By: Jack Saunsea
love to write. It is one of the most important tasks I believe I am here on this earth to do. Writing has been instrumental in connecting and building relationships with people all over the world. While at the same time there is a certain admission I must make in this craft i endeavor in using words as my form of artistic expression: words are not reality.
Poets use words in attempting to describe that which is in essence unspeakable truth. And perhaps poetry is a form of organizing words in such a way which gets closest to describing reality. Perhaps that is why so many texts considered to be divinely inspired scripture take on a form of poetry.
Words describe things. And so if I want to speak about that which isn’t anything, the nothingness which surrounds all things, I am severely limited in terms of words. Zen master’s will often use a bell or gong of some sort in conducting their meetings as a way of helping people understand this unspeakable reality. As Thich Nhat Hahn states:
“Hearing the bell,
I am able to let go of all afflictions.
My heart is calm,
my sorrows ended.
I am no longer bound to anything.
I learn to listen to my suffering
and the suffering of the other person.
When understanding is born in me,
compassion is also born.”
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