Part 10
The smile still smiles
But the music doesn't retreat. It reaches the ripples of
a river that glimmers unknown, and enters a cave darkened
by silence. And climbs little hills where it meets the silence
of tombs this time. Chinese tombs. Little temples, three
feet tall, covered with little flags. The graveyards of
eternity.
And the music lulls to this little hideout. I see this statue
of the Buddha everyday from my window. He is away on the
mountain, beckoning. But till the music lured, time had
always stolen the moment away. Not this time. The music
and the moment create just the right symphony. And another
mountain is to be climbed. The sounds of civilization are
left behind as the rustle of leaves and the twitter of birds
emerge in its wake.
The Buddha
is not easy to find, and demands 775 grueling steps from
weary legs before I finally stand at his giant foot. And
glance up at the smiling visage. A cruel wind tugs and pulls
the last ounce of energy left in me. I struggle to stay.
But the Buddha is unmoved. The smile is unchanged.
The smile still
smiles. The blessing hand still blesses. The moment moves
through the music of many emotions, memories and lessons.
And reaches stillness. For one fleeting second I hold the
stillness in my hand and wonder at this invisible snowflake…
before it melts. Melts into the music. And as the moment
passes and another slips in gently, I bid one last goodbye
to the Buddha. And thank him silently. For providing and
sharing one moment of timeless preciousness.
And that's
when the Buddha gives me his parting gift. Lesson Ten is
whispered over the howling wind. Life is full of infinite
moments. Not just one moment. Infinite moments of preciousness
that pile up and fall over each other, and beg us to see
them. Beg us to hold them in the palm of our hands, and
wonder at them for a while. Just a while, before the next
preciousness arrives.
