What did you see?

Alok sent this to me, first thing in the morning. It's quite beautiful!

Father you’re home what did you see what did you see?
The face in the clouds, or the honey bee?
Did you see the sunset sun?
The birds fly or the squirrel run?
I have been waiting the whole day
Look at those toys I kept out to play

Son, I know I’m late, forgive me for that
Let’s go out and we’ll walk a chat
I’ll show you what I saw on my daily trip
So when you grow you’ll come to a grip
There was glass, the stairs, the lonely stares
There was the class, the chairs, the unkempt hair
The screens were shining brand anew
The faces newer moved as if stuck with a glue
And like clockwork together they arose
Over their own telephones, just moved in a row
Then the parade of cars put on their lights
I could see a thousand fireflies jostling into the night
On my walk back home amidst the plastic piles
The use and throws, were giggles and smiles
There were friends, the dreams, and the innocent fun
Laugh a laugh, before the next day begun
The streets moved in trying to come still
I was thinking of you through the misty chill

Papa, our teacher said we should care
Plant trees and the animals spare
Papa have you heard the new consciousness song?

Son, we have been doing it all along
The foods we eat are no sauces or tart
It is a sumptuous serving of your mother’s heart
She washes our dirt in the clothes and in the thought
She tells you it’s ok, when you’re disillusioned or distraught
The bedtimes stories endless come by
And in your stomach ache the turmeric apply
Every single thing just handpicked for you
Your lunch box, your craft books and the dreams few
She helps you spot a tree from its leaves or its stem
For how can you plant if you’ve not lived amongst them?
Son, if everything was done with motherly care
There were no desert storms no fighting, no hatred to spare
No jargons of globalization coined for personal gains
No nukes, no weapons of mind, only humanity remain

Papa, my friend told me everybody dies
And to the God in Heaven he files
Papa, I want to meet Him, can we meet God?
Can we make a holiday trip to His heavenly abode?

Son, I do not know the address, but they say he lives down the lane
Down the other one, the one after, and the further again
A rickshaw puller once said, I can prove to you the God exists
Love, Care, Happiness, you can prove me wrong, if you have nothing of it

Son, life is a holiday trip to Him alone
As ever said by every learned one
For how to live, if you ask them, they’ll come
Life is bigger, we are not the learned ones
Life is an experience you have to walk it yourself
You just have to be conscious you’re not walking over someone else

Smokey The Bear Sutra by Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder was a beat affiliate of Jack Kerouac, his poetry was often informed by his pervading interest in eastern philosophies. His views on nature show concretely the impact of these teachings on the enviromentalists of the west. Conscious living requires inspiration from within and without. Gary Snyder found it during his stays in the monerstaries of Japan and in the wilderness of North America. In this poem he shows us his enviromental concerns in the form of a Buddhist Sutra.

For my friends unfamiliar with Smokey The Bear, he is a fictional character created by the US Forest Service to raise awareness about forest fires.

He is used here by Gary to evoke a protector of nature and all beings.

Smokey the Bear Sutra

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million ylears ago,
the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite
Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements
and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings,
the flying beings, and the sitting beings -- even grasses,
to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a
seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning
Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

"In some future time, there will be a continent called
America. It will have great centers of power called
such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur,
Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels
such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon
The human race in that era will get into troubles all over
its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of
its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."

"The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings
of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth.
My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and
granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that
future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure
the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger:
and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."

And he showed himself in his true form of

SMOKEY THE BEAR

A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and
watchful.

Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless
attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;

His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display -- indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;

Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a
civilization that claims to save but often destroys;

Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the West, symbolic of the forces that guard the Wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the True Path of man on earth: all true paths lead through mountains --

With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of
those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;

Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;

Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs; smashing the worms of capitalism and
totalitarianism;

Indicating the Task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes;
master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten
trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.

Wrathful but Calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will
Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or
slander him,

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.

Thus his great Mantra:

Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana
Sphataya hum traka ham nam

"I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND
BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED"

And he will protect those who love woods and rivers,
Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick
people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children:

And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television,
or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:

DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out
with his vajra-shovel.

Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.

Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.

Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.

Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.

Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.

AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT.

thus have we heard.

(may be reproduced free forever)

***

"It might take this kind of a Buddha to quell the fires of greed and war and to help us head off the biological holocaust that the twenty first century may turn out to be"