To A. G.-M.

You explicated Buddhist points of view

You’d studied in extensive private hours,

Comparing Theravada—which rang true,

You thought, in aspects—with the wellspring powers

Of Mahayana.  Piqued, you’d probed each path

That sprung up from the Buddha—also Tao

(Really a river). Yet your treasured math

And reason couldn’t quite conjecture how

To cull, from these, one concept of the soul,

And Plato didn’t help! So I inquired,

“Have you, by practice, ever sought the whole

By which these myriad theories were inspired?”

“I try to ‘free my heart to all,’” you said.

Oh, not to me!  I’ve only seen your head!