Nirvana Day

I shouldn't let this day pass without also noting that in the tradition of many Mahayana Buddhists it is the observance of Nirvana Day. This is an observation of the Parinirvana -- death and entry into Nirvana -- of the historical Buddha. While the entire concept of Nirvana and the Buddha is not amenable to words there is a poem that strikes me as something close.

High Flight

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

This was written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.,an Anglo-American aviator and poet who died as a result of a mid-air collision over Lincolnshire during World War II.