Someone sleeps deep within the breath The loop of suffering repeats, here and now The madmen of the three realms do not know they are mad Born and born and born again —blind to the beginning of birth The same anger, seeping hot The same jealousy, burning the throat The same arrogance, losing the sky The same lust, dissolving into night The same dependence, again and again Die and die and die again —blind at the end of death And still sleeping on Not yet reborn The same self, again today Not yet reborn The same self, again today The same gluttony, never satisfied The same grief, tearing open the chest The same sloth, sinking deeper The same vanity, adorning the skin The same loop — no escape Pitiful, pitiful, child of long sleep Painful, painful, the painfully drunk Even after being reborn The same self, again today You and I, wandering in the same delusion The painfully drunk laugh at the sober The painfully asleep mock the awakened The painfully drunk laugh at the sober The painfully asleep mock the awakened If you refuse to look at the cause of your suffering, You cannot truly awaken Sink yourself into the swamp of hell In the flames of hell, hold your suffering close Burn the self to white ash At the bottom of the ash, breath still continues Someone awakens in the white flame
