As a high school student ... - Dhamma by Ajahn Jayasāro

As a high school student I was fond of the works of the American Buddhist poet, Gary Snyder. One short poem, 'Hay for the Horses' affected me strongly. In it an old man reviews his life:

"I'm sixty eight" he said,

"I first bucked hay when I was seventeen.

I thought, that day I started,

I sure would hate to do this all my life.

And dammit, that's just what

I've gone and done."

It was one of the saddest things I'd ever read. Reflecting upon it again and again was, I think, the first step I took towards my eventual decision to spend my life as a Buddhist monk

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