Dharma Forest

In Praise of the Buddha Jewel

A new song in praise of the Buddha Jewel sung to the tune of "Amazing Grace."

Praise the Buddha Jewel

(Original artwork by Yao Dajuin. (Look for the little Buddhas!)

Upon the earth, below the sky, the Buddha has no peer,
In Ten Directions everywhere, he is beyond compare.

He’s gone beyond duality, he’s never born again,
With wisdom bright he blesses me, he knows my joy and pain.

He walked the Noble Middle Way, with strength and purity
In dark of night and light of day, his kindness touches me.

He’s not divine, but he’s awake, he’s neither come nor gone,
I find him in each blade of grass, he is the wisdom sun.

I’ve searched around this whole wide world, and now I can declare,
You’ll never find another one like Buddha anywhere.

Ballad of Super-Strong

The Ballad of Super Strong

Here is the Ballad of Super Strong, written on the Three Steps, One Bow pilgrimage by Dr. Martin Verhoeven. It's written about Great Strength Bodhisattva, with whom Marty has special affinities.

Sweet-tooth Blues

While bowing up the Coast of California on a pilgrimage I attempted to subdue my taste for sweets by cutting all sugar out of my diet. To encourage my resolve I wrote this song, "Sweet Tooth Blues." Since then I have added a bit of sugar to my diet, not too much. :^)

Ballad of the Dharma Doctor

Ballad of the Dharma Doctor

Before I became a Buddhist monk I considered a career in medicine. I tried pre-Med at UC Berkeley and found the courses too demanding for a science and math-phobe like myself. I volunteered at the emergency room at Highland Hospital and found hands-on healing more to my taste. I asked Ven. Master Hua about becoming a doctor. He indicated that I had been a doctor for many lifetimes past and that this time, I might try advancing beyong fixing the body and try to heal the soul, the mind, instead, beginning with my own. "Even the best doctor has to lie down and die whent the time comes," he said. "Don't you think that birth and death, mortality, is the real disease worth curing?" he asked me.

That question lead to the writing of this song that I finally wrote down during the Three Steps, One Bow pilgrimage for world peace.

Ask The Elders

Ask the Elders

Bowing a repentance ceremony in Paris and I saw in an instant one of the reasons that America is a country on the move, why our soul as a nation is not at peace. I saw why we have declared war on the land of this continent and why although we have reached the furthest Western extent of the continent, we can stand at the Golden Gate and look out West to the flat, endless expanse of ocean, we still do not find homeland beneath our feet. There is a reason why we are a nation on wheels, why our creed is "let's get out of here," why even our dwellings have wheels.