What do we mean when we utter
Exotic for many of us the term 'Path'?
Essentially, in olden times,
It was well-known as the Way of Life,
When Life is the endless Way
And not the other way round.
This term means road and its milestones
That cannot be realized deliberately,
By our constraint, because its ways
And characteristics will not come to us
At our call, no matter how hard
We try to urge.
He who follows the Path
Daily diminishes his doings;
He diminishes them and again
Diminishes them
Until he arrives at doing nothing
In the realm of Pure Nothingness.
Having arrived at this non-inaction,
There is nothing that he does not do.
Here and now, there is something --
A regularly fashioned earthenware. . .
Would you wish to make it go back
To the original state of the muddy clay?
Would it not be hard to make it do so?
Couldn't every man carry this out?
The term, "path," has often been used to describe as a metaphor, life. But I prefer the more literal version. Having traveled many paths in my lifetime, some carved out by animals before any human ever set foot in their daily routine to either find food or water. Or, finding their way in seasonal or yearly migrations driven to find sources of food and water once during the cycle the path takes them.
So, whenever I walk one of those paths, I think back a thousand years or more about what it was like for the animals on those paths long before we humans came into the picture.
In its exotic, esoteric quality, the path is mysterious and elusive. In In its practical, down-to-earth quality, the path is is straight (forward) and clear. All we need to is take the path and walk down it.
A book of nature inspired poems and essays, written from the heart and soul of a life-long nature, animal, and wilderness lover, and dedicated to today’s children - Earth's only hope for a better tomorrow.
This book won 'The Poetry Category'
Explore the mystery of how nature makes unexpected gifts of creative wonders to an unsuspecting caregiver one late night and early morning in southeastern Georgia, USA.
A book of nature inspired poems and essays, written from the heart and soul of a life-long nature, animal, and wilderness lover, and dedicated to today’s children - Earth's only hope for a better tomorrow.
This book won 'The Poetry Category'
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So, whenever I walk one of those paths, I think back a thousand years or more about what it was like for the animals on those paths long before we humans came into the picture.
Ron