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The Tenth Man
by Ashok Sharda
Leaning over a rock
They found the missing tenth man
Mocking them in his death.
Ever PRESENT in his absence.
In celebrating their deaths
They killed the subject, the self
The creator of the objects, the others
Relatively.
Now the self is dead
And what remains is just an object
In the depths of the river
The tenth is the only one present
Without a self
The tenth man is the only man
ThereÂ’s no other.
05/26/2004 Author's Note: Separated by the current, while crossing the river in flood, ten monks reassembled and one counted the others to make sure that they were safely across.
Each in turn counted and counted nine. A by passer, finding them weeping for the lost brother, having counted them, assured them of the presence of all ten.
But each counted again and counted nine.
One of the monks went to the riverside to wash his tear stained face. As he leant over a rock, he found the tenth. Each in turn went and found the tenth brother lying dead in the depths of the river.
Unable to reach the depths of the river, they celebrated the funeral service in the memory of their deceased brother.
The passing traveler on his return from the town assured them that they have celebrated their own deaths. And all have celebrated the death of the other. They were alive because they were truly dead.
On learning this all the ten monks were awakened.
‘Each monk had found the answer to the open secret, which the traveler had missed because he did not know that it was a secret.
The tenth man is the only man: there is no other.
He is the only one present in his absence.
(I picked up this version of the story from a book entitled the Tenth man by Wei Wu Wei. The narration is my own)
Posted on 05/26/2004
Copyright © 2024 Ashok Sharda
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Michele Schottelkorb on 05/26/04 at 10:24 PM ashok, i love this delving into the killing fields, if you will... you seem to be embracing the darkness that makes us whole... well done, my friend... blessings... |
| Posted by Chris Sorrenti on 05/27/04 at 01:22 PM Sorry Ashok, this one stretches a little too far for my brain capacity, but I'll take your word for it, based on past enlightenments you've shared with us. Thanks also for your comment on Humans And... |
| Posted by Teri T Lahmon on 05/27/04 at 02:27 PM only by the deaths of our egos are we set free and thusly brought into truth :-) but my vanity loves my "self" so very much ~smiling~ I could read this all day Ashok and learn something new everytime but I'd best get to work. |
| Posted by Max Bouillet on 05/27/04 at 02:34 PM I assume the story in the author's note is the inspiration for the verse. Both are very enlightening and impart wisdom. Sometimes I feel like the eleventh man --and yes I know there is no eleventh man, but after thinking about your verses I usually feel like I am someone else. ;) |
| Posted by Rula Shin on 05/27/04 at 06:00 PM Well, I’ve been wracking my brain to the nub and here’s what I have: On the surface the story is one of fools who do not know themselves well enough to know they are staring at their own reflections. The narrator is the one who sheds the light, “the tenth man is the only man…[as] he is the only one present in his absence.” This must mean that the monks are “absent in their presence”. What does all this mean? Well, the monks have stumbled upon LIFE and all it IS. “In celebrating their deaths they killed the subject…what remains is just an object in the depths” - and what is an object without a subject? How is it possible to exist without existing? The tenth man is like the existence of a sound without the existence of a listener…the tenth man is like the NOTHING from which EVERYTHING spills out into that which observing eyes translate. Even the ‘object’ in the river is no object for it only appears to be so to an observer, it is there without being there…the tenth man appears to the monks only as THEY can see him…though his existence transcends both the image and the idea of him. Only the sense remains for those who CAN sense this REAL existence. The monks conclude that ‘no man is missing’ when they are ‘enlightened’ by the passerby, but the truth is that THEY are the ones missing, and that the tenth man they see is a vision of the possibilities of BECOMING and what it means to BE...the tenth man is NOTHING and NO ONE, and yet he exists…this is what makes him the ONLY man to LIVE…this is what makes the tenth man the ONLY objective entity EVER...existing without existing, and knowing without knowing...this is a state in which there is no slumber...it is the realm that exists beyond any dream...it is the realm beyond the FINAL dream world...well, that’s my wordy take Ashok. This is my POTD pick as well as a ‘favorite’ of mine…thank you for sharing such a profound piece.
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| Posted by Rula Shin on 05/27/04 at 06:03 PM What I meant is that "the monks have stumbled upon the SECRET TO LIFE and all it IS" though they don't realize this... |
| Posted by Nadia Gilbert Kent on 05/28/04 at 06:48 AM This one rolled around in my head for twenty four hours - and while I want to leave it be as something I don't understand, I can't, because I feel that I do (to some personal extent), and at the same time I am utterly befuddled. I'm not sure if this is because the subject in itself is befuddling, or if the point of view is too new to make full integrity of itself in my small head. But I like it (as usual), and I think you're amazing when it comes to visually narrating things. |
| Posted by Philip F De Pinto on 05/28/04 at 02:34 PM finding its presence in its absence makes all the spiritual sense, as words survive in memory or pad once spoken or writ and the carnal state broken releases the coinage of spiritual capital to spend as is seen fit and you Ashok, spent it wisely with this poem. |
| Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 05/30/04 at 11:56 AM Fascinating! Both the poem and the story. Reminds me of one of Christ's sayings that "He who loses his life for my sake shall find it." St. Paul declared that he "died daily" to self that he might be alive unto God. |
| Posted by Mara Meade on 06/28/04 at 05:01 PM Ashok, my first reaction was to laugh... to laugh at how we can be so blind to what is TRUE! I love the idea of a Traveler, an uninvolved, pointing the way to this Truth without realizing it, and then how the Secret waas revealed. To me, the Traveler played the most important role as he was the key, the catalyst, to the discovery. |
| Posted by Rhyana Fisher on 06/28/04 at 05:09 PM and the ego is ever present, whether counted or ignored. |
| Posted by Maria Terezia Ferencz on 07/31/06 at 01:43 AM Mocking them in his death.
Ever PRESENT in his absence.
Everything you write provokes such thought in me, you pull thought from my brain. THANK YOU |
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