And Where You Are Is Where You Are Not

you say i
am repeating
something i
have said before.
i shall
say it again.
shall i
say it again?
in order to
arrive there,
to arrive
where you are,
to get from
where you are not,
you must go
by a way
wherein there
is no ecstasy.
in order to
arrive at what
you do not know
you must go
by a way
which is the way of ignorance.
in order to possess what you do not possess
you must go by the way of dispossession.
in order to arrive at what you are not
you must go through the way in which you are not.
and what you do not know is the only thing you know
and what you own is what you do not own
and where you are is where you are not.
--t.s. eliot (from "east coker ")