I’m no ******* Buddha,that’s for sure.Legend has it that he meditated and fasted for months at a time. After one moment he stopped.For me, a meager four days in,that feat might as well be like going to Marsin a paraglider. And my seatbelt is too tight. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work […]
Month: February 2020
Harvest Moon
laced with the benign clarity ofliquefying Moonlightmy Cherokee mother hung rattlesnake skins the same wayher grandmother leanedBull Nose peppers on long fat cedar beams letting go of the softflow of cares and allthat belongs to theCreator
I awoke in the belly of a poem
no one is talking about, not since I stopped believingin the power of words to give birth to my dreams. Like Jonah. Swallowed. Smellinglike krill slime sticking to thewalls of a soft, rubbery bladder,all I can see is the darkness of my ignorance. I grope aroundlike a beetle turned on its shell. spinning around the stainless floorboard.
Replaced
Most of my water escaped long ago too,and which one of us was reallydesigned to withstand the pressure? Slowly filtered through solid rock,the remains are all that remains: pyrite and calcite and Uranium.Armored fish patrolling the depths,consuming the soft, fleshy parts, anddisappearing into the crystal lattice. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. […]
“A Hidden Life”: A Portrait of Non-Violent Action in an Era of Suffering and Spiritual Silence
Filmmaker Terrence Malick’s most recent release, A Hidden Life, takes place in St. Radegund, a rural Austrian municipality of approximately 500 people. Based on a true story, the film follows Franz Jägerstätter, a farmer who takes peaceful action by refusing to swear allegiance to Hitler and to fight in the German military during the Second […]
Vello Vaartnou: A Life Devoted to Dharma
Buddhistdoor Global (BDG): You’ve been living in Australia for some decades now. But you have also spent many years building stupas, 8 of them by yourself, and created original thangkas. How did you balance so many projects with your teaching and practice in Australia?
Hands of Light
can move slabs of sandstone into pyramids, if we want them to. For what pyramid was builtwithout the thought of worshipingforms, in the sky world, thesemortal dreams, these prayers ofthe unearthed, dismembered dreams,annihilated, rapturously cleansedby the invisible drumming of a shaman. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such […]
“Unlocking Buddhist Written Heritage” at the British Library
From 7-8 February, the British Library hosted a conference titled, “Unlocking Buddhist Written Heritage.” This conference featured many veteran names in Buddhist textual studies, many of whom our website has covered and interviewed over the years. The conference was held in partnership with SOAS and supported by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.
Love and Unity Must Rise to Meet Sorrow and Anxiety
I’ve written briefly about my afternoon at World Religion Day in Hong Kong, which was organized by the local Baha’i community. It took place only a couple of weeks before the coronavirus crisis took hold in Wuhan and spread across China and the world. The virus has plunged the global community into a crisis – […]
Search and Rescue
petrified metaphors a crow filledmeadow a barrier like a riverboat looking upat the skyhidden fumesin the hysteria of extinctionsomewhere helicoptered away from the deltathose sharp edges likeshoulderbladesthe land of my bodybreathed overwith floodlights