Sebastian Hayes

Just elements exist, there is no world,
Events emerge from nowhere, blossom, fall,
Each  moment brings forth others, vanishes.

Events emerge from nowhere, blossom, fall,
Like hail upon the earth or glistening froth,
Just elements exist, there is no world.

Like hail upon the earth or glistening froth,
The dharma form and open, scatter, burst,
Each moment brings forth others, vanishes.

The dharma form and open, scatter, burst,
Glistening the froth appears and thunderous the hail,
Just elements exist, there is no world.

Glistening the froth appears and thunderous the hail,
As ceaselessly the living dharma form,
Each moment brings forth others and then vanishes.

from Origins by Sebastian Hayes (available from the author)

Note: dharma is a Sanskrit word which, translated literally,  means ‘elements’. In Hinayana Buddhism, they are the ultimate components of reality : all other ‘entities’ (with the exception of Nirvana and Causality) are constructs of the mind, itself a secondary  entity.

Vasubandhu writes, “Nothing exists but momentary elements, the elements of the former moment exercising (as it were) pressure upon the elements of the following one”.

In Buddhist systems dharma are classified as beneficial, unbeneficial and indeterminate (morally neutral). Only the first two types of dharma have an effect on future lives, i.e. are constitutive of karma.

Note that the dharma are ‘events’ rather than ‘things’ :  they correspond roughly to what, in Eventrics,  I term  ‘ultimate events’ (events which cannot be decomposed into subsidiary events).

Sebastian Hayes