Stephen Mitchell - The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry

An Anthology of Sacred Poetry

Edited by Stephen Mitchell

To Zen Master Seung Sahn,
who taught me everything I dont know

We dance round in a ring and suppose, / But the Secret sits in the middle and knows, Robert Frost wrote, looking in from the outside. Looking out from the inside, Chuang-tzu wrote, When we understand, we are at the center of the circle, and there we sit while Yes and No chase each other around the circumference. This anonymous centerwhich is called God in Jewish, Christian, and Moslem cultures, and Tao, Self, or Buddha in the great Eastern traditionsis the realest of realities.

Self is everywhere, shining forth from all beings,
vaster than the vast, subtler than the most subtle,
unreachable, yet nearer than breath, than heartbeat.
Eye cannot see it, ear cannot hear it nor tongue
utter it; only in deep absorption can the mind,
grown pure and silent, merge with the formless truth.
As soon as you find it, you are free; you have found yourself;
you have solved the great riddle; your heart forever is at peace.
Whole, you enter the Whole. Your personal self
returns to its radiant, intimate, deathless source.

Mundaka Upamshad

Most of what we call religious poetry is the poetry of longing: for God, for the mothers face. But the poems in The Enlightened Heart are poems of fulfillment. They were written by the Secret, who has many aliases. Sitting or dancing, all these poets have found themselves inside the circlesome of them a step within the circumference, some far in, some at dead center. Looking out from the center, you can talk about the circumference. But really, there is no circumference. Everyone, everything, is joyfully included.

The Golden God, the Self, the immortal Swan
leaves the small nest of the body, goes where He wants.
He moves through the realm of dreams; makes numberless
forms
delights in sex; eats, drinks, laughs with His friends;
frightens Himself with scenes of heart-chilling terror.
But He is not attached to anything that He sees;
and after He has wandered in the realms of dream and
awakeness,
has tasted pleasures and experienced good and evil,
He returns to the blissful state from which He began.
As a fish swims forward to one riverbank then the other,
Self alternates between awakeness and dreaming.
As an eagle, weary from long flight, folds its wings,
gliding down to its nest, Self hurries to the realm
of dreamless sleep, free of desires, fear, pain.
As a man in sexual union with his beloved
is unaware of anything outside or inside,
so a man in union with Self knows nothing, wants nothing,
has found his hearts fulfillment and is free of sorrow.
Father disappears, mother disappears, gods
and scriptures disappear, thief disappears, murderer,
rich man, beggar disappear, world disappears,
good and evil disappear; he has passed beyond sorrow.

Two birds, one of them mortal, the other immortal,
live in the same tree. The first one pecks at the fruit,
sweet or bitter; the second looks on without eating.
Thus the personal self pecks at the fruit of this world,
bewildered by suffering, always hungry for more.
But when he meets the True Self, the resplendent God,
the source of creation, all his cravings are stilled.
Perceiving Self in all creatures, he forgets himself
in the service of all; good and evil both vanish;
delighting in Self, playing like a child with Self,
he does whatever is called for, whatever the result.

Self is everywhere, shining forth from all beings,
vaster than the vast, subtler than the most subtle,
unreachable, yet nearer than breath, than heartbeat.
Eye cannot see it, ear cannot hear it nor tongue
utter it; only in deep absorption can the mind,
grown pure and silent, merge with the formless truth.
He who finds it is free; he has found himself;
he has solved the great riddle; his heart forever is at peace.
Whole, he enters the Whole. His personal self
returns to its radiant, intimate, deathless source.
As rivers lose name and form when they disappear
into the sea, the sage leaves behind all traces
when he disappears into the light. Perceiving the truth, he becomes the truth;
he passes beyond all suffering,
beyond death; all the knots of his heart are loosed.

PSALM 1

Blessed are the man and the woman
who have grown beyond their greed
and have put an end to their hatred
and no longer nourish illusions.
But they delight in the way things are
and keep their hearts open, day and night.
They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,
which bear fruit when they are ready.
Their leaves will not fall or wither.
Everything they do will succeed.

PSALM 19

The heavens declare Gods grandeur
and the radiance from which they arise.
Each dawn tells of his beauty;
each night shines with his grace.
Their testimony speaks to the whole world
and reaches to the ends of the earth.
In them is a path for the sun,
who steps forth handsome as a bridegroom
and rejoices like an athlete as he runs.
He starts at one end of the heavens
and circles to the other end,
and nothing can hide from his heat.

Gods universe is perfect,
awing the mind.
Gods truth is subtle,
baffling the intellect.
Gods law is complete,
quickening the breath.
Gods compassion is fathomless,
refreshing the soul.
Gods justice is absolute,
lighting up the eyes.
Gods love is radiant,
rejoicing the heart,
more precious than the finest gold,
sweeter than honey from the comb.

Help me to be aware of my selfishness,
but without undue shame or self-judgment.
Let me always feel you present,
in every atom of my life.
Let me keep surrendering my self
until I am utterly transparent.
Let my words be rooted in honesty
and my thoughts be lost in your light,
Unnamable God, my essence,
my origin, my life-blood, my home.