Difficulty: A Hard Thing to Do

In the absence of effort
There is no rest.
To feel rested
One must first make effort

And to feel like one is applying effort
One must rest,
Otherwise how could one
Distinguish between the one and the other?

Likewise, in the absence of clinging
There is no relief.
When clinging ends
Relief ends;

As long as relief repeats
There is clinging,
And with clinging
There is greed, hatred and delusion.

The easiest thing to do
Is the hardest
When the clingings take hold,
One after the other;

They dance before
The mind’s eye
And have to be recognized
And defeated one at a time;

As soon as one is identified
Another pops up
In a seemingly endless sequence
That soon grows tiresome

And then fatigue and irritability sets in
And I get caught in the itchy agitation
Forgetting my resolve,
Falling into mindless frustration.

Differentiate: Just Another Point of View

As the weather closed in again,
The feeling arose of
Having emerged from a place
Where I couldn’t see my hand
In front of my face;

There’s a sense that
I have just traversed a great darkness
And have now returned to light,
Not that the darkness ever left of course,

No, no,
It’s still here too,
And all I’ve done is
Change my point of view.

From here I have enough light
To see both in relation to each other,
And the wisdom to know
That this light isn’t me either,

To identify with that
Would be equally hazardous,
As then I’d think the darkness
Was something, “other,”

When it’s just as legitimate or illegitimate,
Has as much a right to be or not
As what I am calling, “light.”
There’s no need to justify either one,

It’s just a matter of
Which side’s on display,
Which to cultivate
And which to accept;

To relate skillfully to each
Is the task,
To neither disappear into one
Nor dissolve into the other.

Didactic: Lessons from the Ordinary

Preparing a late meal,
I open the fridge,
Removing a large package of extra old cheddar cheese,
A loaf of bread, a tomato and red pepper;

Two slices of bread go onto the plate
And three strokes of the knife
Creates three slabs of cheese,
Which I break in half and lay onto the bread,

Then inserting the bread and cheese
Into the toaster oven, I put it on
And slice up tomatoes and peppers
To add later;

I watch the cheese melt,
Listening to mechanical parts heating
And cheese sizzling
Before the bell goes announcing it’s done,

Not unlike the bell
At the end of meditation
Signaling the sitting practice
Has finished,

And when the oven bell rings
I open the door
To remove the toasted bread and cheese
And put it back on the plate,

Adding slices of tomato and red pepper,
Curry, onion, garlic powder and black pepper,
Producing a delicious mix
In which I delight,

It’s so amazing
How easy it is to be pleased
With this simple activity
And the basic necessity of eating.