1.

Listen to the story of the birth of the Buddha, a story that is always told

Whenever beings gather together to work or to play

And even when they fight or shout

The story of the birth of the Buddha is told on every breath in and out

2.

There was a king of the mighty Shakya tribe, Suddodhana by name

Whose purity of conduct and grace of manner

Caused him to be loved by his people

As pens love paper, flowers love the Spring

3.

His queen was Mahamaya whose splendor bounced from the clouds to the earth

And she was like the earth in her abundant solidity

In her beauty like a great blue heron or like a mass of willow trees at dawn

Seen from a distance from a truck

4.

This great king and splendid queen in dallying

Spread open happiness like a picnic basket in May

And without any ants or spilled wine extruded the vine-like fruit of a gestating babe

As concentration and mindfulness together gently produce the winds of the wisdom gone beyond

5.

Queen Maya before conceiving saw in her sleep a great white lord of an elephant

Emerge from a cave and come close to her envelope her incorporate her

Into his all embracing comprehension

Like a nation state a political movement a trance or a soothing bath

6.

This lord of elephants with the queen dissolved into a pure melody

And so she sought in all purity, piety, and joy, without illusion, a place in the sin-free forest

A valley among trees by the sea

A place suitably arrayed for the practice of meditation and birth, called Lumbini

7.

Here the queen aware of the stirrings of beginnings and endings

Amid the welcome of thousands of waiting women

On her couch covered over with awnings and leaves gave birth without pain from out of her side

To a son born for the weal of the world from out of her vows

8.

Forth he came yet not from earth or cloud or spirit but as if from out of the empty sky

Pure of being as the breath itself long or short without beginning or end fully aware

And like a brilliant sun in the summer sky

His beautiful gaze held all eyes like a full moon in Autumn

9.

For like the sun he awakened all life on earth the trees and children deer and little fish

He woke up stars in the night that whispered to one another

He woke up seas and breezes, the tall mountains that nail the universe shut

And the streams in the mountains that flow to the rivers like tongues

10.

And standing up straight like a mountain attending above and below

He took seven silver steps his feet lifted up unwavering and straight

The strides spanning earth and heaven…

ONE. . . TWO. . . THREE. . . FOUR. . . FIVE. . . SIX. . . SEVEN

11.

And like a lion in charge of the forest

Like an elephant ruling the grounds

Proclaimed the truth and sang,

“I am born for enlightenment, for the good of all beings!”

12.

Hot and cold running water like jewels from the sky poured forth for his refreshment

The softest couch appeared bedecked with pears and apples flowers potatoes lettuce and pets

The invisible dwellers in the heavens

Shielded him with their giant umbrellas

13.

And the dragons of the earth and air flew and blew the air for him

And the dragons of the seas tipped the purple waves with points of silver

And the dragons of the houses flapped the houses

Like nightgowns bedsheets or banners

14.

And animals stopped eating one another to take a look

And people stopped killing one another to take a look

And noxious creatures and ghosts stopped haunting one another to take a look

They all looked and wept with unconsidered joy

15.

For he will give up his kingdom to be a light removing darkness from all beings

And he will be a boat to carry the beings up from the ocean of suffering

Overspread with the foam of disease and the waves of old age and the flood of death

And the world will drink of the stream of his Law to slake the ageless thirst born of affliction

16.

People are lost in the desert baked and blistered—he will show them a trail out

People are sweltering in the humidity of desire—he will rain the cool rain of Dharma down

People are locked up in themselves—

He will offer the key of Awakening to open up the doors

17.

He will cool us with the tractors of concentration

He will make us solid with precepts like pine trees

He will cause us to dance with the joy

Of the ducks of deepest vows

18.

And so in this world and in the worlds beyond in time and space and out of time and space

The baby’s steps and song ended struggles that had no end

And all beings were permanently disordered

With delight

∞

From the Fall 1996 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 13, No. 1)

Text © 1996-2020 by Norman Fischer