Sunya & Tithata I: Waving a Stick in a Stream

Sunya & Tithata I

WAVING A STICK IN A STREAM

The world was still to Tathata. the universe at rest.

All that universe in one little mind.

That little mind expanding to envelop that whole big universe.

They say Mount Meru can fit into a mustard seed.

That must be some huge, vast mustard seed.

Or mabye a tiny, petite little Mount Meru.

She shrugged, not entirely concerned. This was introspection. She labelled it thus, and let it pass.

Size didn't matter anyway. If she had ever let herself be bothered by that, she may as well have never bothered... bothering... with the big things in life at least.

At fourteen years of age she could hardly be expected to take on the world, although comprehension of the universe seemed to come naturally.

Thankfully, she remained taintlessly humble, or else her mother's glistening praise for every mundane and not-so-mundane thing she did would have caused her head to grow far too big for that little body long ago. Far bigger, certainly, than that tiny little Mount Meru which may or may not have fitted into a mustard seed.

"Parents..." She said a silent prayer for her mother instead of cursing her apparently over enthusiastic love, then, realizing this was 'attatchment'; of a subtle and acceptable form, but attatchment nonetheless, she labelled it so, and let it pass.

Tathata had been born with an inquisitive and yet restful mind. Perhaps that was a paradox, but that was a good thing.

Her mind knew when to ask questions and when to remain silent.

It was an obedient mind- a happy one. a self sufficient mind.

Good karma, mother has said.

Tathata had gifted her a thoughful smile as if to offer her solice in the likelihood that if it was indeed good karma, it was probably a mixture of that anf good DNA.

Tathata was a content soul even at the worst of times, although she tried not to differentiate.

In quiet contemplation, surrounded only by the cool pitter-patter of playful raindrops on her window paine, that calm mind of hers was allowed to partake of colorful adventures.

To soar in the autumn wind. To loop and sweep over ice capped mountains and dance in the babbling oneness of space and contemplate a universe symultainiously both empty and full.

The front door slammed shut as if some unappreciative victim was desperately trying to keep out the proverbial mad axeman.

Tathata noted it thus; 'door slams. 3AM. Big sister is home', and let it pass.

Sunya habitually deemed it necissary to creep in at ungodly hours.

Actually, the term 'creep' could be applied only loosely since elephants in chinaware shops had been documented to make less noise.

Futhermore, she seemed to have aquired a strange trait of purposefully informing mother that she would be returning home a good three hours before she ever actually intended to, thus facilitating her worried parent to sit up transfixed at the window all night being reassured by her much younger but apparently far more togther daughter that she was fine and had just lost track of time. Mis-mash combinations of alcohol and partying tend to do that to a person.

"Drunkeness is a kind of unintentional satori." Tathata had persuaded her mother, if only to defend Sunya's tarnished reputation in preparation for the slanging match which would inevitably follow.

"SUNI!" Sunya waved off her mother's impending barrage as if warding off a hungry mosquito; "Yeah, yeah mum; its late, you'll wake up the neighbours."

Sunya's clumsy irony verged on the spititually adept; a fact which itself was especially ironic.

Such paradoxes seem to indicate either obscure coincidence or intellegent predtermination... or mabye something in between.

On to Part Two

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