6.4.1
TO ANANDA
a poem of millenniums
Ananda,
your name is the name of all persons
who have chosen to be open to the Norm:
male and female, of no or either gender,
young and old or of any age in between,
from the East and from the West,
from the North and from the South,
or from whatever part of the world.
You have learned in your own language now,
that it is not priesthood or prayer,
nor faith or grace which bring redemption,
but that it is knowledge by which things come true.
You have rejected
the mistaken authority of sacred scriptures,
the meaningless rituals, and the sacrifices to deity,
thus boldly breaking with reactionary religion.
You have turned away from
the belief in the supreme power
of a god or gods purportedly showing what should.
Or, if not totally repudiating this god or these gods
you have reduced them to the nonimportance*
of what merely is what it is.
You have experienced
that knowledge lies within the reach of the individual,
that no god bestows insight,
but that it is won by yourself,
by the power of your own will and perseverance.
You have removed
the barriers of caste or class, of nationality,
and of everything fortuitous or effete;
all attachments to unjust, partial institutions.
You care for all sentient beings,
as the deliverance from suffering is meant for all of them.
( Where redemption lies in realization
it is understanding which makes real,
not belief or the mere absence of sins believed in.
Stay away from all metaphysical speculation,
which does not advance you
along the road to reformation.
Bar all obscure and unrestrained theorizing,
which leads to aimless wandering and quarreling,
and which does not contribute to deliverance.
It makes you cling to the false or irrelevant,
wherefrom you must free yourself
if you are to find the way to excellence.
Cross the water to the land where every conflict ends
in a vehicle which is pure and true to the origin.
And do not make a god of a seer,
a deity among the creators of godheads,
an idol among the worshipers of images.
When the silence of the originator has become eternal,
the doctrine** remains as the** source
that continues to inform and to inspire.
The chakra of the new Dharma was set in motion
not only to direct those who feel moved by it
but equally to direct those who do not feel moved by it.
For all of them there is the same means of liberation:
to surmount naivety and ignorance by knowledge.
It is the state of vision wherein the whole is seen,
free from prejudicial distinctions,
which transforms and liberates.
It is contemplation which needs no ecstasy,
and which does not depend on perceptions or emotions
induced by mind-expanding and addictive drugs.
It is the widening of the stream of experience
which is brought about by insight,
exceeding all traditional beliefs in comprehension.
The knowledge that you should be sincere,
both in your deepest thoughts and feelings,
and in the actions and words of everyday life;
that nothing is to lie dormant in the unconscious,
where it may cause disruption and confusion;
that you ought to be aware of all you do,
and not wreak vengeance upon your opponents
in mere retaliation or out of retribution. )***
The ultimate goal transcends all opposition.
It is the state of neither-nor, the infinite oneness,
wherein is neither earth exclusively,
nor water nor fire nor air,
wherein is neither defeat by nor victory over others,
neither falling nor arising,
wherein is no short or long duration;
the end of both restlessness and boredom,
where there is no evil or deterioration.
It is the complete silence of the final anagnorisis.
This is attained by the enlightenment of the Middle Path,
the way from pain and pleasure for pleasure's sake,
from hate and love for love's sake,
to freedom from all suffering and struggling,
to the realization of things eternal or nontemporal.
And this is attained by the beneficence of the Middle Path,
the dao of a doctrine thousands of years old that has
no breeding-ground for recurring climaxes of violence,
nor for the subjection of those who are poor or different;
and no history of holy wars or oppression at home,
nor of sacred stonings or burnings at the stake.
The way is clearly shown with the Norm and its values,
but so badly and perpetually lost without them.
Ananda,
the penalty of our failure is the everlastingness
of violence, war, oppression, intolerance and negligence,
and the penalty of our failure is the everlastingness
of poverty, fear, obsession, inhibition and ignorance,
whereas the reward of our success
will be nothing but the nonexistence thereof.
Every single achievement gives satisfaction,
but amid all that is left to do,
and amid all that is left to redo.
If all accomplishment is transient, my sibling,
then, indeed, we will have to strive ceaselessly,
ceaselessly ...
| * | |
not necessarily unimportance |
| ** | |
or the ism remains as 'izumi', the source,
if finishing with Izumi played on the koto, or any
other adequate composition with the same theme |
| *** | |
the third and fourth stanzas may be deleted |
