As the sun sets, Bodhi arrives at the River of Reason separating the Grove of the Greeks and the Woods of Wisdom. A swan stands in the water, looks up, and speaks to Bodhi:
in this river of reason
no edge can you claim
ever the same river
yet never the same
you step and it shifts
you grasp and it goes
the path that you follow
is made as it flows
all things are kindled
by measure and strife
the war of their nature
is father to life
no form stands alone
no stillness remains
the fire that consumes
is the fire that sustains
i am becoming
no rest and no stay
where the ground you seek
is always being taken away
Bodhi bows to the swan and responds:
what you speak cuts deep
no anchor, no seam
if all is becoming
what holds what we mean
and tell me this river
from where does it start
what feeds its current
what gives it its heart
Becoming answers:
the way up and down
are the same in their course
all things that arise
return to their source
all that becomes
comes out of the deep
where nothing is held
and nothing you keep
go now rest in the woods
let the stillness undo
what reason has built
and what clings within you
Becoming directs Bodhi to a hammock stretched between two trees on the other side of the river and says:
woods of wisdom
are your next station
first rest then continue
your education
As night falls, Bodhi lies in the hammock and surrenders to exhaustion.