Faces

Link to the original published on 24 April 2022 in Pariyatti Journal https://store.pariyatti.org/Faces_b_69.html

On the mind’s screen
Faces unknown are seen
Strangers from the past nameless to my conscious mind
Strangers from the future whom I might meet sometime
Or just random images in meditation time.

What are these faces?
Images of my imaginations wanderings?
Premonitions half sound?
Or saṅkhāra from the past coming around?
Perhaps these are hypnogogic images,
Marking the transition between sleep and wakefulness
That reveal the extent of my body’s inertia
And come to inspire me towards alertness away from a half sleep.

I wish I could sketch portraits or paint
To capture these dream like fragile futures or the unremembered pasts’ quaint
For now I hang on to the fragments seen
And remember the stronger impressions gleaned.

Faces that cross the mind’s screen
Catalyzed by the focus on breath, as in a dream
With closed eyes they constantly ream
Accentuating the colors of the cinema screen
Capturing the ambience, environment and moods umpteen
Highlighting the video images till the beam
But mostly they emerge in stillness, half seen
Suddenly sprouting up and disappearing from the minds screen
Sometimes it feels like they are in the body intertwined
I want my consciousness from these faces weaned
Hopefully regular practice will intervene.