Sometimes you encounter people who are so pure, beautiful, and content. They give you the impression that they are divine, that they are actually saints or holy beings. What you perceive in them is their awakened self, their Buddha nature, and what they reflect back to you is your own capacity for being awake.
–Thich Nhat Hanh, Your True Home
Mirrors
Not pedestals
I need to see…
Eyes meeting eyes
Yours to mine
Not looking up
At you
For that distances us
Your being awake
Nudges me
To being awake
Or at least
Come to see
That there’s a better way to go through life
Than sleepwalking
You’re not ontologically
Different from me
To think so
Is an error
Is an evasion
Is “self-serving”
In the sense
Of evading
My true self
“A lotus for you
A Buddha to be”
A lotus for you
A Buddha already–
At least as we sit together
Outside
At Café Ventana
No worries
No futurizing
No kvetching
No distractions
Present to the breezes
Present to the few clouds
Present to each other’s smile
You bring me back
To my true self
So, namaste forever, Doc
For 12 years
Of us inter-being
Al-Hamdulilah!
