4/25/2022 selections read in support of Bob, Jan and our sangha loves who are directly caring for our Dear Friends. Excerpts from Thay’s book, Call Me By My True Names, p. 70, poem written in 1956, “Let Us Pray for Darkness O Sparkling Stars”:
At sunrise we will be able to see
sparkling streams of morning light
flowing down from the top of the mountain….
Remain amazed and in wonder….
Return to the place you came from.
If one day, you need me,
and I should be absent,
please listen deeply to the murmur of a spring
or the thunder of a cascade.
Contemplate the yellow chrysanthemums,
the violet bamboo,
the white cloud,
or the clear, peaceful moon.
All of them tell the same story
I tell the singing birds today.
This marvelous song you hear this morning,
little birds…
These lotus flowers that calmly perfume the air
reach upward from the muddy pond.
I am here…
waiting for you.
