52

In the beginning was the Tao.
All things issue from it;
all things return to it.

To find the origin,
trace back the manifestations.
When you recognize the children
and find the mother,
you will be free of sorrow.

If you close your mind in judgments
and traffic with desires,
your heart will be troubled.
If you keep your mind from judging
and aren’t led by the senses,
your heart will find peace.

Seeing into darkness is clarity.
Knowing how to yield is strength.
Use your own light
and return to the source of light.

This is called practicing eternity.

Tao Te Ching by Lao-tsu trans. by Stephen Mitchell

Commenting at all, risks distorting this elegant language. 

This “creation myth,” origin story suggests the initiating impulse of being is right here, right now, an ongoing dynamo-source, the result a veritable pageant of events… The origin-mother is here, pulsing with infinite variety. May I have permission to imagine creation along the lines of a drag-show, a spectacular event – no one knows what may happen next? Yes!

So there’s no need to close the mind to all of the possibilities, the menu of potential futures! To seize, to insist upon a single state-of-things, (what my fear desires to have or to avoid) is a recipe for disappointment. Let’s not be anxious, that we cannot see what comes next. Let’s not allow fear to stampede us, that we harden our defenses.

Be open, be supple, be reminded of the nature of our way-making mother.

This is called practicing eternity.

Given the events current and past, violent, – I think this song is just what we need for today, on the anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City. Stay by Jackson Browne.

Let’s remember why we are here, or as Browne puts it, “why we came.”