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March 13, 2025: Yan Ciupak, "Life Is Samsara, She Said"


Life Is Samsara, She Said


by: Yan Ciupak

I fell asleep beneath the Bodhi Tree,
the ocean of Samsara swirling around me.
Kali, the fierce divine mother, wearing red,
whispered cosmic truths thunder loud.

“Life is Samsara,” she said,
A dream churned with birth and death,
a fleeting sigh of moments
between the first cry and the last breath.

In the stillness, the Gita spoke,
"Unreal never is, the real never ends."
A secret woven through veils,
where loss and gain are but mirages.

Dream upon dream churned endlessly,
a cosmic sea of light and strife,
each birth a ripple, each death a wave,
Samsara, the ocean we call life.

The wheel of being, relentless, turns,
joy and sorrow, fire that burns.
Yet Krishna whispers, calm and deep,
"Be steadfast, Arjuna, awake from sleep."

Beneath the Bodhi Tree, petals fell,
As the Buddha smiled and broke the spell.
“See through the samsara, reveal nirvana.
Dreams and dreamers are but one and the same."



Dr. Yan Zhao Ciupak is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Northern Michigan University and a certified yoga instructor. Her next book, Death, Dying, and Grief, will be published in 2025.  She is a Yooper.

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