Solitary and heavyunder the unseated saddleof an infinite sky, Immortality is a ruthless harvester of data: an endless string of half breaths from the last remaining virgin pine. Covered in a bright burst of December snowfall, the sunstruck diamonds smile back. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as […]
Sending Loving-kindness
“Did today’s guided meditation session make your mind happy and peaceful?” I asked this question to Chan Oi Wan, an undergraduate student who was enrolled in a minor course offered by the Centre of Buddhist Studies (CBS) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU). The course was called Buddhist Psychology and Mental Cultivation. 200 undergraduate […]
Swept Away
Swept away.That boy.Out to sea. Taken bythe storm. His motherdid not loseher grip. Her fingerswere his body. She clung withwhat she had. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry Journal, Chronogram Journal, Ampersand Literary Review, the Angle at St. John […]
A Measure of the Disorder
It’s ancient Egypt andscarab beetles, too—aneternal recurrence oflives to come nevermore.It’s the narrownessof the trail and the bottomof Avalanche Pass, a dotgleaming like a glatial tarnand the glitter of a river inits entirety. Time. Deep running time. Clinging to cliffs.The edge of a black hole, andimaginary numbers. Whereall space and matter collapse. George Cassidy Payne is […]
Buddhist Media: Jesco Puluj’s Search for Paths Less Travelled
What does it mean to be a follower of the Buddha’s path? The Enlightened One was, after all, the Prime Wanderer, the First Monk. His life, no matter how shadowy from a historical perspective, defines how we see Buddhism and its subsequent presence in human history. In theory, he is not really unique at all, […]
Moral laziness, vegetarianism, and government intervention
This month Thomas Wells, a philosophy professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, offered a plea for more active government intervention in our lives. He couches his request in the language of ethics: particularly his own moral laziness. He writes: Some years ago, for instance, I worked through the arguments around animal rights and decided […]
Mayadevi and the Concept of Eternity
Descent from Heaven. From rigpawiki.org Mayadevi gave birth to the prince Siddhartha Gautama in 563 BCE (other possible dates are 560 BCE, 564 BCE, or 523 BCE). The Vedic gods Indra and Brahma were witnesses to the birth. The presence of these two major gods from the Brahminical pantheon serves as evidence that it was […]
Squawking about climate change
When I was in Australia recently, a good friend—someone I know to be very well informed as well as very generous—accused me of “squawking” about climate change, and of being one of those people who go around trying to frighten people by talking about a coming apocalypse, while ignoring the fact that as much is […]
Blue Mountain Jewel
Plunged intothe crevasses of alove untrammeled,you are my BlueMountain jewel,my wind-scourgedbase selected bythe elements. Burnished with slow infrared heat, youroriginal grace is liketiny iron grommetsholding my turbulence. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry Journal, Chronogram Journal, Ampersand Literary Review, […]
Find Your Tree
By George Cassidy Payne Find your treeand everythingZen made of sky.For the worldhas gone wrong.The gamma raysare off. The heartis anachronisticand losing powereach day. Old andin the way, waitingfor the morning todeclare the peculiarcondition of a tree-that boundary intime and space, thatwave like disturbance. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has […]