Boleh Tahan ~ MORTALITY

My teacher lies there on the floor:

a butterfly, fluttering away its final moments.

I watch, feeling its life-force slip away,

unable to help or console.

I am the same as it in my mortality;

the life-force will leave me, too.

But I am also different,

in that I can know and understand,

It suffers; I suffer;

who suffers more: it or I?

The butterfly cannot recall its past,

and knows nothing of the processes

which rule its life,

so just accepts, unquestioningly,

whatever happens to it.

I do not.

I think, I feel, I wonder why,

and want to know,

and this increases suffering,

yet necessarily, so that,

in facing it, it may be overcome.