Looking for Each Other

• I have been looking for you, World Honored One,
• since I was a little child.
• With my first breath, I heard your call,
• and began to look for you, Blessed One.
• I've walked so many perilous paths,
• confronted so many dangers,
• endured despair, fear, hopes, and memories.
• I've trekked to the farthest regions, immense and wild,
• sailed the vast oceans,
• traversed the highest summits, lost among the clouds.
• I've lain dead, utterly alone,
• on the sands of ancient deserts.
• I've held in my heart so many tears of stone.

• Blessed One, I've dreamed of drinking dewdrops
• that sparkle with the light of far-off galaxies.
• I've left footprints on celestial mountains
• and screamed from the depths of Avici Hell, exhausted, crazed with despair
• because I was so hungry, so thirsty.
• For millions of lifetimes,
• I've longed to see you,
• but didn't know where to look.
• Yet, I've always felt your presence with a mysterious certainty.

• I know that for thousands of lifetimes,
• you and I have been one,
• and the distance between us is only a flash of thought.
• Just yesterday while walking alone,
• I saw the old path strewn with Autumn leaves,
• and the brilliant moon, hanging over the gate,
• suddenly appeared like the image of an old friend.
• And all the stars confirmed that you were there!
• All night, the rain of compassion continued to fall,
• while lightning flashed through my window
• and a great storm arose,
• as if Earth and Sky were in battle. Finally in me the rain stopped, the clouds parted.
• The moon returned,
• shining peacefully, calming Earth and Sky.
• Looking into the mirror of the moon, suddenly
• I saw myself,
• and I saw you smiling, Blessed One.
• How strange!

• The moon of freedom has returned to me,
• everything I thought I had lost.
• From that moment on,
• and in each moment that followed,
• I saw that nothing had gone.
• There is nothing that should be restored.
• Every flower, every stone, and every leaf recognize me.
• Wherever I turn, I see you smiling
• the smile of no-birth and no-death.
• The smile I received while looking at the mirror of the moon.
• I see you sitting there, solid as Mount Meru,
• calm as my own breath,
• sitting as though no raging fire storm ever occurred,
• sitting in complete peace and freedom.
• At last I have found you, Blessed One,
• and I have found myself.
• There I sit.

• The deep blue sky,
• the snow-capped mountains painted against the horizon,
• and the shining red sun sing with joy.
• You, Blessed One, are my first love.
• The love that is always present, always pure, and freshly new.
• And I shall never need a love that will be called “last.”
• You are the source of well-being flowing through numberless troubled lives,
• the water from your spiritual stream always pure, as it was in the beginning.
• You are the source of peace,
• solidity, and inner freedom.
• You are the Buddha, the Tathagata.
• With my one-pointed mind
• I vow to nourish your solidity and freedom in myself
• so I can offer solidity and freedom to countless others,
• now and forever.

Thich Nhat Hanh
pulished in Poetry Chaikhana