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Awakening Ourselves is Awakening Others
~ Zen Master Thich Thong Hoi & Zen Master Thich Dieu Thien ~
Buddha is within, ignorance covers
Forever chasing after thoughts and losing ourselves.
Attaching to karma day and night
Moktak sound cannot end attachments.
Living in the temple but keeps on missing his lover
Bodhi tree cannot blossom.
The sutra verse is still echoing forever
Suffering and hatred chasing after for many fall seasons.
Because ignorance, not clear about illusion and Awake
Attaching to form, looking for Buddha outside
What suffering, or why
We cannot turn back, lifetime after lifetime
Becoming more distant from Buddha
Does the sutra verse mean anything?!
Because we haven't yet awakened ourselves, how can we awaken others?
The flow of life never goes our way
Why blaming the water flowing heartlessly?
For thousands of lifetimes, things come and go
Why our mind is mentally distressed?
In Awake mind, there is no sound nor picture
Crazily believing everything is real.
Living with illusion mind
The more we practice, the farther away from Lord Buddha
Because not clear about our inner mind
Clinging to the tragic love relationship
Heavy burden in the mind from missing his lover
Cannot let go of her image.
Let’s ask ourselves, practicing like this
Blindly inviting the moktak and chanting
We haven't yet awakened ourselves, so how can we awaken others?!
Day by day lighting up Wisdom
Realizing clearly our true self and ego self
For thousands of lifetimes, things come and go
The True Nature is Emptiness
In Awake mind, there is no sound nor picture.
Clearly realizing the source of ignorance
Breaking ignorance and afflictions
The ego self is like fleeting clouds!
Open, spacious, pure, disturbed by nothing
Manifesting from the source of Awake.
The source of infinite Wisdom and Compassion
Liberating from the clinging to human love forever.
Paying gratitude to Buddha in this lifetime
Steping into life to awaken all sentient beings.
Awakening ourselves is awakening others!