Close your eyes and see
Do it right now for 5 minutes and see what you feel.
Close your eyes and all the nefarious symbols of misfortune disappear. No race, no religion and no class. Everything can be taken on a no face value. Birds who have no money, home, or savings, will dominate your world as they sing and twirple their songs to the Sun. Leave them closed long enough and you will feel and think nothing. This contrast between open and shut eyes is as immense as the universe acting outside and inside of you. What we see with our eyes closed is far more real than the world flashing its desires down our throat via our eyes like blackbirds lining their nests with sparkling diamonds.
Open your eyes and your life will be a play orchestrated by everyone else; close them and you will home with your soul. We are all conditioned to look at something beautiful: scenery, girls and boys, cars, clothes, and art; naturally or via a multitude of screens. We are also conditioned to listen to anyone speaking or singing within earshot, as if it is meant for us. Advertising has totally ruined our eyes and our lives. We are prisoners to the world around us wanting our attention, then our money. I have been in many situations with large groups of people, at meetings or seminars, where once the main speaker stops speaking everyone else starts talking, making an unbearably irrelevant cacophony: everyone looking for acceptance and understanding outside their selves.
Most Buddhist monks love getting away from temples and living in the forests, where the sounds and scenes of nature are a peaceful respite from the petty sounds of human needs. So it is for all of us. If we want peace and happiness, real peace and real happiness there is only one place to find it; with your eyes and ears shut, as often as you prefer.
Roditch2021
