Zenning

      

By Yuan Changming

Immanence: a Sonnet about Zen/Chan   It will set our mind in permanent peace, the idea That the soul has plenty of afterlives after our Bodily death, or survives our physical being Within the shape of trouble of misery. For each   Selfhood there is a seed of anti-self that keeps Growing until it becomes perfectly identified with Our old selves. By the same token, each fortune is Off-set by a misfortune; each failure, suffering   Chaos, emptiness by success, bliss, order and Fulfillment. Just as yin keeps seeking the balance With yang or the other way around, the opposites Will be unified in the immanence as in permanence       Since each absence is a transitory state of presence     Why not fill our hearts with peace and harmony Zen Secret about Happiness    Less = more, as many know it   But few can do this calculation in deed: Whereby you can maximize your happiness By reducing your desires to the minimum As the denominator of your inner life set Against your outer existence; in other words   Happiness = haves / wants A Puti Poem: Meditating   Imagine Just imagine Sitting under a tall pipal On a vast stretch of prairies Where you are transformed, transforming Your entire physical being  Into the little marigold in front of you Then, the running stream water The gliding bird The drifting cloud The morning light The summer sky Where you are The universe Where the universe Is you Present : for Qi Hong   Where yin and yang                                           run into each other Where the Atlantic and the Pacific                                                                           meet Where a fallen leaf is blown up and                                                                                            flies like a bird Where she reveals                             her fair and shapely shoulders to you Where a pile of scrambled words                                                   assemble themselves into a line Where an ant tries to cross a crack  i                                                           in the cemented pavement Where you hide the fragments                                                   of a collaged photo of you two Where he enters to make love                                                   while she is talking dirty with you Now is the moment where                                                  to fulfil your selfhood with mindfulness Awakening   as a stony statue sitting still under a tremendous tree my inner self fallen into a deep doze while i travel around all the time     trying to find the right path             through the thorny bushes     leading to the hill top             a large flock of nameless birds       held in their unsinging mouths             a hundred rainbow flowers     following me in the smiling sky             as if to escort my journey home             or ready to celebrate my birthday             the second i see my naked self all the birds and flowers are gone             except the big shadowless tree             standing against the serenity of skies         Bio: Yuan Changming co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. Writing credits include 16 chapbooks, 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 3 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2129 other publications across 51 countries. A poetry judge for Canada's 44th National Magazine Awards, Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022. His debut novel Detaching, 'silver romance' The Tuner and short story collection Flashbacks are all available at Amazon, his duology Edening due out in 2026.