At one stroke I forgot all my knowledge! 
There is no use for artificial discipline,
For, move as I will, I manifest the ancient Way.
- Hsiang-yen

-What are you doing?

*I’m cleaning the Way

-Why?

*Because I’m afraid that I’ll lose it if too many leaves fall on it. I may not be able to see it anymore. Then I’ll walk on the leaves and the whole world will look the same and I will be out of my path. Not seeing where I’m going, I’ll be lost in a world of leaves, wandering aimlessly.

-These leaves are beautiful though. Look at them, this bright yellow, so fragrant, they smell of humidity and life, so crunchy and soft at the touch. So forgiving in their earthy beauty. If you weren’t afraid of losing the Way, what would you do with this sea of gold?

*I would just lay down and rest, smell their fragrance, soften into their embrace, and feel the fertile ground beneath me. Feel the decay of the lower layers, decomposing and becoming food for the soil and for the worms and death becoming life and life becoming death and life and death being the same. And me being it. Life, Death, and a decomposing body and newly born and decaying energy. There would be no Other, there would be no Separate. Just one and the same.

-How can you then lose the Way if you are the Way? What makes you lose sight of the Way is the cleaning and the wandering, not the leaves. When you are cleaning it, you may see it, but you are not it. You live in fear of losing it, and continuous effort is needed to keep it clean. When you look for it, all you see is the leaves. You live in anger, resenting them for hiding the Way, and they become an impenetrable wall.

Leave the agitation and sink into stillness. And the Way will be no Other.