Two Masters on the Great Expanse (A Collage Poem)



Why make so much of fragmentary blue¹

What we call ‘mind’ is not something that exists elsewhere;²



in here and there a bird, or butterfly,¹

so without being swept away and following wherever it leads,²



or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,¹

look directly into its face, its very own essence—²



when heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?¹

at that time, there’s no duality of ‘looker’ and ‘looked at’.²

¹ “Fragmentary Blue”, a poem by Robert Frost

² The Kusāli’s Instruction on the Nature of Mind, by Jamgön Kongtrul, translated by Adam Pearcey