“Wherever you put your foot, there is the path. You become the path.” – Derrick Jensen
As my life
turns away from the path I had imagined, I find myself asking if my path has
changed or if I have lost my way.
I put one foot
in front of the other walking through the doors that are opening for me and
find myself in an unfamiliar room looking at an unfamiliar face in the
mirror. Who is this person staring back
at me? The identity that was mine has
fallen away giving light to a foreign character who claims to be me. What happened to that wanderlust gypsy who
never had a home? What happened to the
girl who thought working for the system would steal her soul?
The path that
is opening so willingly in front of me is flowing swiftly away from the life I
thought was mine. I struggle to let go of
my definition of the path and allow it to unfold at its will. Fighting to stay on a path that is slowly
petering out would only lead to a dense forest that would block my way. I cannot bushwhack my way back to a life of
my choosing. When you are truly on the
path you do not need to question where it leads. You simply continue to place your foot in the
spaces that open.
I sat at the
Dharma Center waiting for some clarity when a member asked to read page 49 in the
book A Monastery Within. It spoke of four monks who had very different
ideas about what the path was. One
thought it was an escape from the chaos of society. One thought it was a journey towards a great
destination. One thought it was the
simple task of enjoying wherever you were along the way, and the fourth thought
it was a means to train the body and mind.
The Abyss cleared up the disagreement by saying, “it doesn’t matter what
path you’re on. As long as you take
every step mindfully, you will become the path.”
The secret is
to place your foot wherever the path is clear and walk forward mindfully. If you are living mindfully, it won’t matter
where you go because you will have become the path.
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