in this passing moment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  may my path
  benefit everyone!

 

I vow to choose what is:
If there is cost, I choose to pay.
If there is need, I choose to give.
If there is pain, I choose to feel.
If there is sorrow, I choose to grieve.
When burning -- I choose heat.
When calm -- I choose peace.
When starving -- I choose hunger.
When happy -- I choose joy.
Whom I encounter, I choose to meet.
What I shoulder, I choose to bear.
When it is my death, I choose to die.
Where this takes me, I choose to go.
Being with what is -- I respond to what is.

~ Hogen Bays

excerpts from  The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World

 (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology) 

Edited by Ivan M. Granger 

 

Hogen Bays and his wife, Jan Chozen Bays, are the co-abbots

 of Great Vow Monastery in Oregon as well as being the spiritual directors

 and primary teachers with the Zen Community of Oregon.