Sage's Satori Strolling down the street he scanned faces of strangers and saw their stress, suffering, and sorrow. What happened to that childhood joy and wonder? Where have they gone? Walking through the woods, each tree told their stories opening their books— the history of the world. In this time machine he witnessed history not as past reenactments but the events themselves. Nature played its symphony— buzzing of a bee chirping of crickets sprinkling of rain tinkling of a bell croaking of frogs and trumpeting of an elephant. Songs of birds became clear to him as they did to Attar when he wrote that tale Conference of the Birds— O Hoopoe, guide us through the Sacred Hoop so we may fly with you to paradise. Clouds too unveiled their secret journey from sea to sky and back again, an eternal return not as waves in their rise and fall not finding the kingdom of water but looking within to discover their true essence as H2O— then doubt disappears as well as the fear of death. May this be a lesson for us— focus less on matter & body and more on spirit & soul. At last we know why plucking a single flower will move a distant star, for we're all connected to that Net of Indra— each of us a jewel, an atom reflecting every other atom in this myriad matrix of space-time in a universe without beginning or end. — Peter Y. Chou     Mountain View, 2-8-2010