Simply Waiting

In the morning I sit remembering Longchenpa's advice to observe thoughts with awareness like an old man, basking in the sun, watching children play. And it's easy to effortlessly sit like this without a care in the world. Pema sits as well, facing me sphinx-like, soft and warm and eventually I turn my attention to him to watch as thoughts and sensations play across his face. He is his own old man, like me, each with our own minds at play. His simple, being a dog, but with a complexity and subtlety that defies imagination. Eventually our eyes meet and like dancers we read and match each other’s inner moves. Intently he watches the way other dogs might hunt a squirrel in the trees, and I see I have been his only master so that now I am the Sun he orbits while he, the son I never had. In the morning we sit together an odd couple, two old men, father and son, our souls dancing until it is time to get up. And in an instant I can see that for Pema it has all been an exercise in patience simply waiting to take a walk. (from my fifth book of poems, EXTRACTING THE ESSENCE, 2021)