Miwa La (The Mirror) 

O! My friends are you asking me about the hidden orchards of hearts?
Asking a clueless concerning the ethereal trace of the traceless?
Vast It is a shore-less sea, within you & I drown and yet [1]
Asking the direction to the shore from one already sunk?
Over one thousand years minds contemplating a path towards It
All proved ignorant and yet
Seeking the thousand-year path in mere one day alone?
No flowers shall leave the everlasting spring of Its gardens and yet
Seeking this verdant garden in the yellowish autumn of this life?
Shatter the idols of Self and lusts, befriend the nonpareil King of all and yet
Seeking a way out of darkness by asking the brightest minds? [2]
End the Self-gazing and forsake your Self
Open your eyes wide and quest for your true essence
Because you always seek that which your desires look upon. [3]
Closest to you is your own essence, why then enquiring afar [4]
Would you amidst the caravan asking directions from one lost for so long?
You are not close to being a Sage and not afar from being a king
As long as hurts the Beloved’s heartache within [5]
No matter what you quest for, indeed you are always seeking It.


End.
 
 
 
Man is forbidden to look upon himself directly! Unless another object far from his essence, say a mirror, may reflect the light of his face. And by staring upon the mirror directly, then beholds himself indirectly.
 
Similarly, Beloved forbade the lover from looking upon his true-self. Unless another object reflects the light of his true-face from deep within. The radiant proof of a face inescapably in love with Beloved.
 
Know that the Haitian orphan is one such mirror!
 
You look reluctantly upon this mirror. First you see a needy child, doves of sympathy soon startle away. You turn your back but in few steps the ambient reflection of something effulgent pulls you back to the orphan. You look again and upon the face of Haitian orphan you see something afresh!? Something beautiful. Is it the comeliness of a child? And unbeknownst to you the quill of cognizance scribbles the lines of epiphany upon your frowning forehead…
 
When suddenly comes that ephemeral moment, a chasm between the light and the darkness, when capriciously the Haitian orphan, as if a polished perfect mirror, reflects the once hidden face deep within you. You gaze upon your own bewildering beauty, as you have never witnessed before.
 
Lovers! You may lie about yourself, you may drown in depth of self-hate, or roast your face upon the flames of pomp and false-pride to no avail. But the reflection of the orphan’s mirror shall render your true splendid image as was shaped, the very first time, by the Beloved.
 
Lovers! Hurry and look upon this mirror, study your face and prepare yourself prior to the gala rendezvous with the Beloved Creator.
 
Look upon yourself today, because tomorrow your Lord may not!


[1] ‘It’ is refers to the Creator.
 
[2] Farsi sarcasm! Even the best and brightest humiliated to help you.
 
[3] If your eyes are constantly upon your Self & your Self-interest then you can only seek what you stare upon, thus you shall go no place and only find your Self again and again. Your Self grows from your essence the reality of what you are without body without mind without any of this physical existence. Seek that essence at the expense of your Self.
 
How can you seek that essence? Be kind to Haitian orphan! The mirror for your essence.
 
[4] When you are a in caravan which knows where to go, would you ask someone, who is lost for a long time, for directions? You are already on the right path if you stay close to your essence.
 
[5] Did your mate break your heart? That pain is from Beloved. Did the poverty break your heart? That pain is from Beloved a beacon to show you the way. All roads end in Rome, all heartache end with Beloved.


Background: Haitian Orphans  in Port-Au-Prince. Photographs by Karl Grobl.


© 2003-2002,  Dara Shayda