00:00
by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis
Sitting in your veranda,
in silence, I hear the rain,
the Tawny owl, and the Robins,
somewhere in the trees, outside your hut.
I know you are there,
but I can’t see you…
O bearer of the lamp! it’s dark,
and I need the light you held until
the hands of the clock folded
and bowed to you at 00:00 hours.
I need the light that cannot be extinguished
by the winds howling in the canyons of your abode,
mourning your departure.
The sun is clearing snow, and the earth is spreading her carpet
of autumn leaves to take you back
in her womb to anew.
The bell on the alter is silent.
It’s your absence that resounds.
I invite the bell for you to hear me say
what I couldn’t say to you after all.
With my in-breath, I ask you to be with me.
With my out-breath, I walk with you in Jetavana,
I soar over the Vulture Peak to hear the tenets
taught to us by our root teacher.
Beyond the limits of our bodies, in my homeland, we climb together
the peak of Gayashis. We follow the tracks left by Gautama,
and sit with his thousand bhikkus who have now
multiplied into millions to hear his sermon –
“Bhikkhus, all is burning.
And what is all that is burning?
The eye is burning, forms are burning,
eye-consciousness is burning, eye contact is burning,
Burning with the fire of lust,
with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion.
I say, it is burning with birth, aging, and death,
with sorrows, lamentations, pains, griefs, and despairs.”
With my in-breath, dear Thay,
I sit with you under the Bodhi tree
and see you blooming like a lotus of a thousand petals,
touching the ultimate dimension.
With my out-breath, dear teacher, I recite with you
the mantra of the Heart Sutra echoing the universe –
“Gaathe Gaathe Paragaathe, PasamGaathe Bodhi Swaha.”
Gone, Gone Gone, everything is gone, landed to another shore.
00:00
Note: 00:00 refers to the time Thich Nhat Hanh passed away at Từ Hiếu Temple in Huế, Vietnam, on 01.22.22. He was 95. Later, the official time of his passing was recorded as 1:30 am.
Adittapariyaya Sutta: The Fire Sermon translated from the Pali by Ñanamoli Thera © 1993
Alternate translation: Thanissaro Bhikkhu
