|
Cesca Anderson
The morning was crisp and clear,
just like any other.
When I looked in the mirror
I saw a face I thought I knew.
I smiled, and winked, and went about my way.
I stopped in the hall to collect my bags.
They were adversity and sorrow,
wretchedness and bitterness.
There too was happiness and joy;
but in the smaller of the bags.
All of a life ever so neatly packed
in the bags that I carried with me day after day.
But this day was special, not just like any other,
today was the day that my journey would begin.
So my baggage and I strolled down the garden path…
As the sun rose in the sky,
I came to the foot of the mountain.
Filled with fancy and wonderment,
all the preconceived notions
of what I thought my climb would be.
And there it was I met my guides,
through rays of sunlight beaming down.
Waiting for me under emerald trees
they looked at me and smiled a while,
and then they said to me:
“Child see your burdens, your hunch’ed back!
What is it you carry in those large sacks?”
I dumped my bags down at my feet;
“My past, my present, my future dreams.
They go with me, where ever I go.”
They shook their heads, with saddest smiles;
“How ever will you climb under such a weight?
The road is rocky and steep to climb,
you shall have to leave them behind this time…”
I looked to my feet, the bags of my life,
the culmination of my pride and strife.
“But what will I do without them?” I asked
“They are my life, my very being!”
“You will climb,” they replied, “and grow
without the weight of your sorrow to bind you.”
“Alright then, I shall leave them here,” I said
“and collect them up on my decent.”
Again they smiled and turned from me
to start the winding stony path.
And as I began at first to falter
one bowed to me and whispered:
“Pine trees and rocks remain unknown
to those who look for Mind with mind.”
I puzzled at this, and thought a while,
and looked about me with eyes anew.
The other stopped and mused to me;
“To realise your own Mind you must first
look into the Source from which all your thoughts flow.”
And so was my beginning, the Origin of my Being.
As the moon began to rise,
we came upon a mountain stream
They said: “Enlightenment is like the moon,
reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet,
nor is the water broken.”
We slept the night, I tossed and turned,
my bags had come to haunt me:
“How dare you leave us, beneath this tree!
We’ve made you who you are!”
They jeered and jibed and sneered at me,
and I hid my face behind my hands.
Then I lowered my hands. I disagreed.
“For your convenience I gave you life!
For this was how I thought it should be!”
But now I see you are not me!
You’ve plied me with lies and misery for
thinking without you I could not Be!”
“Well I Be,” I said “I Be!”
We travelled a day, and a night and a day.
I had stumbled and faltered. I had cried
and I had prayed. I had looked within
and I had seen my own light. They said:
“Those who seek liberation for themselves alone,
cannot become fully enlightened”
I saw myself in the river of life,
flowing with neither beginning or end.
I found that we are all alike, even be it
in the very uniqueness of our souls.
They nodded and smiled, I understood -
That peace came from accepting, not understanding.
As we reached our summit, they turned to me.
“Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain,
but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon.”
I bathed in its light, in the light of my being;
and as I looked down into darkness I saw only light.
A river of souls below me had brightened the night.
Acknowledgements
- Pine trees and rocks remain unknown to those who look for Mind with mind. – Shih-wu
- To realise your own Mind you must first look into the Source from which all your thoughts flow. - Bassui
- Enlightenment is like the moon, reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. – Dogen
- Those who seek liberation for themselves alone, cannot become fully enlightened – Muso Kokushi
- Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon. - Ikkyu
|
