bell - a verbalization of consciousness

see the path, walk the path, and know that your's is not anyone else's. meh?

Something like that... however, sometimes you must walk before you can see, and in general, the path isn't "yours". Once you begin to walk, the question of ownership diminishes. Nothing is yours. The path is the same for everyone. To take ownership of the path would be to admit of attachment to the self.

The way you approach your journey, in terms of transmigratory evolution (your biological/psych disposition) and external compensation (the way karma has played out from your decision-making, is decisively personal. But make no mistake, the lessons, and the process, are all ultimately the same for everyone.

In this parable, what I find most odd is that someone "owns" the garden... what does that mean really? We are all to align ourselves in the harmony of Nature's Cosmis Will... where does ownership come from?

I don't mean to doubt the scholarship of the translator, but "owner" could be an artifact of the translation. But I do like the idea of "owner" pointing to the cosmic will/truth. The owner could also point to a creator -- the one responsible for the tree – probably not what Yunus intended.

Here's another translation by a U Penn graduate student:

I climbed upon the plum tree
To pluck grapes there;
The master of the garden asked me:
Why do you eat my walnut

This translation kind of diminishes my favorite part of the version you have -- the idea that you must walk before you can see. I meant to imply something close to that in my first response. The climber thought he was exploring a plum tree, only to discover grapes. This second translation might imply that the climber saw/thought there were grapes in the tree before climbing up to see.

The U Penn student references a man named Shimmel who says that the plum, with it’s edible flesh surrounding a pit you discard refers to the outward, superficial side of action; the grape to the mystical path; the nut as Reality -- with an interior that can be eaten in it's entirety without waste, and an outer shell that is useless and may be difficult to discard, like attachment to the self. I like that.

Oooh, I do like that... ;)