into the well
a silent pebble falls
and finds a voice

a body sinks;
the body’s echo climbs
into the light

who cast the stone
whose is the well
who waits for the reply?

The poem stands without the 3rd stanza koan, and stands as well without 2nd stanza commentary. Just as meditation stands without teacher and without guide – merely those who have practiced before, who say “The Well-Lit Path exists”. Once that truth is known, you find your own way. And once you find your own way, you are one who has gone before.

I can’t leave Auroville without making mention of its spiritual and physical heart, the Matrimandir… though at the same time I feel there is almost nothing I can say that does any justice to the vision behind it, the experience of the area around it, or the power of insight and meditation it brings one.

So. How to talk about it and not talk about it at the same time?