4Ties Artist Alex Nodopaka reads his poem The Nature of Buddha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0qebBJ433U
Alex’s art piece for 4Ties is here.
4Ties Artist Alex Nodopaka reads his poem The Nature of Buddha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0qebBJ433U
Alex’s art piece for 4Ties is here.
And the cleaned written version. It’s so satisfying to listen to one’s own voice, I feel Buddha!… aha!
Those who have spent ten or twenty years brushing aside the weeds looking for the way and yet have not see the Buddha nature often say they are trapped by oblivion and excitement. What they don’t realize is that the substance of this very oblivion and excitement is itself Buddha nature.
-Kao-feng
The Nature of Buddha
Sweeping the staircase steps
one after the other downward
counting dead leaves
I imagine my arms to be branches
that wrap my waist over and over
with a longer and longer sash.
I imagine myself a fat tree trunk
Assigning the leafy detritus
into the organic compost bin
I imagine myself a fungus.
And when the mushrooms,
delicately sautéed and digested
I imagine a satiated non-deity
squatting behind that tree
trapped by oblivion but thrilled
by Buddha nature.
~~~
Alex Nodopaka