You think of the Path
by Ram Tzu (Wayne Liquorman)Original Language English
You think of the Path
As a long arduous climb
Up the mountain.
You concede there may be
Many paths
But you're sure
All have the same
Exalted goal.
Ram Tzu knows this...
There ARE many Paths.
Like streams
They flow effortlessly
(though not necessarily painlessly)
Down the mountain.
All disappear
Into the desert sands below
 | -- from No Way: For the Spiritually ³Advanced², by Wayne Liquorman |
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Ramesh Balsekar died this past weekend, on September 27. He was a well-known as a spiritual teacher of Advaita Vedanta, the Hindu nondualist tradition. So I thought it might be appropriate to remember him through this poem by one of his best known Western students Wayne Liquorman (who sometimes writes under the pen name of Ram Tzu).
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In this poem, why do you suppose Ram Tzu has reversed the traditional image of the spiritual journey, transforming it from a path (or many paths) that go up a mountain into many streams that flow down a mountain... and disappear into sands? What is he saying about effort and non-effort? What does the image of the streams disappearing into the sands say about his nondualist perspective?
A few questions to contemplate...
