by Suwanda H J Sugunasiri

(In honour of my Kalyana Mitta, the late Prof. Ananda W P Guruge)

————————–

It was high-flying

You decided to go, the

Same way you

Lived, for four score

Plus years, seeking

To pull everyone on your

Path, to fuller heights, if

Not to match yours, but

To one’s own highest, living

In this samsaric

Quagmire, called the world.

 

You let no obstacle

Stand in your way, in

Taking the message

Of the Dhamma, hoisting

The Flag of beloved

Lanka, the UNESCO,

the academic portals,

the public forum,

all on your palm,

inspiring one

inspiring all,

ever there

to give a hand

to share a thought, the

airports of the world

your home to etching

the latest

research, intuiting

the latest

insight, in

between flights,

weaving full flights

of fancy into

three full novels,

another on its way

when Mara sought

your company, bored

with the bland

that come his way.

 

Sharing your smile

You go his way

Confidence oozing

That it won’t be long

Before Mara will have to

Return to his

Well-earned boredom.

 

We your family

We your friends

We the Buddhist world

We the Ambassadors

We the Buddhist Academy

We all the rest

Have not a shred

Of doubt that the

Higher Path

Is awaiting

With a red carpet

For your arrival.

 

May you then, we beseech,

Not rest in peace, until

Until until that

Higher peace

Of the ‘UNBORN’

Is all smiles

In your face!

NOTE: ‘Unborn’ (Pali ajāta) refers to Nibbāna, the goal of a Buddhist.

 

Toronto, Canada

August 17 2014

 

(Buddhist scholar Suwanda H J Sugunasiri is author of three collections of poetry, and the extraordinary first novel”, Untouchable Woman’s Odyssey.)