YCQ #10: Om

Good evening, my children. The time has come once again, that special time when we stop to meditate on the omissions of the past and the looming shadow of deadlines to come. Today we celebrate this time of the month by the ritual of the yellow card question, when I reach into that fabled stack of digital question cards, and enlighten you with random bits of wisdom.

The theme song of the hour is 轮回 (Reincarnation) by 盛噶仁波切 (Singa Rinpoche), a Tibetan lama and living Buddha.¹ Calm your mind by listening to him chant.



I don't understand the lyrics, but I think there was more to that song than a mantra. How am I ever going to reach enlightenment when they make such complicated poems for meditation?

Okay, so now that our minds are at one with the universe, it's time for the yellow card!



And the teacher replied to the student, "Tweet tweet!"


1. Did you know Steven Seagal is a living Buddha too?

planted things

humanity has subdued the earth --
plowed it under, paved it over,
permitted things to grow
only where they are planted.
trees, like fences and lane markers,
grow in straight lines.
cholla and yucca and poppies
grow only in forgotten plots
hidden in canyons, fenced off.
i ask you, who asked the palms
to grow where they do?
the eucalyptus trees and junipers?
no one.
each plant --
the eucalyptus and the poppie --
grows where it finds itself,
takes root in the dirt it's given.
there is a certain wisdom there.
but i think i'm glad
i'm not a plant.

Vogon poetry

See, see the anxious sky
Marvel at its big puce depths.
Tell me, Biker do you
Wonder why the horse fly ignores you?
Why its foobly stare
makes you feel drowsy.
I can tell you, it is
Worried by your vlegoromious facial growth
That looks like
A cream cheese.
What's more, it knows
Your pulcritude potting shed
Smells of paramecium.
Everything under the big anxious sky
Asks why, why do you even bother?
You only charm feets.

Okay here is another good one

(I finally found it, beeker)
Here are the first two of "Seven Poems of Joy Amid the Fields", also by Wang Wei.

I leave through the mass of gates and doors,
Passing among the villages to the north and south.
In the city hall, does the chatter have a point?
On Kongtong Mountain, who has unkempt hair?

When I return, you let me rule over a myriad households.
When I report before you, you give me a pair of jade plates.
But no! this keeps me from plowing the southern acres.
What is like that which lies high in the eastern view?

And the last of the seven:

Pouring wine, I may look down upon the brook.
Clutching a lute, I will lean against a tall pine.
In the southern field, the dew-covered sunflowers turn towards the dawn.
In the eastern valley, they will be grinding grain by nightfall.

This is a Field and Garden Dream

So I was going to paste in a poem that would explain the field and garden dream, but I couldn't find any one poem that would do. But here you can read a bunch. And here too.

Okay fine. Here is one poem.

Fields and Gardens by the River Qi (by Wang Wei)
 
I dwell apart by the River Qi,
Where the Eastern wilds stretch far without hills.
The sun darkens beyond the mulberry trees;
The river glistens through the villages.
Shepherd boys depart, gazing back to their hamlets;
Hunting dogs return following their men.
When a man's at peace, what business does he have?
I shut fast my rustic door throughout the day.