' Beyond Reincarnation '...

Flowers, sesame seed, bowls of fresh water,
a tuft of kusa-grass, all this altar
paraphernalia is not needed
by someone who takes the teacher's words in
and honestly lives them.

Full of longing in meditation,
one sinks into a joy that is free
of any impulse to act and will not
enter a human birth again.




- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992