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Recitation by ravindra ranasinha [28th May 2011]

Venue: Pagoda Meditation Centre,

No. 49/2 1st Cross Street, Pagoda Road, Nugegoda,

Sri Lanka.

Mobile no: 0719839507

Email: ravindraranasinha@yahoo.com

2

These poems are intended to enhance the

understanding of our cosmic relationship or the

spiritual interconnectedness with cosmos.

The poetry reading on the 28th

of May 2011 was

an extraordinary experience for the participants

which enabled them to ponder on the spirituality

one needs to nurture from within.

The Flowing Speech Rhythm of these poems

makes it easy for the listener to grasp the core of

each poem. One needs to read, re-read and enter

to the spirit of the poems.

Ravindra Ranasinha read these poems with all

the spiritual force causing the audience to

experience the ‘stillness and silence’ as aimed in

every meditation.

erika dias, the poetess, became an observer at

the poetry recitation session. ‘’I got goose-

pimples’ the way ravindra recited the poems’’,

said erika.

It is this ultimate happiness/ bliss that we aim

in our lives. It is the conscious maturity of a

person of his present moment that brings

him/her this Nirvanic/Heavenly experience.

3

An introduction

All over the world there is a growing realization that mankind

must renounce its egoistic plundering of the Earth’s bounty and

evolve new standards and goals to ensure that planet. The

survival is possible only through a way of living at peace with

you and the universe. The poems we have this evening

communicate to those interested, ‘a cosmic vision for life’. The

term ‘Dhamma’ means to ‘see things in nature as it is’ and ‘live

in nature as it is, holistically’; being consciously fully awakened

to the holistic nature which then sustains the universe. It is this

wisdom we seek through this poetry.

erika dias

She has published several books of poetry. She writes extensively on spiritual and environmental issues and writes also poems for children.

She has discovered through over 35 years of meditation that at the appropriate time and place, one strikes upon nothing but wisdom to guide one's life.

She received many awards for her poetry from Thailand, Australia and the United States of America , including an honorary doctorate from the World Academy of Arts and Culture in California in 1991 for two of her books of poems.

The latest recognition of her work was the prestigious award from the UN ESCAP in Bangkok on the UN International Women's Day on March 4th, 2004, as an “Outstanding Woman in Buddhism”. “She is an internationally famous poet” and “Her writings encircle the world with peace” are some of the ways she was introduced by a member of the Selection Committee at this award ceremony at UN ESCAP.

ravindra ranasinha

He is a dramatist, sociologist, journalist and a teacher in literature

who researches widely on the current socio-cultural issues.

He writes profusely on the multicultural aspect of Sri Lankan

society and focuses his thoughts on making school education a

multicultural sphere enabling children to accept and appreciate

diversity in the social environment.

He is also a social activist attached to the Friends of Tibet Global

Network supporting the cause of the Tibetans to free themselves

from Chinese suppression. He can be reached at:

ravindra.ranasinha@friendsoftibet.org

4

Life is Worth Living

In this wide, wide world

Somewhere, let it be

If man has attained

The pristine divine goodness

Uncontaminated in anyway

A beacon shinning for everyone

With naked eyes to see

Then life is worth its becoming

A Tiny Morsel

We only get a tiny morsel from the divine

From their vast splendours of creation

Mozarts, Angelos and Einsteins are so so

rare

On this earth planet where learning is

Almost still, like the tortoise

Most of the time

Like the birds and the bees

Cyclically with habits

Nothing new, nothing fresh

Creations

5

Dance with Nature

Dance with the sway of nature

Move with its swing in the breeze

Catch the rhythm and its beat

Sometimes softly, gently,

Sometimes swiftly, rhythmic fast

Move with this nature‟s pulsing vibrations

And teach us the healing power

Of untouched nature

Stay with the Breeze

Try to swing with the wind

So lightly and gay,

Like the birds on the leaves

Leave out all blocks from your thoughts

The blocks are simply your ego

Your ego is your anticipations,

That holds you a slave

So let go and swing like the birds

In the light sailing breeze

Where freedom is your way

6

Be a Tao

Learn to flow with the tide

Do not resist

If you resist, then it persists

Move on in your canoe

The past with fear, anxiety, guilt

Like the receding back – waters

You let go to in that motion

On its own accord

And so you joyously

Move with the tide

With your mind light and buoyant

7

Like The Waves of an Ocean

Up and down vibrations of man

With anger, hatred, envy and greed

And also happiness

Takes man to the height of elation

And then lets him down to the bottom

Of depression

So we are in motion

Like the waves of an ocean

Up and down, back and forth

Sometimes thundering waves

Erupting cyclone like emotions

Sometimes gentle ripples

With a touch of sadness

Stress beats you up

With such fluctuations

And ailing comes

With a vengeance

So watch out for healing

In deep peace in the deep blue sea

Where the waters are still

Diving deep into your core nature

That cocoons your „stillness and silence‟

For your eternal well-being.

8

Tired

Tired of labeling

Tired of classification

Tired of dissecting

Tired of names of forms

Old subjects but new jargon

Shut your ears to this endless words

Shut your ears to theory

Words, words, words

The conditioned and the conditioning

Show me the practice you know

The peace and love and enlightenment

Give me no words

I beg of you, be silent

Living with The Intellect

Is so so mundane

So so ordinary

Judging ceaselessly

Condemning, ridiculing

Dissecting, analyzing

Criticizing, comparing

Identifying, classifying

So so harsh

Aggressive, stressful

Mind tortured, distorted

Cluttered, clogged

Exhausted, jittery

Like the restless rat, In the gutter

9

Teaching

I am tired

Of teaching – preaching

I am tired

Of intellectualizing

Your words

I‟ve heard before

In shelves, libraries

And in markets

Over flowing

I am tired

Of paper degrees

Of titles, awards, prizes

For these too pass away

Without a change in inner me

I see these things

So ordinary

So let my conditioning

Shatter to pieces

By letting go

Every moment

And from my inner core

Where „I‟ energy

Cannot be found

Let wisdom

Flow and flow

10

Supermarkets

Everyday of the week

Everyday of the month

You purchase things

At the supermarket

Many cans, and packs of things

Your house is cluttered with them

Plastics, wood, metal

Clang clanks of many sizes, shapes

Tiny, miniature supermarket homes

To live in

Somethings forgotten

Dusty, cob-webbed, musty

In corners, shelves

Your lovely God given space

For peace and tranquility

Is now stifled, clogged

Cluttered like a garbage pit

The pure cosmic wisdom energy

Is shocked, surprised

At man‟s impurities

11

Doomed to Die

Mumbo Mimbo

The elephant mama

Took Mumbo Nimbo

Baby elephant

By his little trunk

And led on and on

Walked on and on

On parched, cracked earth

Seeped in the scorching sun

Hitting on stumps of trees

Felled some time ago

“Eroded hard earth

Baking in the sun”

She said,

“rocks polished and

weathered

Strong glare on my eyes

My feet are tired

Of the burning earth

No shade to be found

Little one, Mumbo Nimbo

Rest now between my feet

My trunk will be your shade

I see in the horizon

No green trees meet my eye

Where man resides

We are doomed to die

No green roof over us

No green food to munch

So rest my little one

To wait for the cool night

To trek on and on

To seek the green trees

Our future abode

Or is it a mirage

Are we doomed to die?”

12

Goddess with Many Hands

You met the goddess

With many hands

In society

Swaying gently

Caressing hands

Enchanting warm affection

With oozing charm

Cast in spell

You miss the invisible hands

Stabbing in the back

Bitter / sweet duality

In those many hands

Swaying the innocent

Distorting their minds

Confused, desperate

Mind vulnerable and weak

Hidden criminal society

Clever psychic skills

Of the many hands

Beyond the scope

Of archaic courts of justice

So my sister

Watch the goddess

With her many hands

Know it when they sway

And reach you with oozing love

With awareness, understanding

You can dodge the swaying hands

13

Teeming Life

From the turbulent shallow seas

And even in the surface of the serene deep

blue seas

Teaming life, half-plant, half-animals, jelly-

fish,

Corals, worms, snails, crabs, shell-fish, algae

And fish of all kinds in unspeakable beauty

Vibrates with life like a jostling market place

In this giant chemical churning pot,

Seen and unseen by the naked eyes

And in this sea, the blue, blue sea

Where life first appeared on earth

Wonders of creation with evolution

Moved on and on, endlessly

This chemical watery lab

You must see the sea!

And learn the lessons of evolving

14

Words Are Flying

Words are flying all the time

Like swords drawn, cutting, smarting

Shields unfurl in defense

Daily, daily, fighting, shielding

Warring, battling grounds

Unwanted chaos, confusion

When at the source of the tongue

Is the stillness of the battle-ground

To nip it all off at the bud

15

A Million Lives of Violence

A million lives

Of violence

Comes surging from the past

With anger, hatred, envy

Crystallized in a moment

So watch your mind

Its movements

And closely guard

Your thoughts, your words, your deeds

Like the tender eyes of the mother

Follow her precious toddler

To steady and hold

The fumbling, falling ways

And in wisdom

Insight live

Then see in a single life

Your million years of violence

Is nipped and ceased forever

And enjoy the lightness

Freedom, bliss

Incredibly yours

16

Get out of Boxes

Get out of boxes

Get out of fences

Whatever imprisons

Your mind, makes

You declare

I am this, I am that

Or I am better than you

I am Hindu, Muslim

Buddhist, Christian

But open your mind spaciously

Flexibly, infinitely

To that vast cosmic, infinite

Universal love energy

And then you can call

That dirty beggar boy on the street

„your son‟, as you do

Your own dear son

Know then

You have reached the supreme heights

Of refined cosmic universal energy

You have reached perfection

And your mission in life is complete

17

The Explosion

Boundless space

Unfolds

Explodes in cosmos

The starry

Milky Way

Not far, far away

Dear friend

Within yourself

Is a universe

Where everything

Create and recreate

Disintegrate and dissolves

Accommodate and explode

In space

That wondrous space

With openness and stillness

To embrace

And find in it

Infinite, boundless peace

That brings wisdom

Love and well-being

18

The Eternity

Time is with you

See it ticking

With the clock

Now let it tick

With your good

Your bad

And see them moving

With the clock

So live in this moment

Of rising, then passing

And let go all

With that ticking

Then you are

Without the time

Without the ticking

Without the clock

And then you are

With eternity

The constant –

Your timeless nature

19

The Sea

From the shallow sea

Of ignorance

Where the waves are

Rough and turbulent

I wandered off the shore

On a raft

To the deep blue sea

Where calm and serene

Waters of wisdom stayed

20

Divine Guru

I longed to see him

In his real garb

Not Buddha, Krishna or Allah

I know

But my own inner divine guru

Then one day

I woke up with a start

At dead of night

There he was

Just next to me

A gracious

Handsome lord

Translucent milky white

With wisdom lines

Curving his neck

His cheeks

And forehead too

Looking through me

With wisdom eyes

To say he knows me

Through and through

As in every move

He stays

My guardian

Wisdom spirit guru

The precious crystals

Of diamonds

A glossy dazzle, in the night

21

Space and Light

Reach the space within you

With that infinite flexibility

And openness

With that perfect clarity of mind

Reach that space given peace

And soon you will be

With spontaneity

Flowing, flowing effortlessly

That incredible love in equanimity

To reach that all consuming

Light energy of love –

The cosmic wisdom energy

Also without you

That brilliant light in a trillion fold

To light up ablaze

And dim all objects, matter with that „glow of

cosmic oneness‟

22

Strange Earth

Can there be a stranger place than earth

Where dirty paper money

Rules you

And for this dirt even families

Lose their harmony

Can there be a stranger place than earth

Where steady affection with kindredship

Is so so rare

Mistrust, suspicion,

Is common place everywhere

There is a planet somewhere,

I think

Where cosmic care is pure, sublime

Yet is so so rare

23

Peace is Space

It is here, there, everywhere

Look! And there it is, in and out

See! And there it is „stillness and silence‟

Of this space

When the inner you is empty

Of words and thoughts, man-made, imperfect

You deeply relax

Anger, hatred, envy and greed has left

Nothing else to hold but that

Precious „stillness and silence‟

Then see! The inner is also that

Anxiety and fear will leave

Mountain solid you are

Like lion cubs

So innocent!

So brave!

24

Balancing in Harmony

The atom in us

Is our living „logo‟ imprint

All over us, in cells or in molecules

With electrical forces of repulsion

And of attractions

It is balancing in neutral precision

So, so charmingly

So, so harmoniously

Simulating in us to live

With those skills of neutrality

Balancing in harmony within

In harmony without

Merging in divine, Cosmic vibrations

Right Time and Day

The long awaited flower will bloom

At the right time of the day

Of nature‟s calendar

No need to fret with regrets

In secret, silent motions, bloom

At the right time and place

Wisdom will flow, spontaneously

Clicking with maturity

And you can expand and expand

Loving care, giving and giving

Like one mother to all

In secret, silent motion to unfold

The loveliness of the bloom

25

At The Freedom’s Door

Leaving every atom of desire behind

Move gently to the open door

And then behold

The splendor of the sun-set glow

That incredible view of brilliant hues

Pink, blue, silver, lilac merging hues

Tinged all over

With burning golden sparks

Radiating at your freedom‟s door

At Liberation

At liberation

Silky white cosmic clouds

Will envelope you

Cosmic wings of pink, blue,

Silver hues

Will flutter around you

Both the cosmic clouds

And the cosmic wings

Will shower you

With blessing vibrations of peace

On no more birth, death

And birth again