Poems From The Heartwood
Haiku and Free-Form Poetry From John and The Becoming Buddha Cross River Meditation Center Sangha
(Click On Title)
True Refuge
Ig-Noble Truths
Something Horrible, Something Wonderful
The Archer
Desire – 2 Views – Only 1 Right
Untitled
The Refuge Of The Three Jewels
My Friend Sid
From the Suttas my friend Sid arrived.
It was an auspicious arrival.
You see, I was quite lost, at the time.
Clinging to false dharmas,
No path to the Truth.
Sid said “Look here, not there.”
Where, Sid, Where?”
“Right Here. Right View is Right Here.”
True friends are very rare.
John Haspel
True Refuge
I asked my dad
One day
Why people hurt each other.
With his usual smile, he told me not to worry.
He told me he would take care of me.
Now I’m truly lost.
Dad’s not always here,
But people are.
I asked Sid the same question.
He told me not to worry.
He told me the Buddha, His Dhamma, and a well-informed sangha would always be my refuge.
People are always here,
True Refuge, Too.
Thanks for your care, dad,
Thanks for your wisdom, Sid.
Now I know – NO WORRIES!
John Haspel, Inspired By The Dhajagga Sutta
Ig-Noble Truths
They wanted the Truth
Guru said: You are still broken.
Sadly, no truth here
John Haspel. Inspired By The Ariyapariyesana Sutta
Tough (Self)-Love
IT’S COMING MY WAY!!!!
Have I lost MY mind, again?
What Is The Matter?
IT’S COMING MY WAY!!!!
Well, are the six EVER safe?
Heart Of The Matter (period)
John Haspel, Inspired by the Dhatu-Vibhanga Sutta
Four
Confused by passions
Seek Four Noble Truths, just Four
Once realized, calm, cool
John Haspel
Personal Space
Clinging Aggregates.
Fidelity To The Path.
Unbound, Five Remain.
John Haspel
Becoming (Awakened)
What have I become?
Well, there can be only six.
Nothing Personal!
John Haspel, A six-properties Person
inspired by the Dhatu-Vibhanga Sutta
Bahiya
Bahiya, impatient
He taught him: Not here or there
Bahiya, liberated
John Haspel
Something Horrible, Something Wonderful
I saw something horrible today. A human being did not know
the cause of their distress.
Why not seek the truths, I thought,
instead of fleeting prase and foolish baubles.
I saw something wonderful today. A human being did not know
the cause of their distress.
Should I tell them? Can they hear?
Praise and baubles quickly fade.
John Haspel
The Archer
The Forest
The forest
By design
Does not
Utter a word
For in its silence
There resides
A stillness
that reaches out
beyond It’s highest Limb
To the end of the universe
And to the depth of man
Michael Murphy
Triple Haiku By The Eights
There are Eight, only Eight.
Fools want more, Eight is not enough
There are Eight, only Eight.
~
There are Eight, only Eight.
Fools want less, Eight is too many.
There are Eight, only Eight.
~
There are Eight, only Eight.
The wise released, From more or less
There are Eight, only Eight.
John Haspel, No More, No Less
Finger Pointing
Finger pointing at the moon.
Chanting the one true chant.
Interdependent, Interconnected, Inter-being?
Lineage, Empowerments, Worshipping all the Buddha-Gods?
All things are one, all things are empty?
Is nothingness the goal?
The greater or the lesser path? Perhaps a Middle Way?
Within ignorance, Four Noble Truths emerge.
John Haspel, Not Greater or Lesser
Understanding
A thicket of views
Siddartha disentangled
Now see kind truth. Peace
Rebecca Puglia
Robes Just So
His robes conveyed a gentle authority.
Jacket and tie did too, at times.
His words, hope.
Fabricated dharmas, crazy, consumed by unattended desire.
No wisdom or true compassion here
His actions could only destroy.
Fabricated dharmas, too.
John Haspel
110 / 207 Harrison
Unused for many years.
The Dhamma arrived
Others shortly after
Confused and distracted then,
Well-concentrated, wise and at peace. Now!
John Haspel
Haiku By The Numbers
One. Two. Sixty-four.
Sixty-five? There is more to
life than numbers, no?
John Haspel, age 64
Desire – 2 Views – Only 1 Right
After so many years, so many years,
I finally got it.
What, you ask?
More! More!!
More was all mine
And then… more was gone!
Me too…
After so many years, so many years,
I finally got it.
What, you ask?
Less. Much less.
Wise restraint is mine,
Gone no more.
A mind at Peace.
John Haspel
Untitled
Watch him
As he goes
With
Delight in his eyes
Only to
Be replaced
By sadness
In his eyes
Watch him
As he enters
the fray
Of yet Another
Lost day
He laugh
He cries
Is born again
And dies
And does so
A thousand
Times a thousand
Times
Until
His eyes
Open
For unless
His eyes
Open
He will
Forever
Be lost
Forever
Craving
That
Which
Does not exist
A place
To call
His own
In this
Forever
Changing
World
And who
Is this that
We see
Who is this poor soul
Who struggles so
To and fro
As he goes?
Is it anyone
That
I know?
I don’t think so
So then
Tell me
What you
Already know
He who
You see
Is you
And me
Michael Murphy
The Nature Of Ignorance
Round and Round. It seems I’m stuck. In Me!
Here, and there. There, and here.
I don’t know who or where I am
But, everywhere, everywhere,
everywhere I look, It’s me, again.
Why can’t I ever escape: Me?
Why am I always here, … and there?
What?
Don’t I know?
What don’t I know…
I don’t know that I don’t know!
I don’t know what I don’t know?
I know that I know that I know!
I don’t know that I don’t know what don’t know!
I think…
A feedback loop? Knowing everything yet knowing nothing!?
Can THIS be real? Can THIS be possible!?
Can I not know whatI don’t know?
Can I not know that I don’t know what I don’t know?
Not not-knowing? Nagrarjuna did not know, how can I?
Whta’s the truth? I heard (once) there are Four.
When will I know what I know?
When will I know that I know?
When will I know that I don’t know what I don’t know?
I know, I know… (I said, not knowing)
John Haspel, Inspired by the Nagara Sutta
Not Self?
There are only six!
Wait! Why does six desire more?
From not knowing six…
John Haspel, Inspired by the Dhatu-Vibhanga Sutta
Come-And-See
A 12-link Pain-chain
An Eightfold Path of Freedom
Ehipassiko, friends
John Haspel, traditional haiku
Clinging To Nothing
Confused by his feelings and thoughts,
Siddartha left his father, the King
Wandering here and there,
Teachers taught, Friends were friendly.
Teachers and friends were wrong.
Stuck in wrong views rooted in ignorance. No Way Out?
Finally he found that feelings are feelings, thoughts are thoughts,
and are always fleeting.
Seeing clearly, he could find no self, nothing to call “mine.”
Released from wrong views, Seeing clearly,
Siddartha could find no-thing to cling a self to.
Knowing Four Truths, only Four, feelings and thoughts
arise and pass away.
Peace.
John Haspel. Inspired By The Ariyapariyesana Sutta
Mama(’s) Smells
Mama(’s) smells. Cooking smells, I mean.
Eggplant Parm, Apple Pie, Roast Beef, Sunday Gravy!
How a smell brings remembrance
How a smell brings comfort.
Long gone, her cooking still smells.
Thanks, mom.
John Haspel
Gus the wise(?)
He was next to another when we first saw him, Moira and me.
Gus was sitting tall, snoot up, posing, tail wagging.
The other seemed disinterested.
But not Gus.
Gus was a greasy wheel posing sharply for notice.
We noticed, Gus became Bodhi
A wonderful dog and fair Dhamma teacher, indeed!
John Haspel
The Refuge of the Three Jewels
And let each day find its way.
Julia Gatti
Hindrance Calmed
now, just let it be.
Rebecca Puglia
A Hindrance Known
impermanence now, now. Know…
it’s impermanent
.
American Pies
Jimmy, Janis, Freddy, Jim, and John, Elvis, too
What a difference they could have made.
Abraham, Jack, Bobby, Martin, my friend, Charles.
What a difference they could have made.
All long gone, some would say too soon.
The lrvee is dry.
Who’s here now?
John Haspel
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Sources
My Dhamma articles and talks are based on the Buddha's teachings (suttas) as preserved in the Sutta Pitaka, the second book of the Pali Canon. I have relied primarily on Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s excellent and insightful translation of the Pali generously made freely available at his website Dhammatalks.org, as well as the works of Acharya Buddharakkhita, Nyanaponika Thera, John Ireland, Maurice Walsh, Hellmuth Hecker, and Sister Khema, among others, as preserved at Access To Insight.
Also, I have found Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations from Wisdom Publications Pali Canon Anthologies to be most informative and an excellent resource.
I have made edits to the suttas from these sources for further clarity, to modernize language, to minimize repetition, and maintain contextual relevance to Dependent Origination and Four Noble Truths.
Becoming-Buddha.com and Dhamma articles and recordings by John Haspel are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Peace
