International Sangha Sharing

Poetry from the Heart

This issue features two poems. The first is by Sybille Reuter-Beck, presented both in German and then in English with help from Birrell Walsh on the English translation. The second is by Scott Clearwater in California. VOCL invites you to share a short poem of yours that has arisen through your connection to Bön. Please limit your writing to 40 lines or less. Just send it to our This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Hier bist Du, mein Geliebter.

Tief in mir
umhüllst Du mich mit Deiner Freude
und tief in Dir
eröffnet sich der Sternenhimmel mir.
Staunend betrete ich den Raum,
den Du mir schenkst
und weite mich mit jedem Atemzug,
mit dem Du mich erfüllst.
Das Außen, das Du einst warst,
wird mein Leben nun,
mein Innen, das ich vermeinte einst zu kennnen,
das wirst nun Du.
Und sanft wie Deine Hand auf meiner Haut
zerreißt ein Schleier,
den zuvor ich niemals sah:
Kein Innen,
kein Außen –
unendliche Weite.
Ekstase auf leisen Schwingen.
Ruhige Glückseligkeit,
endlose Heimat,
jetzt, da Du Dich zeigst, mein Geliebter,
darf ich wieder und wieder
mich zu Dir wenden
und lass uns wieder und wieder
eröffnen den Raum lebendiger Unendlichkeit.

Here you are, my beloved.

Deep inside me you envelop me with your joy
And deep inside you
The starry sky opens to me. 

Wondering I enter the space you offer me
And grow wider with each breath
you suffuse through me. 

The outside that once you were
Becomes my life.
My inside that I thought I knew
becomes you. 

And soft as your hand on my skin
A veil tears apart
I have never seen before:

No inside,
no outside–
endless wideness.
Ecstasy on silent wings.

Quiet bliss,
infinite home,

now that you appear, my beloved,
again and again may I turn to you
and again and again
let us open the space
of vivid infinity.

–       Sybille Reuter-Beck 

*****

Because

Just rest because everything is possible.
Because everything is possible it is unobstructed.
Because it is unobstructed it is unasserted.
Because it is unasserted it is unbiased.
Because it is unbiased there is a buddha.
Because there is a buddha there is no cyclic existence.
Because there is no cyclic existence there is no causality.
Because there is no causality there is no duality.
Because there is no duality there is no suffering.
Because there is no suffering there is no subject.
Because there is no subject there is no doing.
Because there is no doing it is perfect.

Because it is perfect there is no doing.
Because there is no doing there is no subject.
Because there is no subject there is no suffering.
Because there is no suffering there is no duality.
Because there is no duality there is no causality.
Because there is no causality there is no cyclic existence.
Because there is no cyclic existence there is a buddha.
Because there is a buddha it is unbiased.
Because it is unbiased it is unasserted.
Because it is unasserted it is unobstructed.
Because it is unobstructed everything is possible.
Because everything is possible just rest.

–       Scott Clearwater, July 2020