Why Share the Dharma – A Poem

There once was a sorrow too deep to name,
A quiet despair, a soft‑burning flame.
A life slipped by like sand through a hand,
Unnoticed, unheld, untrained to understand.

A teacher once whispered, gentle and clear,
“Awareness mindfulness riding the horse, my dear.”
A mindful riding witnessing the play,
Of two‑truths shining united as day.

Relative truth with its shimmering face,
Ultimate truth with its boundless space —
Two in one nature, never apart,
Compassion and emptiness beating one heart.

The wanderer frozen by self-adherence pain,
Realising the life granted, lived in vain.
Not truly upheld — just dreamt unaware,
A puppet of concepts spun out of air.

The Four Noble Truths then knock at the door,
She hadn’t known to answer their call before.
The Four Seals waited, the Paramitas too,
The whole path to awakening — ancient, true.

She saw how the freedoms of human birth,
The rarest treasure found on Earth,
Were passing by in an unclear mind,
A life untrained, a heart confined.

So she vowed in that moment, fierce and bright,
To interrupt ignorance with Dharma’s light.
To plant the path in her mindstream’s flow,
So wisdom could blossom and compassion could grow.

She turned to the refuge of Jewels so dear —
Buddha, Dharma, Sangha ever near.
Guiding her out of self‑made snares,
Out of concepts, clinging, unaware.

And now she shares the Dharma flame,
Not for praise, nor wealth, nor name —
But to spare another that aching grief,
Of a life unlived, of truth too brief.

She shares so others may learn to see,
The empty awareness that sets them free.
She teaches so minds may awaken and find,
The rider at last on the horse of the mind.

She teaches because sorrow became her call,
And compassion rose to embrace us all.

***

Why Share the Dharma (2)

A time before time, for the heart to fulfil,
Not a wanderer moved by unconscious will.
Not for life to slip through unguarded hands,
Like unheld water or drifting sands.

Living unaware of the freedoms he bore,
The endowments that opened the Dharma’s door.
With no rider placed on the awareness’ horse,
No mindful guide to steady its course.

The two truths shone, but he did not see—
Relative life and ultimate empty‑free.
One truth danced as cause and effect,
The other as space the mind could detect.

But without compassionate skilful means to steer,
Without wisdom‑emptiness calm and clear,
The horse of awareness wandered blind,
Led by habits that chained the mind.

A teacher spoke with a quiet grace:
“You’re losing your chance in this human place.
The Four Truths call, yet you do not hear;
The Seals are true, but to live by clear.”

The Paramitas to be lived, patient and kind,
These are to be planted in the mind.
Then when sorrow rose — not despair, but light,
A clarity cutting through endless night.

From that moment a vow took form,
A promise fierce as a gathering storm:
To interrupt ignorance where it stands,
To guide the mind with awakened hands.

To stop living life second‑hand,
To loosen the knots the concepts demand.
To plant the path in the mindstream’s flow,
So wisdom could rise and compassion could grow.

And seeing others wander the same lost way,
He could not leave them to night’s dim sway.
For beings once mothers in lives before,
He opened wide the Dharma’s door.

Sharing became his heart’s true call—
Not preaching, but lifting the veils of all.
Not evangelising, but clearing the air,
So minds could recognise what’s already there.

The Three Jewels shone as the guiding star,
Leading him back from drifting far.
Out of reification, out of the bind,
Into the spaciousness of empty mind.

And now he walks with a vow so deep,
To wake those who wander in karmic sleep.
To stay in samsara’s shifting sea,
Until all beings are wise and free.

For compassion and wisdom, once awake,
Are rivers that never cease to break
Across the shores of suffering’s land—
A bodhisattva’s ever‑open hand.