Buddha’s Enlightenment

When Buddha reached the gate,


the last gate…


the one they say opens into everything and nothing…



the stars bowed low…
the silence held its breath.


“Come,” they said,


“We’ve been waiting…”

But Buddha… didn’t move.

He simply sat there, 
inches from the threshold…


his gaze not turned inward,
 but back…

back toward the world.

He saw them:


the millions of souls,

stumbling… striving…
crying out in the dark…

searching for the door they didn’t know they were walking toward.

The Great Beyond tried again,


“Please.

You’ve done the work.

You are free.

It is time.”

But Buddha gently shook his head.

“How can I go in,” he asked, “when there are still so many out there
lost in the storm?


How can one part of the body rejoice
 while the rest is still in pain?

They are me,” Buddha said.


“Every step I took, I took with them.


Every insight, every breath. We were there together.

We are not separate.

Buddha smiled,
 with a love so wide

it could hold all of suffering in its arms.

“I will wait,” he said. “Not because I must…

but because I finally understand…

there is no Other to leave behind.”

And so he waits.

Not in sadness…


not in sacrifice…


but in Solidarity.

He waits…


still shining at the edge

of the Infinite…

until we all Arrive…

Together.