Eyes open,
Hands open claws;
The fool rushes madly about,
Seeking that which brings happiness at last.
People smile,
While their hearts turn away;
People extend their hands,
While their minds compute possible gains.
Are you surprised
When promises are broken?
When lies are spoken
With absolute sincerity?
When a lover of devoted passion
Slams the door in your face?
It is the way of the world
Of fleeting forms:
All rushing towards their end.
How do these forms know
Where the current will take them?
They think it is they
And their vain desires
That leads them to the next moment.
Only the fool trusts these fleeting forms,
Bobbing down the river to tomorrow.
What foolishness to trust those
Who control not where they go,
let alone the thoughts they think.
Only the fool expects consistency.
Only the fool expects reason.
Only the fool expects expectations fulfilled.
Only the wise trusts not the sanity
Of those with insane desires:
Those who chase after this
And run from that.
The wise would trust a monkey
With its tail on fire
To do as requested,
Before trusting one who burned with desires.
The wise does not rely on the floating forms;
Only on the unfailing current carrying all forms.
In fact, the wise pays no heed to the forms at all.
Only the current and its certainty
Offers the wise fulfillment.
--excerpt from “Footprints Along the Shore of an Incoming Tide,” by Janaka
janakastagnaro.com