Saturday, July 08, 2006

A song

We had a visiting teacher at our center, Lama Karma Chötso, who taught us the text The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, which is an invaluable tool. I'll probably comment more on it later, but for now, I just wanted to pass on a song she taught us.


Like a dream
Like an illusion
Like a city of Gandharvas
That's how birth
and that's how living
That's how dying
are taught to be.


A city of Gandharvas has the property that when you approach it, it gets further away. The song is a meditation on the Buddhist concept of emptiness. Nothing is truly real. Everything is impermanent.

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