Glimpse after Glimpse

Though sometimes I wonder
which way is up and down
and which way is back and forth,
not for a single moment
have I not made efforts
to bring awareness to my side:
to shed its light on things.

And I even
manage when possible
to sit still for a time,
without my usual distractions.

Many times I wonder
about the great things
the sages speak of.

And all I can do
is bring awareness
to this thought.

Yet sometimes -
perhaps a late afternoon,
with the sun already
settled beyond the hills -
I pause on my usual late walk
and close my eyes,
only to find that
I am not there.

Only a vast and
pristinely silent mirror Is.

As I stop
everything stops.
Vast eternal stillness,
alluring and alive;
a dustless mirror
reflecting everything -
everything except me.

I am nowhere to be found.
Swept away in the endless tide;
the extinguished flame
reveals eternal light.

Sometime later I am back.
What rekindles the little flame
that extinguishes the eternal sun?