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2022, 7*, assertion, Bodhisattvacharyavatara, career, death, elements, empire, identity, leaves, life, mother sentient beings, others, pain, prayer, space, statement, trees, twigs
“…and may the great elements…”
they lay on me
the twigs that grew so wilfully
asserting a different direction
the plethora of leaves
endless bickering of state-meant
and chatter
and here and there
a fallen tree
carcass of some vainglorious empire
of some untold career to behold
(look away, look away);
they all create new space
now their demand and strife
are finished
awaiting the final crunch
come, come to me my darlings
there is so much more that you could be now that
you have matured
the title is a clip from the prayer of BCA III, 17-22: “And just as the great elements – earth, water and so forth – support the life of sentient beings, so may I too become the foundation of sustenance for all…”
————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–
career wormhole: c’mon – keep up
death & trees wormhole: Journey
identity wormhole: paisley // implicitly
leaves wormhole: ‘and is there homage …’
life & space wormhole: the inevitable tock // when we close our eyes
others wormhole: the simple prayer // the tattered poem // the bitter lament
mlewisredford 
Fantastic. I guess we all assert our will, our “vainglorious empire,” till that “final crunch.” I really like the fourth stanza, especially “create new space.” And I’m very intrigued with the last stanza, though I don’t fully understand it.
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Interesting: I spent some time in the garden today, cutting up some trimmed branches so that I can fit as much into the bin as possible, reversing the reach that they originally made from the parent branch when they were growing, searching for light … searching for identity away from the parentage that birthed you, which creates space within which one can assert oneself distinct from ‘other’, and when multiplied by untold billions of trillions of gazillions of beings … into an infinite universe of innumerable space(s);
the whole of the poem is ‘voiced’ by the element ‘earth’, the ground from which all life trunks and branches, but then also the voice of the Bodhisattva endeavouring to be that ground too; the ground that will take them back once they have got their ‘wilfulness’ and ‘sense of identity’ out of their system (unless they have become so attached to such that they want to enter some self-obsessive cycle of being) such that they can then enter a higher level of being without the myopaeia of self-identity … I dunno
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That’s fantastic. And heady. And mind expanding. With all the talk of the multiverse and all the identities that go with it. I’ve yet to delve into Buddhism directly, but maybe it’s time to change that.
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I read the explanation you provided to Bob, and now I’ve forgot my first impressions on this one.
I believe it was of the wayward growth of individual lives, the wayward bent of the twigs who grew so willfully and wildly, not having yet reached maturity. And the leaves (I see them bright green in their chatter and “state-meant”[the willfulness and futility of communication]), and the vainglorious trunks. And all falling down into disarray, no matter the strife and bickering, no matter their endless number…chaos, infinity (of number and time), and the cycle that won’t quit.
And then that final crunch…seems desolate to me this morning, but yet not so. There’s an element of Ecclesiastes that I’m feeling this morning:
“Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.”
Wisdom literature from King Solomon’s time or thereabouts. The funny thing is, I just did a bit of research on Ecclesiastes, and found that “vanity” was once translated from the Hebrew as “vapor” or smoke. Further, the word history of vanity is the Latin ‘vanitas’ which means…emptiness.
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oh yes to the “wayward growth of individual lives”, just so; the reach and grope for self-identity, which often requires self-assertion making not only unecessary space, but also boundaries to define over which to fight, all just so much “vapor” and “emptiness” of the “vanities”; the ‘voice’ of the earth (element) is the voice of the calm mother letting all the children play out their serious nonsense so that they can then settle on growing up
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