Leaving The Ashram

[Christopher Stewart]

(« Enigma » by Matías Argudín)

« Leaving The Ashram » is the third chapter of « Entering The Stream, » a trilogy describing an episode of intense introspection that will open our second album, « Satori. »

This instrumental suite comprises four movements :

• Meditative Walk
• Running The Last Stretch
• The Tabla Master’s Enigma
• The Ordinary II

It was originally put together in 2004, way before the other two chapters, « Into The Ashram, » and « The Chrome Lake. »

Once reflection and healing have taken place, the ashram need not be externalized anymore. The meditator has completed their retreat and can thus return to their work in the world.

Here's the accompanying poetry :

As I now leave behind the echoes of complaints
The struggles of ego in the hall of constraints
I recall my time here one of introspection
Of intense pondering and of liberation

Long I sat by myself in silence and darkness
One by one noticing the causes of distress
Observing unmoving ever firm in my oath
Persistence consistent is rewarded by growth

On the way there's a man playing on the tabla
The master gatekeeper singing his enigma
The question is no test but rather a message
Telling me the ordeal was a rite of passage

Just a few steps away from the ordinary
I pause for one last glimpse of my sanctuary
The shelter dissolving having served its function
The master and the gate fading to oblivion

Different from the rest eccentric by nature
I had spent my whole life avoiding the matter
Once to burn sensitive of the whirl centrifuge
I return to the world may it be my refuge

« If you live the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean of delusion. » – Lin-Chi