I walk, therefore I am.
Elly
You walk the path one step at a time.
What do these words mean?
Each one of us is a path, a narrow path amidst a mist. We are the one who walks the path and also the path being walked. By creating the path – we follow the path.
One step at a time.
Thay says ‘walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet’. But what do these words mean?
A path is a dead thing – a trace of something living, true, an echo of a word spoken – but no more. What lives is the word between two lips, the kiss between feet and Earth.
Life is not a path; life is the lovemaking of path and traveller, seeking and finding, setting off and arriving. Life is walking.
One step at a time.
Lao Tzu says ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. But what about the second step, and the third, and the ones after that? Does a new journey begin with each? And once you pass the thousandth mile, where will your journey be if not within your next step?
Is not each journey a step – and each step a journey?
What is time anyway?
You walk the path one step at a time.
But what is time? Is it measured in steps or is it one whole path? And does this path return to itself like a circle? A clock’s circle, perhaps, whose two arrows are our feet, measuring time… or creating it?
Step by step.
Kiss by kiss.
Is time a love game between now and eternity? And are we the offspring? Why then does time consume us? For it measures us no less than we measure it. What it gives with one hand, it reclaims with the other.
You walk the path…
But where do you come from and where are you going?
The path is a conversation. A dialogue between setting off and arriving. The path is always seeking its goal, but it is the goal that leads to the path. Yes, in the beginning was the word, but the beginning itself is meaning. Meaning speaks the word. The goal leads to the path.
So, where do I come from and where am I going?
We think back and imagine a womb. We think forward and imagine a tomb. We imagine ourselves as children of a beginning, destined for an end.
But when we look, both forward and back, we see only a mist shrouding the path. When we look both outside and within, we find only mist. We think up names for the mist. We call it ‘womb’, ‘tomb’, ‘self’, ‘other’ – we call it ‘God’… We call it ‘mist’. We get it wrong always and always we try again. Our lips stumble towards the unspeakable and we keep walking.
… one step at a time.
But what about missteps? What about getting lost?
Razumikhin says ‘to go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.’ And Campbell says ‘if you can see your path laid out… it’s not your path.’
We need the mist, mistress of all seekers. By shrouding the path, she leads us to it.
Your path and my path, our path and their path, the crooked path and the straight, the ascent and the descent, the common path and the one less travelled… Are we not all steps on one and the same path? Are we not kisses exchanged by the same lovers? Are we not words seeking the same meaning?
But what do these words mean? What are these steps seeking? Who is lover and who the beloved?
Traveller, You walk the path one step at a time. And for a time – an instant – I am Your step upon the Earth. I am the Word between Your lips. I am Your breath as it chases the mist.
Blessed be the lips and blessed be the feet. Step by step we arrive. Kiss by kiss we succumb. Word and Meaning rejoin.
You walk the path one step at a time. A path shrouded in mystery. From seeker to seeker You walk and what You seek is seeking You.
Thank for this essay
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With the First Step. What I have understood about the meaning of ‘ the first step ‘ is how significant it is and the ‘ Thousand Miles ‘ is the canvas or the Theme. It is to address the need for the Aspirant to wake from His slumber and ” to begin, to start, to move, to ‘ initiate ‘ this horizon of a Thousand Miles! It is the Initiation, The First Step, The Beginning. It is not ‘ one step or however many steps ‘. The Motto is, Get Your Ass Into Gear, to start to move, to overcome lethargy and inertia, procrastination and all other manner of delay and disruptions, for We Are seduced by Our stoppages to ‘smell the Roses ‘. The Aspirant of LIGHT begins This Journey with the 1st Step, the Seed, a mighty Oak thence a Thousand Miles! NOW, one of the other two most relevant ideas is, The WORD. I became aware of the Word back in the late sixties, an English woman , who went to the United States and was involved with the work of Madame Helena Blavatsky. Blessings, Alice Ann Bailey. In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And nothing that was made was not made of God. This ” stuff ” is quite heavy metaphysics and I am glad for it was ‘ on the path ‘. The Word is found in the Gospel of St John. In common term use, a ‘word’ is an ‘idea’ that St John is putting down to explain God and whole of the manifest World. You have a Word, it is an Idea, from the unmanifest to the manifest World. In short, The Word, Logos and Creation is in Our first ‘text messaging’. Another, absolute Perfection is the Buddhist, ” The Heart Sutra “. I had emigrated to Auckland New Zealand in 1962, and the extent of my English was the Word, ‘Yes’. This has been more than The Journey of a Thousand Miles. The Real Journey is The Straightening by Fire and the Fuel is SUFFERING. Alan Watts, when you want to test your Focus, sit on a sharp pointed spike and then you are in Focus. This is impromptu to capture only the Essence in ” first ” step and a word, ” Word “, will suffice. ( I have not had any interest in the World of technology, but to first understand, ” Who Am I “, so then I can understand better, ” Who Are You “?. ) …fish.
As I have only begun to use a cell phone, six years ago, I first needed to learn the Ai language and here I am. This portion of my comment is to inform that I, impromptu, do not have any clue about my ‘website’. I am hoping and I believe who may read this would be endowed with Intuition.