The Road Leads Through Here

A short Antonio Machado poem that came my way this morning seems to give evidence that the Spaniard was "on the Path":

Wayfarer, the only way
is your footsteps, there is no other.

Wayfarer, there is no way,
you make the way by walking.
As you go, you make the way
and stopping to look behind,
you see the path that your feet
will never travel again.

Wayfarer, there is no way -
Only foam trails to the sea.

(Proverbios y Cantares XXIX)

Meher Baba’s first discourse on  “The Types of Meditation”  begins with an almost identical thought: "Meditation may be described as the path which the individual cuts for himself while trying to get beyond the limitations of the mind." 

The poem and thought fill me with enthusiasm! They say: “You’re not competing with anyone or anything, it’s all a road through yourself, from your limits—and who wants limits, anyway—to the Unlimited Self! What are you waiting for? Let’s go!”  

The terrain can seem a little more forbidding when I take off the glasses that yield that particular view. For example: I work with my weight.It's strayed slowly up  since I “slightly modified” a diet that had gotten it to an optimum place. I’m still unable to find middle ground. When there’s a downward trend for a few days, I feel really disciplined. A week later, the needle threatens to swing past its highest point, and I feel like a slob! 

This too is part of that Mind which must cut beyond its limitations. It seems “physical” but the impressions are mental as well, involving the perceived need to feel a certain way, and how to fill that need. 

So it goes, on and on. A train to freedom is leaving every second, and yet there is this entropy, the force of habit and age-old preference. 

Here’s a little piece I wrote recently about that, again suggesting a positive strategy: 

Beyond this second
we don't know a thing--
uncharted waters,
virgin territory.

Habit lags
trying to catch up,
shouting, "I've been there!"

Don't listen. 

Write a comment

Comments: 2
  • #1

    Max Reif (Monday, 14 April 2014 10:38)

    Well, we can just think of this one as a Diary entry! :-)

  • #2

    Carissa Tollett (Sunday, 22 January 2017 05:26)
