Wu Men

The Great Way
By Wu Men

(No translator listed)

The Great Way has no gate;
there are a thousand paths to it.
If you pass through the barrier,
you walk the universe alone.


Should there be a reader you wants to know the truth about the above poem, you won't get it here. It is located within you. Each of us knows the Way. The poem says "a thousand paths" but I suspect there are many more as there are grains on all of the beaches of the universe and all are valid. Push through and you do walk alone.

There has been many times that I knew the truth about something but could not put it in words. I used to think that English just did not have the right words and that may be true. It may be that words cannot contain it, cannot surround it with meaning enough to describe it. It is like the definition of "Zen" and the "Tao". It cannot be defined but I know what it is. Here, within...

It is so easy but so hard. It is like the nothingness of meditation. I have experienced it on very rare occasions. It is unlike anything I have ever felt. It took so many years of training to obtain those few times. It was worth it. I still remember. Pressing the foot beyond the barrier is easy to do but not many do it. It is the attachments that bind one to this side and the unwillingness to give them up. Still, I remember.