When confronted with the dualism of youth and old age,
why pass one's phenomenal existence in
the merriment and happiness that is born of ignorance.
When the world is set ablaze with the fires of suffering,
why pass one's phenomenal existence in
the darkness of repeated birth and death
when one can spend it pursuing the light of Nirvana.
The physicality of one's body
is as real as any painted depiction of Reality,
giving only a rough outline of what dwells within one's body.
Spending one's time on thoughts
that are just as unreal as a self,
one's body slowly withers away
till there is no external covering and no self
to fill the void that once occupied one's body.
What is known as the network of the senses
is like a well built house
in that the conceptions which uphold
the various levels of the senses
eventually loses all of its glamorized strength,
thus causing one's well built house to collapse
before one knows that it is in the process of collapsing.
Goodness, unlike the externalized goods of Samsara,
does not need to be reborn
since goodness is one of the major qualities of a Buddha.
Without reflection upon the governing principals of Life,
many grow physically but do not grow mentally,
for the mind is seen as a tool
and not so much as a necessity.
Reflecting upon one's numerous lives
spent in Samsara's net,
and having found no self
within this house of a body,
one's house shall never be built up again,
for once the beams of illusion are cracked in half,
all of one's accumulated negative merit will run for shelter elsewhere.
Like worn out bows, the minds of those who
do not enter into the other stream of Nirvana
fall to the wayside, having no one call their own.
by Julian Colgan (Copyright)
Awake to Buddhahood
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