First Free Women Poems

Here are a few poems taken from the First Free Women, a book of poems of awakening by the early Buddhist nuns, written some 2,500 years ago. Still relevant?

Mitta – Friend

Full of trust you left home,
and soon learned to walk the path –
making yourself a friend to everyone
and making everyone a friend.

When the whole world is your friend,
fear will find no place to call home.

And when you make the mind your friend,
you will know what trust
really means.

Listen.

I have followed this path of friendship to its end.
And I can say with absolute certainty –
It will lead you home.

Abhirupananda – Delighting in Beauty

Haven’t you spent enough time
comparing your hair
and your clothes
and your face
to the hair
and the faces
and the clothes
of those around you?

See the body for what it is.

Real beauty is in
the clear open light
of the nonjudgmental heart.

Grandma Sumana

After
all those years
looking after others,
this old heart
has finally
learned
to look
after
itself.

Each act of kindness
a stitch in this warm blanket
that now covers me
while I sleep.