[Buddha-l] Buddha's Meditation

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

Richard's mention of the stars and his pain reminded me of the  
(mandatory Buddhist content) wisdom and compassion laden poem "The  
More Loving One" by W.H. Auden. I read the poem as an expression of a  
deep awareness of emptiness, and, in the face of this, a humble and  
yet potentially infinitely expanding compassion. Of course Auden was  
famously (or infamously, for some) a Christian convert, not at all a  
Buddhist. Still, would that more Christians--and Buddhists--were as  
humane as he!

Boy

-----

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total darkness sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.