“Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.” ~ Buddhist saying

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Recorded Reading (2:00): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4pmqvbz07er1ngst72902/After-Enlightenment.mp3?rlkey=uyir323jf5e2769vwutamedu9&dl=0

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After Enlightenment

In search of the Divine
Our status as a seeker
Keeps us a bit in line
Our voice a little meeker

And our demeanor calm
As meditatively
We seek to be a balm
For every soul we see

Sometimes it is a strain
But worth it, we all think
To, by a little pain,
Bring ourselves to the brink

Of an entirely new
Level of being, where
Frustrations are so few
We’ll live without a care

Gliding ‘midst a throng
Of loving acolytes
Once we have gotten our
Enlightenment to rights

The only problem be
It’s hard to be aware
It’s difficult to see
When we have gotten there

So from the days of yore
Students their teachers ask
How long ’twill be before
They so serenely bask

In advantages to
A vibrational rate
Too high to safely view
By any but the great

By what signs will they know
How might they understand
They’re wedded to the flow
As the teachings demand?

From one day to another
When can they suddenly
Give orders to their brother
And hope obeyed to be?

The teachers answer this
Variety of question by
Projecting perfect bliss
Their poverty defy

And then they say, “Before
Enlightenment, chop wood
And carry water, or
Your training won’t be good

After enlightenment,
My seeking son or daughter,
Once God is understood:
Chop wood and carry water!”

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This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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