the wilderness of Psyche. But what he finds is the same basic ignorance he always finds, an ignorance at the core of it all so basic there is no...

Continue reading...

("Bristlecone", 2016, original pen and ink) Samsara Beneath the titillation of Samsara the veneer of morality waits. Or is it the opposite? Beneath the veneer of morality the titillation of Samsara awaits. Either way, it’s the same thing, the whole damn mess being one giant game of seduction. But that sucking sound at the heart of seduction…. pulling us in to a void that's impossible to avoid the force...

Continue reading...

Once again, worn out From the simple act of living Blown out of all held dear Waves come and go Stretching across time and space A tragic loss here A triumphant gain there And still the waves come Lapping at a shore That is time itself Manifest in a million little grains Lapping as I lay exhausted Too tired to think, too tired to feel Anything...

Continue reading...

No matter what you do in samsara in the effort to improve samsara, improve yourself, improve others, it’s still samsara. All effort, all improvement, never leaves the wheel, but that doesn’t mean there’s only the wheel. The wheel is what spins, ever-changing, the embodiment of impermanence, but what it spins in spins around, spins for, is another story altogether. (8/19/23)...

Continue reading...

Master Longchenpa’s heart advice is simple yet profound; that everything we perceive is our mind’s projection, and thus delusion, that everything we experience is in flux, temporary and not solidly real, and thus illusion, and that the path forward is one of letting go, lightening up, being less heavy and serious, more easy come, easy go…about it ALL. This is the path...

Continue reading...

I know I done it all before. I just wish to do it all, once more....

Continue reading...

You gleamed brighter than glorious sunlight ...

Continue reading...

Our Buddhist alllies, co-immigrants moving away from samsara, like Abrahamic Westerners, NorthWesterners and MidWesterners and East-West Earners, emigrate toward nirvana-- secular illusion evolving toward sacred enlightenment, natural delusion revolving into spiritual prelusion, Yet we have this climatic problem of pathology, win/lose evil corrupting ZeroSum energy systems, power networks, regenerative empowerment. Genesis narratives speak of empowering Eden, then the Great Unraveling, Win/Lose decay into samsara, left-brain dissonant dominance, Either EgoMe or eco-you, RightBrain nirvana win/win recession awaiting remission Of a wise...

Continue reading...