The Buddha And Happiness

Your idol sits calm in my living room I pass by it at least a hundred times But never have time even to notice it once How am I then to pause and listen To your ancient message of wisdom The panacea for universal peace? Your image is just a decorative piece That boasts of my spiritual side When I really am miserable Driven by innumerable wants In a crazy samsara that ceaselessly haunts I keep running helter-skelter In search of fruition of my desires And happiness, always out of reach Receding into the horizons Mirages the chase of which Gives only fatigue and pain in the end You had the courage to renounce All that you thought belonged to you And wander about seeking truth Till it revealed in blazing clarity In the sprawling shade of a Bodhi tree Please tell me how that will came about And will it be mine if I beseech You everywhere, every second, without cease So that without a trace of guilt I can rescind all my roles – Husband, son and everything Like you did that lonely night Or, have I got it all very wrong? A story goes that someone said “It is happiness that I want” And you asked him with a smile To get rid of the “I” and “want” What then remained was “happiness” Sure that was what you really meant The seeker himself is happiness If he stopped being the seeking self Please grant me, therefore, the will To leave my wants and ego at Your Feet Please put me under a Bodhi tree So that I can play my roles Whatever they are as come by Like a Buddha, enlightened, serene Unhaunted by world’s trappings As a piece of happiness that is peace