A narrative poem and a haiku

The other I was reading a translation of something that Kukai had written a thousand years ago and it contained a poem that was used as a dedication and engraved on a large stone at Nikko. As I finished reading the following poem popped into my head in almost exactly the form that it is copied below. I sent it to my poet friend David Gilbey. He kindly sent some comments and a haiku that he said was inspired by reading my poem. If you want, you can read my poem and then David's below. I should note that mine is actually broken up into groups of five lines, but I can not get this blog to accept the blank spaces.

The title of the poem is the Japanese rendition of the mantra that appears near the end of the Heart Sutra (the one we chanted at each of the Henro Pilgrimage temples). Edward Conze translates it as Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all hail! It is this going that forms the narrative of my poem.

Gyatei Gyatei Haragyatei Harasougyatei Bojisowaka

or

A Buddhist Pilgrimage

By Charles Adamson

Across the empty ocean

Waves of phenomena

Break on the distant shore

Flashes of wisdom

Illuminate the great beyond

On this shore, obscurity and light

Mask ultimate reality

Flocks of illusion play in the surf

False views abound

As one, greed and compassion walk the beach

Wise men and fools are indistinguishable

Things and memes arise and die

Chaos, pain, and suffering are

The fate of everything

Is there no escape?

The distant shore beckons me

The emptiness echoing across my mind

Urging me to set out on a pilgrimage

An unmoving trip from here to there

And back again

I construct a transcendental raft

To sail across the void

With a hull of planks from the Sacred Fig Tree

Bound by chains of suffering

And powered by a sail of lotus petals

The completed raft is rough and unfinished

But it needs only to carry me across

I push off into the wild waves

Mindfully, I enter the motionless maelstrom

Intent on reaching the far shore

On the sea the wind blows me one way

The tides propel me in another

At times returning to the near shore

Later seeing the Blue Cliffs of the other

My unmoving mind becomes part of the chaos

In the middle of the void

The Naga snakes arise and offer me knowledge

Kings and Princes offer gold and jewels

Celestial maidens offer themselves

But I press on into wisdom and idiocy

After an infinity of time

Flowing rapidly through the present

The raft grounds on reality

Beaches on the quicksands of immortality

I disembark, leaving my dual mind behind

No need to cling anymore

I leave the raft to drift away

Return is now impossible

The only way is forward

Following the path of men and madmen

My journey is almost over

Or maybe it has just begun

Here on the far shore, the mountains call

High above the final clouds

I climb toward the sun, the ultimate light

Advancing into a mental wilderness

I find the tiger's cave

And by the door sits a sage

A hoary old arhat with a long white beard

He seems to meditate, or is he dead?

Returning from his trip to infinity

He opens his dagger-like eyes

And stabs me with a question

Who are you?

I used to know - I respond

What is the answer - I inquire

With long grey eyebrows all aquiver

He ponders and expounds - mu, or was it mew

A bodhisattva or Schrödinger’s cat?

He could be either - or neither

Numerous footprints enter that tiger lair

But not a single trace of leaving

Multitudes must wait inside

But on entering the cavern

I find it dark and empty

Exiting the doorless void

I find the path again

It is clearer now

The goal's in sight, I feel it near

All ignorance and fear have fled

Finally, I've obtained the peak, I see the light

The brilliance blinds me for a moment

Then my vision clears

And I discover my Zennish outcome

Everything is still the same ... but different

A Haiku by David Gilbey

Alone in Sendai

Charles looks for the infinite

And finds it at home.