“Be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to truth as a lamp; hold fast to the truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height.” The Buddha

Here is another wonderful poem by Mary Oliver from her collection of poems House of Light. The poem is accompanied by a sample of beautiful music by shakuhachi (bamboo flute) master, Riley Lee, from his album Sanctuary (Music of a Zen Garden). May these gifts be a comfort to you and and an inspiration to your path!

The Buddha’s Last Instruction

Mary Oliver

“Make yourself a light,”

said the Buddha,

before he died.

I think of this every morning

as the east begins

to tear off its many clouds

of darkness, to send up the first

signal—a white fan

streaked with pink and violet,

even green.

An old man, he lay down

between two sala trees,

and he might have said anything,

knowing it was his final hour.

The light burns upward,

it thickens and settles over the fields.

Around him, the villagers gathered

and stretched forward to listen.

Even before the sun itself

hangs, disattached, in the blue air,

I am touched everywhere

by its oceans of yellow waves.

No doubt he thought of everything

that had happened in his difficult life.

And then I feel the sun itself

as it blazes over the hills,

like a million flowers on fire—

clearly I’m not needed,

yet I feel myself turning

into something of inexplicable value.

Slowly, beneath the branches,

he raised his head.

He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.

Riley Lee: “Moon Shadows” from Sanctuary https://mettarefuge.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/03-moon-shadows.mp3

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