Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
I chant it, breathe it, or just think it
sometimes when I’m feeling anxious,
that little Japanese mantra I was given
by a friendly young woman
on the subway the spring I hitched to New York
on my way to Europe. I was fresh off
the road, heavy backpack, new hiking boots,
I’m sure had out-of-towner written
all over me. This woman — I remember
she was short with wavy sandy-colored
hair — brought her face close to mine and said,
“This will help you to center,” and
wrote it so I wouldn’t forget. I was
lonesome but hopeful that year in the last
days of my twenties, discovering
I could open the door of Nam myoho
renge kyo and find reservoirs of calm.
Nichiren Buddhist, translates variously
as Glory to the Dharma of the Lotus
Sutra and I take refuge in the Lotus
of the Wonderful Law. I relied on it
camping in bushes beside the autobahn
or trying to sleep in a seedy
hotel room in Milan. Even now when
troubles worry me awake, I breathe in
Nam myoho and breathe out renge kyo
thinking of that time when I was lost
and trying to find the way back to my life,
and I thank that woman who pegged me for
the worried pilgrim I was on the New
York subway and gave me the sublime gift
of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law.
Thomas R. Smith is a poet, essayist, editor, and teaching living in western Wisconsin. His most recent book of poems is Medicine Year (Paris Morning Publications). He is the editor of a forthcoming collection of Robert Bly’s essays on poetry and the writing life, The Garden Entrusted to Me (White Pine Press)
Amethyst Review 