Walkers and Watchers: Eyes in the Sky

In the cultures of the ancient Etruscans, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, gargoyles watched over the lives of walkers, wayfarers and wanderers who picked their way through the alleyways and public squares. Assuming the form of fantastic animal figures, glowering human countenances, or grotesque chimeras, they gazed down upon the hoi polloi and oversaw the energy of the bustling city street.

Gargoyle is related to the word “gargle,” as in the gurgling waters that coursed through these architectural adornments, which were often shaped to serve as decorative but functional drainpipes.

Now, of course, most pedestrian thoroughfares are surveyed instead by faceless cameras that register and record our every movement, conversation or purchase. We’ve come a long way, but sometimes it’s difficult to admit that we have not always taken the best route.  As you walk about, remain aware to what you might happen to visually discover, but also try to attend to who (or what) might be observing you.  To be sure, sight is usually a multi-directional event.  To see is to belong to a world in which you will also be seen and revealed.

Here (above) on the wall of a church in Barcelona, you can catch a glimpse of the historical juxtaposition and transition from stone-faced eye-witnesses to the disembodied electronic eye of modern technology.  And here (below) some living "gargoyles" in a delightful flight of fancy have taken over the drainpipe on a temple wall in India.  

Be alert, walkers, the world is watching.

Circling the stupa

Today, I recalled a Buddhist monk whom I watched in Sarnath, India—birthplace of this perennial philosophy—circling the oldest and one of the most famous stupas (स्तूप), and earthen relics, on foot. I wondered if he has since paused the churning wheel of time or stayed the cycling of samsara (संसार) to seize a fugitive moment of satori (संस्कृत), an "aha" or "eureka" in the otherwise grinding momentum of the day. Perhaps that occurred when his sandal strap snapped or his belly called out for a vegetable samosa. Who knows. Here he is in his elegant robe and perfect posture. Be sure to greet him if he passes by your local 7/11 or Walmart or when you spot him walking along the highway. Chances are, though, that he might be sporting longer hair, carrying a backpack, or bumming a few coins or a smoke. Sages and monks and wise spirits seem to arrive in many guises.