The Moment After Zen

[lofro]

The Zen masters say
that it's like turning on a light:
one moment, there is you,
and above you the Bodhi tree,
but in less than a breath
there is no longer a difference
between body and bodhi.
They call this enlightenment.

I have tasted of Zen.
I have known those moments
when it seems that the universe
is a single well-tuned instrument,
that every movement of my finger
leads to a swelling so sublime
that it would move any man to tears.
I have seen that panorama,
watched it spread out before me.
I have known the touch of
limitless possibility,
the caress of endless connections.

But the Zen masters never speak
of the moment afterwards;
they never mention the minute when
one realizes his enlightenment,
and so loses it.
The teachings say nothing of what happens
when the light is turned off,
when the mind forgets itself;
when once again there is body and bodhi,
and for the life of me, I cannot recall
how I ever believed they were one.

-11/27/2006