I KNOW NOT WHAT IS BUDDHA

by Tara Carreon

I know not what is Buddha.
People say "Buddha, Buddha,"
Buddha 2,500 years ago,
Buddha man, Buddha god,
Buddha enlightened one,
Buddha many enlightened ones,
Buddha king, Buddha miracle,
Buddha heart, Buddha love,
Indian Buddha, Tibetan Buddha,
Formless Buddha, Timeless Buddha,
American Buddha.

I know not what is Buddha.

Buddha baby, born to change.
Learning, ignorance, pleasure, disappointment,
striving, discipline, enlightenment,
never the same.

I know not what is Buddha.

Buddha's body appeared under bodhi tree
Splendid golden body made of golden parts:
golden hair, golden skin,
golden muscles, golden fat

Fed by earth grain of earth rain 
from celestial spheres that danced 
with universe eternal;
changing second by second,
baby to boy to Buddha to man to corpse.

I know not what is Buddha.

Buddha searched for mind,
but could not find shape,
color, substance, birth, death,
or resting place,
out and in.

Yet mind sees all things
and is one with all things of
shape, color, substance, birth,
death and resting place.

I know not what is Buddha.

Buddha flowed through time,
appeared and disappeared
back to the universe of change.

I know not what is Buddha.

No body, no mind, no time, no existence.  

I know not what is Buddha.

_______________

American-Buddha Librarian's Comment:

He IS what doesn't exist.  They don't actually cancel each other out.  They aren't equal.  Nice try, nihilists, but no banana.  Nihilism is an illusion.  A technique.  A strategy.  There is only being.  Except when THEY make an argument, then it's null, void ab initio.  They build on illusion.

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