Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
Mysteries, Yes
~ Mary Oliver
This is a poem by Mary Oliver. I had heard of her on National Public Radio (NPR), but had not read any collections of her poems. She died about a month ago, and I read a New Yorker article about her and her poems which really began to resonate within me. After reading of her death on January 17, I became slightly obsessed by her writing. She died at the age of 83, published the first of her over 30 books in 1963, she received the Pulitzer Prize in 1984, and the National Book Award in 1992.
I had read various quotes or sections of poems by her, mostly inspirational quotes. In fact, I read an article which claimed her to be a favorite poet of many rabbis and Christian ministers, and one of the most quoted poets in the Universal Unitarian Church. Personally, I feel that her poems are very Buddhist. I have also read articles by Buddhist writers that make that very same claim. I think she writes how I wish I could as a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist. This poem “Mysteries, Yes” in particular, makes me think this.
The things she points to in all her poems are things that I wish I had better understood from an earlier age. It is something I hope my own children and the children of our temples begin to understand. This is that our spiritual life is one of the most important aspects of who we are as a human being. You will not always be content or happy in a fully developed material life. You could be one of the richest people materially, but not find happiness. Yet if you develop and spend your life developing yourself spiritually, you will find happiness. Spiritual life does not mean you will know the answers to everything. Life is not about knowing all the answers or how to win. It is about cultivating a sense of wonder and gratitude and connectedness. And this is how I would like to think of our temple and Sangha. Let me explain this with her poem.
Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood.
This to me is evident in our most important chant, Shoshinge. Shinran says, “Kimyo, Muryoju nyorai, Namo Fukashigiko” -- I bow down to the Buddha of Unlimited Life, I take refuge in the wonderful, mysterious light.
How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
This is the interconnectedness and mystery of all of us. How we are here together in this moment from so many different places. This amazing life that we have been given. In another poem called “the Summer Day” Mary Oliver says, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Isn’t that a brilliant question? And she goes on…
while we ourselves dream of rising.
This line, I believe to be the Nembutsu itself, life rising up to itself. Our dream of rising is Amida’s Vow of Namo Amida Butsu, touching our personal life.
She goes on….
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.
These words describe the reason and the place of our Sangha. We are connected to one another, through Amida Buddha’s wish for the world. We come from many different places, some of us from happy families. Some of us were raised at the temple and Sangha, but some of us have come here from many difficult situations. Some of us left our own families for our own reasons. But hopefully in coming to this temple, this Sangha, you will find family, safety and connectedness.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
I believe that there are many religions that claim to have the answer. The one true religion. Even though there are Buddhist sects that have many rules of conduct and ritual, the hierarchies of priests and lay create a false sense of ego. I do not believe Jodo Shinshu is like that. When you come to our temple, you find a place that together we can just sense the wonder of this life, safety, the good and bad times that connect us, and bow our heads in Namo Amida Butsu.
If you have time, read some of her poetry. I would like to close with one of her most well known poems, called “Wild Geese.” I think it describes a way I hope our temple can be.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Wild Geese
~ Mary Oliver
Namo Amida Butsu
-J.K. Hirano