Where is the Path ? Where is the Journey ?!

Are the paths
I have walked
the foundation for my future?

Are the people
I have met
the meanings of my life?

The experiences I have gone through— are they mine?
 or meant for others?

The relationships I have lived—
what are they truly for?
 For them? Or for me?

Time keeps running…
and along with it,
life keeps shrinking—
whose calculation is this?

Today a palace,
tomorrow the bare earth—
whose game is this?

 Beyond the sixth sense,
there lies an unreachable knowing— to whom does it belong?

Though I am but a cluster of atoms,
why do I alone
carry these unique qualities?

Even with the five elements within me, this “I” — this great element—
 where does it arise from?

All that is seen will dissolve,
and the seer too shall fade… yet the witness alone remains— eternal? How?

 If I seek answers in books,
the answers return as emptiness.

Am I sitting beneath
a magical wish-fulfilling tree,
playing this illusionary drama? Or am I being made to play?

Countless contradictions—
how are they
accounted for in the ledger of time?

In this world filled with wonders,
 within the dense cosmic forest of
 hidden secrets—
where is the path?
where is the journey?
Endless questions echo within me—
 is all this… only for me?
or for all of us?