Tathagata With Nine Eyes

Tathagata With Nine Eyes
© Surazeus
2026 01 30

When she travels back to land of her birth, 
small island ever floating in blue mist, 
she finds photos and relics of the past 
as treasures that vibrate with psychic signs 
containing spirits her ancestors beam 
that preserve their memories in mute form. 

When she opens old leather-covered book 
to read poems her great-grandmother composed 
concerning life of curious characters 
who lived in village by the mountain lake, 
dust of her long-vanished soul from the page 
causes her to sneeze as she starts to cry. 

Fragile photo with crumbling edges gleams 
with gray fading ghost of the slender girl 
wearing long batik skirt and white lace blouse 
whose body aged and vanished long ago, 
wrinkled and thin as long vine in moist heat, 
eyes black with beauty of the midnight moon. 

She rides Garuda halfway round the Earth 
to visit village by the muddy stream 
and walk in grove of old banana trees 
where her ancestors lived six thousand years, 
lush paradise now teeming with small cars 
that crowd narrow roads in vast city maze. 

She opens tin box hidden in the drawer 
to find small jewel her ancestor found 
eight hundred years ago one afternoon 
when he was hunting demons in dark woods 
on slope of Mount Semeru where swift birds 
lead him to cavern of One-World God. 

Enchanted by tune of the Gamelan 
that rings with voice of Nyai Roro Kidul 
in sun-gleaming temple of Achintya, 
she ponders oneness of all deities 
who emanate from supreme nothingness 
to manifest multiple states of mind. 

She feels glow deep in vastness of her heart 
emptiness of truth that beams energy 
composing all material forms of being, 
so she takes new selfie with her eye-phone 
and posts it on her social media site 
to preserve ancestral soul of her heart. 

Having worked her way up to state of love 
for every creature living on this Earth, 
she becomes Tathagata with nine eyes 
as she glides gracefully on glowing clouds 
when she returns home to Oconia 
where she eats Batavia soup with her family.