Noble Truth
Truth visits some days
twirling her hair and
gracious in her half smile,
but flinging wide her cloak
to concede what lives within:
Suffering--
that dry and rattled leaf,
pale eyes cracked and
blue as aged porcelain,
weeping a pale mist.
Maybe you feel her wintry hand
brush the clenched fist of becoming
and sense the easing of a cramping grip.
Maybe you waken, then,
in this holy perplexion
where the letting go runs
to both ruin and salvation,
and you find yourself not
marvelous or divine, but
a shade more delicate,
a trifle more worthy,
in your servitude
to Suffering.
Buddha’s four noble truths are… the truth of suffering, the cause of suffering (clinging), the end of suffering (relinquishing), and the path to the end of suffering (the noble eightfold path). Buddha's teachings of non-clinging and suffering have always dogged the central musings of my life, Helen's essay "Suffering" tops my list of favorites (though I'm sure that's true of many here) and a calligraphy of Joan's hangs near my bedside and serves as a reminder on anxious nights: "Demand Nothing; Refuse Nothing - all Opposites are of God." I've always had a feeling that if one can get close to understanding suffering, truth is not far behind.
Jo Marie Thompson
February 20, 2020
at Kevala Retreat for Apple Farm
Truth visits some days
twirling her hair and
gracious in her half smile,
but flinging wide her cloak
to concede what lives within:
Suffering--
that dry and rattled leaf,
pale eyes cracked and
blue as aged porcelain,
weeping a pale mist.
Maybe you feel her wintry hand
brush the clenched fist of becoming
and sense the easing of a cramping grip.
Maybe you waken, then,
in this holy perplexion
where the letting go runs
to both ruin and salvation,
and you find yourself not
marvelous or divine, but
a shade more delicate,
a trifle more worthy,
in your servitude
to Suffering.
Buddha’s four noble truths are… the truth of suffering, the cause of suffering (clinging), the end of suffering (relinquishing), and the path to the end of suffering (the noble eightfold path). Buddha's teachings of non-clinging and suffering have always dogged the central musings of my life, Helen's essay "Suffering" tops my list of favorites (though I'm sure that's true of many here) and a calligraphy of Joan's hangs near my bedside and serves as a reminder on anxious nights: "Demand Nothing; Refuse Nothing - all Opposites are of God." I've always had a feeling that if one can get close to understanding suffering, truth is not far behind.
Jo Marie Thompson
February 20, 2020
at Kevala Retreat for Apple Farm
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