In the Zendo at Santa Cruz,
A low building
with broad beams and grass mats,
I was trying to understand
the extreme uncertainty
                                   of life,

meditating on a picture of Dogen,

Thirteenth-Century Buddhist patriarch,
who sat in the Lotus Position
on an ornate chair,
legs tucked under his robe,
unused hassock before him.

Walking in slow zazen steps
toe-to-heel to the far wall,
I knelt down on a soft black zafu,
gazing softly at a picture of the Buddha
          in a standing pose.

And in that instant
Something powerful struck me,
something Numinous
engulfed me, filled me,
lifted me to my feet.
And then like in the movie
                      The Atomic Kid,
which gave me
  frightening dreams and nightmares as a child,
where Mickey Rooney,
as a Nevada schoolboy,
survives a nuclear test blast,
then wanders radioactively past
the slot machines in Las Vegas,
and out the money pours,

I likewise strode transfigured
down the brick-lined Mall of Santa Cruz,
absolutely, divinely wild,
and passers-by stared,
as I lit up the all the stores.

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Apprentice Editor: Jen Weddle / Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo Credit: Wikipedia