The Very Short Sutra On The Meeting Of The Buddha And The Goddess

By Rick Field
From Risking Everything - 110 Poems of Love and Revelation

Thus I have made up:

Once the Buddha was walking along along the
forest path in the Oak Grove at Ojai, walking
without arriving anywhere or having any thought
of arriving or not arriving

and lotuses shining with the morning dew
miraculously appeared under every step
soft as silk beneath the toes of the Buddha

When suddenly, out of the turquoise sky,
dancing in front of his half-shut inward-looking
eyes, shimmering like a rainbow
or a spider's web
transparent as the dew on a lotus flower,

-the Goddess appeared quivering like a
hummingbird in the air before him

She, for she was surely a she
as the Buddha could clearly see
with his eye of discrimininating awareness wisdom,

was mostly red in colour though when the light
shifted she flashed like a rainbow.

She was naked except for the usual flower
ornaments Goddesses wear

Her long hair was deep blue, her two eyes
fathomless pits of space and her third eye a
bloodshot ring of fire.

The Buddha folded his hands together
and greeted the Goddess thus.

"O Goddess, why are you blocking my path?
Before I saw you I was happily going nowhere.
Now I'm not sure where to go."

"You can go around me," said the Goddess,
twirling on her heels like a bird darting away, but
just a little way away, "or you can come after me.
This is my forest too, you can't pretend I'm not here."

"Perhaps we should have a chat," he said.

After years of arduous practice at the time of the
morning star I penetrated reality, and now ..."

"Not so fast, Buddha.
I am reality."

The Earth stood still, the ocean paused,

the wind itself listened - a thousand arhats,
bodhisattvas, and dakinis magically appeared to
hear what would happen in the conversation.

"I know I take my life in my hands," said the
Buddha. "But I am known as the Fearless One
-so here goes."

Light rays like sunbeams shot forth so bright that
even Sariputra, the All-Seeing One, had to turn
away.

And then they exchanged thoughts and the
illumination was as bright as a diamond candle.

And there was a great silence as vast as the universe
that contains everything

And then they exchanged bodies

And clothes

And the Buddha arose as the Goddess
and the Goddess arose as the Buddha

and so on back and forth for a hundred thousand
hundred thousand kalpas.

If you meet the Buddha you meet the Goddess.
If you meet the Goddess you meet the Buddha

Not only that. This: The Buddha is emptiness
the Goddess is bliss, the Goddess is emptiness the
Buddha is bliss.

And that is what and what-not you are. It's true.

So here comes the mantra of the Goddess and the
Buddha, the unsurpassed non-dual mantra. Just to
say this mantra, just to hear this mantra once makes
everything the way it truly is: OK.

So here it is:
Earth-walker/sky-walker
Hey, silent one, hey, great talker
Not two/Not one
Not separate/Not apart
This is the heart
Bliss is emptiness
Emptiness is bliss

Be your breath, Ah
Smile, Hey
And relax, Ho
And remember this: You can't miss.