Yin and yang reflected light on one another,
enfolded one another;
created order for one another.

The four seasons followed one another,
gave rise to one another and brought one another
to an end.

Likes and dislikes, which draw or repel,
led to specific distinctness.
from this came the separation and union
of the male and female.

Security and insecurity
followed one another
in turn;
Happiness and despair produced
one another.
Rest and agitation followed
one another;
coming together and separating
were introduced.

These descriptions and processes can be examined
and their details can be recorded. The laws regarding the order
or sequence of events, their continuous cycle of influence
on one another and their interaction in the beginning
and the end are inherent properties of the things themselves.
That which words can describe and knowledge can understand
belong to the world of things. One who aspires to the dao
does not pursue the operations of things from their beginning
to their end. Here we have reached the limit beyond which
words cannot penetrate.

Zhuangzi trans. by Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong, Book 25 Zeyang

These lines are a continuation of a Q and A session between a figure “Small Knowledge” representing the every-man archetype, a curious individual that admits he/she does not know. The other figure “Comprehensive Understanding” is a guide with deep knowledge. The question: explain in down to earth language how the universe/everything began.

The description is of contestation, the opposition and resolution of the two elemental forces, yin and yang, powering the flow of being. The speaker insists the pulsing dance inherent in all things, can be observed, documented, represented in all of the ways we communicate with one another: There’s theater, from tormented Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, to Les Misérables the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s story. This play, a story of passion and death. And science! There are myriad scientific accounts of forces measured in a linear accelerator, to the molecular exchanges across a living cell membrane.

Several days ago I poured a bit of yellow acrylic paint into an empty wine bottle. Then on the opposed side of the bottle I poured some blue colored acrylic paint. Slowly rotating the bottle, I watched the yellow and the blue collide, interface, and the beginnings of green color. Two days later the glass surface glows with green, some hints of yellow and blue, tinge the flow.

“Comprehensive Understanding” concludes: “this” is what we have. The deep flow of being is inherent in all things. You can see/feel it everywhere! Is not “this” quite enough?

Beyond these clues, – words cannot go…

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Well here we are! A tune that captures the dynamism of being, Wanted Dead Or Alive by Bon Jovi.