Let the wanderer and the questioner arrive at a crossroads, 
That offers both rising and descending.
Both opening and closing.

Like a lotus, these crossroads represent the present moment.

Like a lotus, they represent the truth 
That in your very hand is found the power 
To open or to close in every moment.

Let the sweet perfume of the answer tempt you forward 
All the days of your life.
Not for the answer’s sake, but for the road it takes you down.

Let the lotus tell you that the sound of your footsteps 
Is not that of movement forward 
But rather of opening outwards,
To envelop the world.

There is no destination.
There never was.

Not in this world or any world that you could ever hope to come across
Will you ever find a being… enlightened.

Only a moment to moment expression of enlightened thoughts and actions,
That if strung together by time, form a life time of enlightened activity.

And it is this, that we call… enlightenment.
The state that is not an “end state” at all.

Enlightenment is just a different view of the very same crossroads
That we will meet with every moment of our lives…

Forever... 
On this eternal, unfolding road we have been taken down 
By our own questioning.

There is only a vow to awaken each moment.

A vow to keep the seed of awakening alive in the present, 
And with each present moment as it passes,
a vow to open ourselves like the lotus and envelop the world.