This Moment is Already as Lost as the Past

Jeff Andrew

The past, you tell me, must be viewed with suspision.

How can I show you all mathematics is addition?

Take for instance the Buddha:

He sat beneath the lotus tree for 40 days, sustained only by the dew of its blossom.

Do you see that you should be still? That the drink of life should be taken slowly?

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Jesus said
"I thirst."

But back to the Buddha:

He sat.

He never drank enough in as short a time to even have to get up and take a leak.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Jesus rose from the dead.

So,

The Buddha sat and Jesus rose.

No one I know has been able to do either of these things in quite the manner as demonstrated by these two men.

But so many extraordinary phenonama have only one known example

I suppose.

But Back to the Buddha:

He sat for 40 years and he must have missed so much!

His children growing up and his parents getting older and his family being evicted, maybe, because he missed so many mortgage payments.

He missed friends falling in love and raising children and coming and going and growing older and

He sat.

He sat for 4,000 years and he missed:

The beginning of the universe.

The rise and fall of many nations.

The great world wars.

The only award I recieved throughout grade school.

The day I bought my first car -- at a yard sale.

The night I lost my virginity (but so, to be fair, did the only man whom I would have wanted to join me for the occassion).

To continue the list:

The American Revolution

The French Revolution

Pop-rocks
Pudding Pops
Pet Rocks

The end of the universe.

But back to the Buddha:

He sat.

He missed nothing.

No pain, no loss that wasn't his to suffer. He was present for all events

beginning to end.

Do you see that you should be still? That to drink is to thirst, to eat to hunger, to love to lose and that to want is to grieve?

Do you not see? Do you even insist one must have eyes to see? 

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Jesus bleeds.

 

  • Author: Jeff Andrew (Offline Offline)
  • Published: September 18th, 2021 20:09
  • Comment from author about the poem: To me this poem is about the struggle to assign value and meaning to personal experience and how we evaluate time in order to accomplish that. I've studied just a little Buddhism recently and wanted to contrast that message of clarity and inner peace with the passion I remember in the life of Jesus, as I was taught as a youth. Is a still, chill approach to life that avoids pain and suffering best or is it one that acknowledges that and takes the pain and suffering on? Or is it both?
  • Category: Unclassified
  • Views: 39
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Comments1

  • dusk arising

    Interesting to read your words, your questions posed. of course I have no answers to offer but maybe my own life formed opinions. Too lengthy to express here you'll appreciate.

    What a super first post here on MPS from you. Welcome! We're a friendly bunch (mostly) who are priveledged to be able to comment on MPS poets posts which I would encourage you to join in with. Good banter and friendships arise from this and indeed you are most welcome to fire broadsides at anything I post on here.

    • Jeff Andrew

      Thanks for the warm welcome! I\'m having a lot of fun reading the poems here and I do look forward to joining in the conversation once I\'ve got my feet wet so to speak. Cheers!



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