By Sajeeva Samaranayake –
Sajeeva Samaranayake
Worldly currents that solidify
Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha
Are simply worldly currents
They are not
Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha
To see things as they are
You have to get into
No man’s land
Become nobody
Not another becoming, but
The end of all trips
Giving up your last possession
To regain your true identity
This is our original state
The ‘state’ we lost
The nation we lost
The religion we lost
The independence we lost
All our problems are other human beings;
All our solutions, External Gods
From condoms and net nannys to facebook, twitter
Human rights and all other mod cons right down to
Buddha and beyond –
Each and every one of those is an External God.
External because they are separate from us and
Gods because they are absolutes we take refuge in.
These are Gods that save us from
The bother, of taking responsibility for our own lives
Hide your emptiness
With statues and flags
Symbols and words
Be a Buddhist
Don’t ever let go
Hide your emptiness
With knowledge and conventions
Technical jargon
Stand up for human rights
Don’t ever sit down
Both of you are empty
As the road to Mars
Your fight is a dream
Wake up! Wake up!
Say this prayer
You to me are everything
You to me are nothing
Love is everything
Wisdom nothing
Dance, dance in between
Darkness
Brings its own Gods
To rule us
From within
Be distracted
For a while
With their artificial
Lights and shades
We are all the same
But some of us keep
The silence
Detached from the flow
See all things end like
Old leaves
Falling from a tree
Over and over again
You are either with us or against us!
Said George Bush
We got Bin Laden!
Said Barack Obama
You must die!
Said Anders Behring Breivik
Don’t play
With fire
What started there
Will burn here
Non separation is
The law
Say goodbye to all these thoughts
Face the universe alone
Then find that you are
Not alone
Find that you are
Everything
Ideas overlook human beings
Human beings ignore ideas
Theory differs from practice
Ideals don’t meet reality
Welcome to
The way things are…
Winning at violence
Did not make us more intelligent
True intelligence
Is non violence
Asokan equality
Fearlessness of four lions
Conquering emotion
Ever present – facing the future
Without a backward glance
There was no war
There is no peace
All these are but – conceptualized illusions
Generalizations you don’t know
Unite with what is
Unite with who you are
Everything comes to zero
So draw a zero around
All your smart calculations
Nothing, nobody ever became one
In this interdependent Universe
So set this ‘one’ free
Don’t put limits to your limitless capacity
If you become One
How would you say ‘Buddham saranam gachchami’
How would you follow Buddha
Into the land of zero?
Safa / April 4, 2013
Buddham saranam gacchami (I go to the Buddha for refuge)
Dhammam saranam gacchami (I go to the Dhamma for refuge)
Sangham saranam gacchami (I go to the Sangha for refuge)
The Third refuge is Sangha, which means a group of the Noble Beings, those who live virtuously, doing good and refraining from evil with bodily action and speech. Taking refuge in the Sangha means we take refuge in virtue, in that which is good, virtuous, kind, compassionate and generous. Taking refuge in the Sangha means performing virtuous deeds and refraining from evil both with bodily action and speech.
Let us hope that the majority of the Sangha will reject hate and violence and preach virtue to the followers of the great religon.
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gamini / April 4, 2013
Siddhartha Gauthama or as Lord Buddha never wrote his autobiography. There were times he was all by himself in meditation developing his intuitive mind. For this, he had to rid the excess energy in his body. The time that he reached enlightenment he was just skin and bone. He took food only to keep his body and soul together. Today looking at the Sanga from the size of their bodies they will never reach Nirvana for sure. Then who wrote the Buddha charithaya, (his biography)that is freely available? It could not have been by Gods as stated as there are no Gods according to his Philosophy? Further the pansil recited by those calling themselves as Buddhists, Did Lord Buddha coin the verses? No. Then who did it and where is the register for all who claim to be Buddhists, to be registered so? If I am to take to robes tomorrow, I do not need any Nikaya’s permission or be ordained by any other. It is my right and freedom and I would do so renouncing all worldly desires and there after this body will not even belong to me, as there is no ‘me’.
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Desperate_Lanka / April 4, 2013
Very correct: after all this.
“Today looking at the Sanga from the size of their bodies they will never reach Nirvana for sure”
I have the feeling our HAMUDURUWOS in general have become similar to those of Thai today. There is no seela in them – at all. It is all hamuruwos have got bad company with Gota and the ilk.
Normally I liked it to organize DANA each time I was back in the country, but from last time on, I thought to give DANA or anything similar to the homes for aged/kids.
If these monks with giant bellies could help chanding the society, we the buddhists rethink of giving DANA again to them :))
Else, it is better to offer those meals to the animals.
I respect Theros like Ambare Amila and Baddiya – if one would listen their speeches (preachings) you can have a better picture about the reality of the country today.
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Wuliangguobinjiu / April 4, 2013
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sumi de silva / April 5, 2013
The word BUDDHISAM was created by the british to fill a form called the birth certificate, untill such time it was a way of life. 500 years of occupation denide us of the legacy of our ancestors. However the BUDDHA very clearly states the barren nature of dwelling on the past but to build our individual journey through samsara the knowlege is within us this is what we mean when we say Buddham Saranam gachchami we make the commitment, the effort to walk the path of the Buddha.
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Ajay / April 5, 2013
Becoming
It flaps its wings
in the shimmering rays
Unknown unheard unseen
It flies in the limitless sky
The wind caressing its feathers
It sees its shadow
making a trail
on the ground below
Soon it descends
to join the shadow birds
[Lines written by Ajay on 5 April 2013
in appreciation of Sajeeva Samaranayake’s
poem Darkness Brings Its Own God]
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