The Time I Glimpsed Satori While Hiding Outside of the Buddhist Temple in Northampton - David Handsher
Larry Robinson
Lrobpoet at sonic.net
Tue Oct 4 06:53:25 PDT 2022
The Time I Glimpsed Satori While Hiding Outside of the Buddhist Temple in Northampton
I was looking
at my friend Don
just after we peeked
into the back window
of the Unitarian
church turned Buddhist temple.
The window was hidden
behind bushes which we had
pushed aside to see what was
going on in the zen meditation
session inside.
We were late and Don’s
girl friend was inside and
we couldn’t figure how
to enter without creating
a disturbance, for which
neither of us would
be forgiven. We tried
to stay hidden and keep
our voices hushed.
The reason we were late
started three days earlier
when gathered with other
students on the night
Martin Luther King, Jr.
was shot and killed,
we vowed to fast
for three days and
drink only tea and water.
When the three days
passed, we ate as many
cheeseburgers as we could
drank several bottles of beer
and even smoked a little hash
because, after all, we deserved it.
Somehow we made it to
Northampton and outside
of the Buddhist temple.
Inside the temple a master
with a long sword walked
among the mediators, young
college age students from
suburbs, towns and cities
of modern America, dressed
in loose fitting yoga silk
pants and tops, unsmiling,
heads raised above straight backs
in an uncompromising posture.
I asked Don if he knew
what the sword was for.
He said when you are ready
to reach enlightenment but need help
you raise your hand and ask
the master to whack you
across your neck
I started to smile, thinking
of a million ways that this
scene was funny. I caught
Don’s eye who started to laugh.
When you try not to laugh is
when you laugh the hardest
and when you try not to make
a sound is when you are
the loudest. Soon each of us
was convulsing, throwing our
arms up and down, clasping
our mouths, grunting, making
pig noises, holy rolling on
the wet Spring grass. It was
then that I felt myself leaving
my body, a feeling of joy rising
through my throat, my mind
lifting and into the untamed sky
It was then that I saw,
for just an instant, the clear
calm soul outside of the me,
who lay giggling in the grass.
- David Handsher
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