Janaka Stagnaro - Trust

Trust in your eyes,
And like a fool
You will flee the rope
And pat yourself on the back
For having escaped a snake.

Trust in your eyes
And like a fool
Your mouth will be full of desert sand,
Trying to quench your aching thirst.

Trust in your eyes
And like a fool
You will find yourself waist deep,
And going deeper,
As you try to cross what appears to be solid ground.

Nothing you see is as it is.
It is no more than a mirage,
An image filtered through existing beliefs.

You look upon the world,
And all those images you see,
You believe exist outside yourself.

You are separate.
They are there.
This is the premise by which you see.

You want this.
You shun that.

But what you want you have known.
And what you shun you have known.

Look at a child,
Or the Master,
Each thing they come across is new,
Is born that very moment.

What was once a bowl
Now is a hat,
And then becomes a house for ants.

The eyes of a child,
Or of the Master,
Blesses the world with fresh light,
Chasing away musty shadows
Of yesterday’s perceptions;
Chasing away ancient shadows
Of this and that—
Me and you.

And when the child
Or the master looks upon you,
It is the present that beholds you,
Free of all mistakes
And all accomplishments,
And sees you only as you are.

It is freedom to look upon the world as a child,
With no schemes, no ambitions
, Only the simple act of blessing the world
With the birth of the moment.

You want to do good works?
You want to save the world from its misery?

You need not go out of your way to feed the poor,
Or to go out and tend the sick.
Simply see the world with the eyes of a child.

For what the adult will find disgusting and foul,
Like excreta upon the grass,
The child will see it as a whole world onto itself,
Beckoning to be explored.

Be the child.
Be the Master.
See the world as it is.

And rejoice,
For God looks back at God. 

--poem from Footprints Along the Shore of an Incoming Tide: 

Impressions of a Fellow Traveler

 

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