The Teachings of the Buddha
when the others have left
a man wakes from his
stupor finding himself
in the middle of the kingdom
of bhutan in an old hotel room
with a plain brown wardrobe
half a cup of cold darjeeling tea
a piece of plain toast and the
Teachings of Buddha at his side
through the curtains orange and
yellow prayer-flags billow upwards
across the whispering thimpu river
regular white geometry
of bhutanese houses climbing steep
slopes with the cedars and the
dzhong on a distant mountain
against blue
he wonders at his place in the
world and the book
falls open to
When a man is in a house and opens his eyes he will first notice the interior of the room and only later will he see the view outside the windows. In like manner we can not have the eye notice external things before there is recognition by the eyes of the things in the house.
And from a white fog
nothingness begins to take
shape
- rob walker 2008
rob walker is an Adelaide poet currently residing in Himeji, on the coast road between Kobe and Okayama on the Japanese island of Honshu.
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