NCF XLV

INSPIRING WORDS FROM THE TEACHER

No guru, no church, no dependency.

Beyond the farmyard the wind in the trees.

The fool by the signless signpost

Stands pointing out the way.

 

Here on the mountain where the path stops

You go on into the snow alone.

Hell’s gate is open and Heaven shimmers in the mirage.

The Great Sky is totally devoid of cloud.

POEM

Only as nobody can I make the start

walking the street, merely the street's images

 

Only as nobody can I respond

to the face suddenly before me

 

Only as nobody am I free

from the chains that forge me

 

Only as nobody can I reach the bottom

of the sea without ropes

 

Only as nobody do I die happy.

 

Only as nobody can I truly live

with you – and you – and you.

POEM

The man in the park

stabbing bits of paper

with a pointed stick

on behalf of the UDC

has the freedom

to let

his mind

go.

 

Envying him

I would like to spend my day among waste papers.

Watching him

my own bilge

swirls away.

he doesn't know

somebody is grateful

TAPPING ON STONES ABOVE PYLLAU CLAIS

Tapping on a fence post with a hillside stone –

suddenly she came

invisible presence

sunbeam through cloud.

 

Look about you now

maybe you'll catch a glimpse

flitting behind grey rocks

or among the grouse chuckling in the heather.

 

Never far away about she roams.

Listen and she'll come to you

Turn suddenly

catch her silhouette upon the crest.

 

Sleeping in the heather

she caresses your cheek with flying mist.

The old Welsh certainly knew her name,

no one hereabouts can say it anymore.

 

Tap tap, stone on wood,

accidentally discovering the secret sign,

knocking on the door of the old king's cave.

Wordless presences, manifestations

SUMMER

Soft summer sounds and sparrow chirp

murmuration of a voice and fleeting cloud,

unfathomed blue, space upon distant space,

so moves the afternoon apace.

 

Insistent tapping, harsh metallic sound

reverberates, the world’s at work,

siesta past, the silence cleaved

the birches are yet barely leaved.

 

Let silence be the way and no digression

stir the mind from higher sleeps –

contemplate upon the bracken slope

whether it’s death, whether it’s hope.

 

The silent room interweaves

creative light with solitude of sky

immeasurable, not understood at all

I sit and beat upon a wall.

 

But is it hope or desolation’s end

that waits when passage past is done?

The wake astern my craft is streaked with sodden straws.

Do I weep or laugh?

LIGHTENMENT

Pausing at the front door

turning back into the garden

for another look

in the gaze of the moon.

 

December twilight

cloudless

beyond silhouetted twigs

grandly she rises.

 

Black light empowers

the onset of frost

fading sunlight filtering

a line of dark oaks.

 

The Old lady climbs above bleak hills

presence of place

clear lights

meeting on limestone nights.

December 2002

ON PURSUING THAT WHICH LEAVES NO TRACKS

From the beginning

there is nothing to be sought. Already within

is the complete solution.

 

There is no sense in travelling.

No sense in seeking to get

from a learned teacher

the wisdom you already possess.

 

No sense in austerity

mindlessly sitting

sifting and searching

for another’s insights.

 

No sense in adopting ceremonies,

rituals, oblations,

doing good just to feel good

trying to reach a destination hidden in the heart.

 

No sense in walking

to reach a goal that isn’t there.

No sense in thinking

to solve a problem that doesn’t exist in thought.

 

All you have to do

This minute is to stop –

turn the mind upon itself.

Draw your sense within

Turn yourself inside out:

Gazing into the lake of awareness

Let what is there emerge from its lair.

 

Let what is there

invade your breathing.

Let what is there

pulsate in your heart.

 

Let what is there

warm your loins, spin in your skull.

What is this anguish of seeking in the future

that which is already lying in the palms of your hands?

 

Right now – you have it. Hold it close.

Look directly behind your own face.

Grasping the monster firm let him be

or he’ll ride you out again along the paths of time.

 

And let it all go!

Fall!

Gone gone altogether gone!

See within the Universe ringing in your ears.

 

Time and space

are simply the ring

through which the Tiger

jumps.

1975