| Forest Sangha Newsletter | July 1996 |
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Ballad of Amaravati's Bridge (to the Deathless) On 4th February, the day of Luang Por Jun's funeral, the roof-topping of the Amaravati Temple took place. Samanera Thitadhammo wrote this ballad to mark the occasion. ONE Afternoon and the days grey light encased inside this tapering frame of wooden space A challenge summoning the deathless now stands assembled like a Trojan Horse inside the gates of ignorance in the Kaliyung. TWO An upward sweep - a fretworked Himalayan Peak in anjali a beacon on the undulating Hemel Hempstead tide of furrowed hills - Brooding snowclouds churn - tumbling the skys singing timbers curve and brace as different darknesses of green-leaf and the cuckoos call pattern stillness in a geometric hollow of nothingness. |
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... harnessed to a secret web of music moored to stillness - A spiritual sentinel ... |
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THREE Compressed in cambrian-rings - cohesed to silence now the woodland devas glide - the spirits know: the spirits of the air and fields those of the building site:- the trees and hedgerows here about convene FOUR as southerly - the chiming Namo Tassa wind-bells thread their brass-pearl beads into a bright rosary of flowing salutations - Out of the windstorm over the mist of April bluebells this acorn emissary in shaddowships - a temple to a shakyamuni prince - upholding peace declaring generosity - rejoicing solitude - transcending prayer - we bow - released into the mould of the beautiful |
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FIVE And so from the ebb - and into the flow of preliminary things to be done this tide arisen in the world by the business of men leaves in its wake - a gladiator - harnessed to a secret web of music moored to stillness - A spiritual sentinel - astride the roundstone esoteric alchemy aligning energy-awareness in the cantical of distant OM  SIX The belfry crowsnest sways all aboard - a course is set a flag runs out - its one hand clapping in the wind - an ocean crossing raft is born the victory chant rings out - The leaning tower of forest-oak - embrace to form a pyramid of static dance its silent obeisance points the void - Tugging winds of Dhamma stretch and fill the silhouetted mast billowing the transparent sails of emptiness into the amber throat of twilight as the day goes over its furthest edge into the now eternity When I first came here I was expecting I would have to deal |
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SEVEN Striding columns arch and lock above the Queens and Kings framed on the dark volcanic crystal blaze of sunset - This colossal gift - cradled in fixed form - buttresses loads of shifting stress disciplined onto the fulcrumbeam bound by cantilevered balance imploding-sonic-rapture - ascending on the vaults acoustic shell the hidden song invisible - has splintered into stars EIGHT Alpha Omega bridge into the deathless - a noble treasure granary of prayer to carry those who wish to cross the flood of life so difficult to cross - Ah! full moon of Ajahn Jun - its finger pointing and the trembling owlcall echo - asking - whoo ? |
