The Empty Bowl

 

SUJATA PRIYAMBADA

 

My virtues and my sins

My sorrows and my joys

My thoughts and my deeds

My earnings all,

Have been assembled since my birth

In the bowl of my heart.

 

I have now outpoured all that

from the bowl,

And….

Have taken refuge in the Buddha

Have taken refuge in the Dhamma

Have taken refuge in the Sangha.

 

O Tathagata!

I am now standing before you

Holding this empty bowl;

O Serene,

O Free!

That you may fill it to the brim

with the Nectar of your Bodhi ...

The Sublime,

The Eternal.

Translated from Hindi by Acharya Shantibhadra

 

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