Groundless

My friend Barry posted this Sutta (Sutra*) at his blog http://www.oxherding.com/  Please see his March 13 post. He posts it for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. 

This world completely lacks essence;

It trembles in all directions.

I longed to find myself a place

Unscathed — but I could not see it.

Attadanda Sutta

But who among us hasn't felt ungrounded?  Do we react to that by grasping and clinging, by trying to find a safe domicile for our ego?

Sometimes I feel completely ungrounded.  Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.  Sometimes I think those experiences are in fact contact with my true spiritual self. 

How do the oppressed feel?  How do the oppressors feel?

*The scripture of Buddhism is transcribed in different traditions in two languages, both "dead" languages, like Latin. One is Pali, and thus Sutta; the other is Sanskrit and thus Sutra.  The Buddhist canon is divided into three groups: The Sutras (the teachings); the Abidharma (the commentaries); and the Vinaya (the monastic rules).