Pointers on the Way

I had a dream the other night. I was walking down the street and past a bum sitting on the street. I’m guessing a bum. Lots of reasons for lots of people to be sitting on the street. He seemed to be nodding off, probably drunk. Maybe. If I didn’t note, hard to say about such things. Hard to say about things…

As I walked by I thought I heard him say “It’s all connected.”

Or, maybe the voice was parked inside my head. Hard to say.

Later I thought of Hanshan…

(This version of the poem is very slightly adapted from Burton Watson’s translation for those interested in such things)

Hanshan might have been a Zen person, or maybe he was a Taoist. Hard to say. In any case he gave some pretty good advice. There’s even an ordering to what to do. And I like that a hermit living on the side of a mountain does have to think about food and shelter, at least a bit.

I do think there’s another step, one a hermit isn’t likely to get fully. And, that’s okay, as well. None of us do it all. That said as another sage, whose name escapes me, if I ever knew it, said: take care of yourself. Then help someone else.

And. That other voice. Perhaps from madness. Perhaps from deep insight. Perhaps from a place where neither is clearly lined out.

It’s all connected.

Pointers on the way.