Imagine a delicious enlightening plant burger concocted from Eckhart Tolle, Rumi and the mystic William Blake, and there you have Award-winning author J.M. Harrison’s fascinating collection of poems. Food for the awakening soul.
Imagine a delicious enlightening plant burger concocted from Eckhart Tolle, Rumi and the mystic William Blake, and there you have Award-winning author J.M. Harrison’s fascinating collection of poems. Food for the awakening soul.
A NOTE OF THANKS
This collection of spontaneous poetry came to life following a Zenways retreat in March, 2022 led by Daizan Roshi, a master in the Rinzai tradition of Zen.
The Breakthrough to Zen retreats are designed specifically to create the ideal conditions for you to find your true nature – to find out who you really are (kensho in Japanese). Based on the "group sanzen" format developed by Zen master Shinzan Roshi, together with the dyad work of American teacher, Charles Berner, they create a uniquely powerful combination. The three-day (64hr) retreats are intense and rewarding, with the added benefit of being stabilised and grounded through the “naikan” Zen practices taught by Zen master Hakuin as detailed in the book “Practical Zen”.
The retreat was wholesome and solidifying at the deepest level. When it ended, poetry began to flow through me; contemplations of the nature of self, existence, life and death, the sublime, the heartfelt, the paradoxical and the humorous. Day after day insights morphed into short and simple verse, arriving at any time of day or night, and in a variety of circumstances, whether immersed in nature, taking a shower, driving the car, listening to news of war, about to fall sleep, waking up in the night, and experiencing the passing of a family member. In short, everyday life was the catalyst.
It is through such whispers, echoes and reflections of consciousness beyond and beneath the everyday mind that the paradoxical awareness of our true nature can be shared.
This book would not have been possible without the contributions of Rhys, Katherine, Abdul and Amy, so thanks to you all. And thank you to everyone who shared so graciously throughout the retreat, for their openness and generosity in tandem with the support of the Zenways team, helped make it such an illuminating experience.
And finally, I’d like to say a big thank you to Daizan for his unwavering pivotal influence, and to the ordinary-extraordinary that is … Zen.
May these words serve and inspire you.
- JMH 2022
OH, THE CALM OF IT ALL
(Nothing is missing in the emptiness of things)
Dedicated to D.
In the stateless state,
Nothing is to be known,
For knowing-ness is like a marksman’s arrow
Flying high, seeking an impossible target,
The center of which is already reached:
This is the pathless path,
The clear, certain paradox.
Here I am
When there is no self,
The one placeless place
Where no one is and all are living:
A clear enigma
Completely full of nothing,
Something and everything.
Here, and there, tears turn to laughter
And pleasure turns to pain,
This anonymous true nature
Inseparable from the rotting trodden twig
And the boundless, limitless universe:
The farthest unreachable, here, in the palm of a hand,
Gone and un-leave-able.
This is no trick of the mind or mirage of confusion,
Letting go only renews this infinite luminosity,
Nothing is missing in the emptiness of things,
Walking away leads back here
To the ordinary beyond duality and non-duality:
The choice-less, change-less
Original destination of all things and non-things.
Home is here
At the crossroads, far away in the distance,
A point the mind can never reach
At the destination no one ever leaves,
There’s nowhere to go and everywhere to be:
So don’t waste a minute, get going now!
Oh!
The calm of it all....
∞
THANK YOU MIND
Thank you, mind,
For falling in line,
For seeing your way
To allow this to be.
Thank you, mind,
For being so kind
And for taking it all
So decently.
Thank you, mind,
For not interrupting
No longer disrupting
The naturally free
Thank you, mind,
For all the times
You made me blind
So I could see
Thank you, mind,
For ceding control
By submitting to reason
With I don’t know.
Thank you, mind,
For falling in line,
For playing your role
And letting this be.
ON THIS STILL DAY
On this still day, a tempest is roaring,
In the dark of the night, the sun burns bright,
Peace is here yet war is raging,
How vast the world through a spider’s eye?
A lifetime, famished and always hungry,
The relentless fool amasses belongings,
Living a life of death and suffering,
Seemingly found, when lost in things.
Eternity breathes as chaos lingers,
For fixed opinions are stubbornly blind,
Wake in the night to infinity’s knowing
That clinging to God is a waste of time.
On this still day, a tempest is roaring,
Listen, do you hear?
Look, can you see?
Shake your mind and eternity arises,
Here, now,
Reality.
∞
MY DOG HAS BUDDHA NATURE
Dedicated to R.
My dog has Buddha Nature, there is no doubt
He helps me and talks with loving eyes,
He even thinks of me when I’m out.
My dog has Buddha Nature, he watches attentively,
And when it’s time to go to bed,
It’s my wife, the Buddha and me.
My dog has Buddha Nature, he’s lying beside me now,
Pure and true, transparent and free,
But still the blind look and just don’t see.
My dog has Buddha Nature, he’s wise evidently,
He knows what to do, how to communicate
And just how to be.
My dog has Buddha Nature, he’s barking away right now,
Telling the noisy ones outside,
To stop disturbing the peace he’s found.
My dog has Buddha Nature, he’s natural and free,
He’s a teacher, an explorer,
And he walks beside me.
My dog has Buddha Nature; now do you understand me?
If you can’t grasp what I’m saying
Then keep on practicing until you see
My dog has Buddha Nature; do you think it can’t be true?
For if you don’t see Buddha in everything,
You’re missing the real in you.
My dog has Buddha Nature, and if you want to be free,
Don’t take your life so personally,
Just stop thinking,
And be.
Poetry comes in various styles and lengths. Some require no thinking to decipher a poet's meaning, and then there are ones that make you sit back and dissect each line. Eden Thrives Within by J.M. Harrison is the latter one.
I bet teachers could utilize Eden Thrives Within in their classrooms and have their students evaluate each poem. See whose viewpoints line up and see whose doesn't.
Poetry is a work of art. You sculpt the lines to create an image you hope reflects your feelings at the creation time. Then, you sit back and wait for your final product to be viewed and critiqued. I'm not a poet aficionado, but I do when I like a particular piece of work—art or poetry. I did enjoy reading J.M. Harrison's works and contemplating their meaning. I'm unsure if I was on point with them, but art is subjective. Right?
The poems that stood out the most for me were ones whose titles either began or ended their repeated stanzas: "Inevitably," "Wash Me Away," "Nature's Manifest," "Calm Love," "I Am Nothing, Nothing, Nothing," "Stillness Runs Free," "Here and Gone" to name just a few. I know that might sound pretty lame, but repetition affects my memory like many others.
Books are judged not just by their content but also by their appearance. I wish Eden Thrives Within by J.M. Harrison had images, icons, symbols, a splash of color, or something to draw the eye. Textually, the collection is deep, written exceptionally well, and will please a poetic's mind. Visually, the inside contents of Eden Thrives Within are boring. Externally, the cover is quite lovely. It resembles a painting.
If you enjoy poetry, I encourage you to read Eden Thrives Within by J.M. Harrison. I believe you'll discover many poems to like, maybe even love.