Satori

The sun rose
and blazed through the window
with an angry intensity,
waking the sleeping man
from a troubled sleep.
He sat up,
squinting from the light,
feeling more like
a man on the brink of exhaustion
than a man waking up.
With a groan, he stood,
and proceeded
to go about his day,
with all of the enthusiasm
of a condemned man
walking to the gallows.
So many problems,
so much stress
pressing down on him.
Somehow, every little thing
that could go wrong
had gone wrong,
all at once.
There seemed to be
no escape,
no relief
he felt caged in.
He had never thought
his life would be like this,
he had had dreams of greatness,
of creativity,
and now,
he sloughed through his days
with no pleasure,
with no purpose,
just with the intention
of getting it over with.
Trapped,
that summed up
how he felt.
And then,
without warning,
a dog ran past him.
That was it,
nothing special,
just a dog,
yet looking back
that was clearly the moment.
Suddenly,
everything made sense.
It was as if a searchlight
was suddenly switched on
in his brain.
Or that bright, angry sunlight
of the morning
had finally burnt away
the cobwebs in his head.
One by one
every aspect of his life
fell into place.
It would work!
No more stress,
no more little things
getting in the way of the big things.
Finally, happiness
in place of depression,
peace in place
of anxiety.
Just like that,
all in a flash
he understood
how life was to be lived,
he was enlightened.
There was a word for this
in the Zen philosophy,
satori.
He whispered this word
to himself,
relishing the flavor of it
in his mouth.
such a small
simple word,
but such a large change
to his life.