Saint Julian Press Poet

Ron Starbuck - Author and Poet

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Sūnyatā - Emptiness is Form - Form is Emptiness

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emptiness
is a cupless cup
without shape
formless and lucid
luminous with light

precisely positioned
between
heaven and earth
where the space within
is completely transparent
unspoken, without words

where
a single raindrop
fragile and compliant
essential in form
falling quickly or gently
may be caught
and collected

to be seen
as a reflection
unstated in its purity
as a thought
arising out of
of our beingness

coming into being
faintly glowing at first
as the vividness
of daybreak
becomes brighter
and brighter


as we awaken to each day
each thought, understood
explicitly expressed
guided by wisdom

in the mystery, which is God
which is creation
which is infinite
which is reality
which we create
from ourselves

where we hold
with breathlessness,
many new beginnings
being and becoming

where we hold
each new creation
in the holiness
of the heart

arising out of
each sacred moment
of the day,
in the smallest of things
in kindness freely given
and unasked for
accepted with graciousness

in compassion found
in the strangest of places
almost alien in encounter
in grace given
out of our desire

to heal and repair each human heart
where all people
are one


where we empty ourselves
to become
as one


The Kenosis Hymn - Philippians 2:5-8

Kenosis is the Greek word for emptiness.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death--
   even death on a cross.

In Buddhist philosophy, Śūnyatā (shoon-yuh-tah) is the voidness that constitutes ultimate reality. Śūnyatā is seen not as a negation of existence but rather as the undifferentiation out of which all apparent entities, distinctions, and dualities arise. Its full implications were developed by the 2nd-century Indian philosopher Nagarjuna and the school of philosophy founded by him, the Madhyamika (Middle Way), is sometimes called the Sunyavada, or Doctrine That All Is Void.

Genesis 1 (21st Century King James Version) - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 

The opening photograph at the top is of the South Reflection Pool at the World Trade Center Memorial site in lower Manhattan, NYC, taken on November 4, 2011.

Ron Starbuck

from Wheels Turning Inward

Copyright 2010