The Buddha’s Last Instruction
“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal – a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire –
clearly I’m not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.
~ Mary Oliver ~
(House of Light)
Teagasc Deireanach an Bhúda
“Déan solas díot féin,”
arsa an Búda
sular cailleadh é.
Smaoinímse air sin chuile mhaidin
agus an iliomad scamall dorcha
á stróiceadh anuas ag an oirthear
chun an chéad chomhartha a fhógairt –
gaothrán bán
stríoca bándearga tríd, sailchuachach
nó glas fiú.
Ina sheanfhear dó, luigh sé síos
idir dhá chrann seala
agus d’fhéadfadh sé rud ar bith a rá
a fhios aige gurbh é an focal scoir é.
An solas dóite ag dul in airde,
ag éirí dlúth agus ag socrú síos os cionn na ngort.
Lucht an tsráidbhaile cruinn ina thimpeall
cluas ghéar orthu.
Fiú sula mbíonn an ghrian féin
crochta, neamhspleách, sa spéir ghorm,
tá aigéan na dtonnta buí
do mo bhá go hiomlán.
Smaoinigh sé, ní foláir, ar gach a thit amach
le linn a shaoil dhuaisiúil.
Is ansin braithimse an ghrian féin
is í ina laom os cionn na gcnoc –
milliún bláth trí thine.
Is léir nach bhfuil aon ghá liomsa anseo,
mar sin féin braithim go bhfuilim ag iompú
im’ rud nach féidir luach a chur air.
Thóg sé a cheann go mall
idir na géaga,
d’fhéach idir an dá shúil ar an slua scanraithe.
