The Way (2)

Dear Friends

First, this Thursday, the 19th of January, please join us at 5pm-6pm IN PERSON at the South Berkshire Friends Meeting in Great Barrington.  Do contact me in advance with any questions.

In our ongoing consideration of the Way, we turn today to the famous poem by Antonio Machado (1875-1939):

 

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.”

Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.

Our meditative focus will be, above all, the line, "[T]here is no road."  Notice how radically Machado departs from any idea that there should be a prescribed way to proceed through life.  What, then, directs our steps?

We will dedicate the merit of our work today to the non-human worlds all around us: they suffer from our lack of attention.

with love,

Michael