In Buddha’s sunlit laboratory
(or Dhamma chamber),
experiments by laboratory assistants
(or monks)
demonstrate
that if you shine the light
of investigation
on form, feeling, perception,
thoughts and consciousness
and apply continuous mindfulness
at the very centre
of the rising and falling
of these phenomena,
all things are seen
to be without a permanent self
and a state of Peace
is found behind the suffering,
which fevers this loose aggregation of parts
we claim as our own self,
and replaces it.

“We rise on stepping stones
 of our dead selves
 to higher things.”

“It is excellent, good Gautama,”
says Prince Abhaya.
“It is as if one might set upright
what had been upset,
or might reveal
what had been covered
or show the way
to one who had gone astray
or bring an oil lamp into the darkness
so that one with vision might see…”

(from BAMBOO LEAVES)

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