You need not
be forced
to dwell
in illusion.
You have
rested
a long time.
Rise.

Do you struggle
against
the weight
of birth, age, illness, and death?
There is no way
to know
if you will live
past
Now.

You could be
blown out.
Begin
with death
and find
balance.

Each moment
is not spent.
How we will die?
Beyond our ken.
If you do not find
a way
to trust
without heeding Now,
what point is there to live?

All
are selfless, empty, and free
of category.
When they change
together
they form
a mirage, a dream, a reflection,
a castle in the sky, an echo,
the moon on the surface of a still pond,
a bubble, a trick of eye,
or an untouchable wisp.

You know all things of the cycle
and the extinguished
follow the Way of smoke and mirror.

All things
were never brought
to stand out.
They do not stay or stop,
they do not come or go.
They do not dwell
outside
of us.
They make no mark,
have no thought.
Mark this truth!

Thank what came before!

Alas! How we need
to suffer together,
in pain
from our past
action.

Drowning in the abyss
of our actions.

Such is the cycle!
Bless us, so that
the ocean of suffering
dries up!

How we need
to suffer together,
those without skill,
in pain
from
our priors.
Those who act
toward
their suffering,
even as they want happiness!
Bless us, so that our priors
are dissolved!

How much we need to suffer together,
those who think they know
those who stop themselves
from knowing.

Bound in our fixations,
stuck in separation,
like a songbird in a snare
tightening and caught
again and again!
Bless us!
So that our loops
are shaken.

How we need to suffer together,
those who loop endlessy
in the cycle
of standing out.
As if circling
an eternal toilet flush
in a six-dimensional
toilet bowl of past action!
Bless us, so that we
may not form
priors.

We fearless
We hard-hearted
Despite carrying
so many births,
agings, illnesses, and deaths.

Choosing to be
dragged apart
instead of
moving freely.
Bless us! So we remember Change and Death!

Somehow we forget
that things
are unstable.
Even now
we cling,
we hold on
to the cycle
of standing out.
Wanting happiness,
we carry the heavy weight
of wanting
all our lives.

Our changing environment
will be torn and destroyed
by eruptions and deluges.
The changing beings
within it
will be cut off
from body and mind.
Seasons are change.
Bless us!
So that we suspect
our expectations.

Last year,
this year.
Yesterday,
today.
Waxing moon,
waning moon.
Seconds, minutes,
hours, and nights,
moments of infinite time
all change.

See change,
see death.
Bless us!
So we may face
death.

Though this body
moves with love
and fitness,
when Lord Death arrives
in a mask of disease,
how we need to suffer together,
those who lack
the agreement to learn,
come again, empty-handed!
Bless us!
So we know
we are pressed.

Alas, alas!
You who embody
suffering together!
Since you,
who touch and take,
are blessed
by a loving heart,
bless us!
So we and all our parts
are free, right Now,
from carrying the weight
of the cycle
of standing out!