Today I am Waiting for a Bus

[Photo by Stefan Jansson]

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A Poem by Ko Un, from "Buddhadharma", Fall 2006:

Some say they can recall a thousand years
Some say they have already visited the next
   thousand years
On a windy day
I am waiting for a bus

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No matter what we think we know about the past,
No matter what we believe about the future
This life or the next,
Today is windy. Today we need to ride the bus.

We have two options:
Wait skillfully
Or unskillfully.
We can never experience the future
Until it becomes the present. This moment
Was the future for the infinite past
And will be the past for the infinite future.
To wait unskillfully is to disrepect your
Infinite past and your infinite future,
And wasteful of all the time you spent
Planning and thinking about
This very moment.

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