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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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!”
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
∞