Before
25
There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.
It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.
The Tao is great.
The universe is great.
Earth is great.
Man is great.
These are the four great powers.
Man follows the earth.
Earth follows the universe.
The universe follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only itself.
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, trans. by Stephen Mitchell
Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt, (The limits of my language define the limits of my world) – Tractatus Logico Philosophicus 5.6 by Ludwig Wittgenstein 1922
Strictly speaking, here ought to be nothing, just nothing but a blank screen. By rights nothing more is to be said.
This excerpt from Lao Tsu is an attempt to characterize the beating heart of existence, to coin, to conjure up language where language cannot go. The physicists term “big bang” has been popularized. No one, physicists included, knows what it means. What does “before” even mean anterior to anything at all?
A favorite philosopher of mine, Wittgenstein once taught his students that language is employed for describing what is within the frame of one’s world. And the frame, that-which-holds the content in relationship cannot be said. You and I have no words for what was prior to “world” or universe… To just shut the fuck up and bow in acceptance of the mystery is all that I can do. To attempt to do, to say more is a clue that I am clueless.
On a positive note, the primal, framing, life-force perennially flows through everything. On occasion you can feel the flow (even when you cannot think it). I suspect that children feel it most easily. As we acquire language our powers of agency grow, self-hood grows, but at the expense of contact with the source. We lose ourselves in the thicket of linguistic and social limits.
Well. I have said too much.
This is a fucking great song, Read My Mind by The Killers. I love the Elvis impersonator with the band in Kabukicho, Tokyo.
2 thoughts on “Before”
Hmmm! “Nothing” “Everything” “Past” “Present” “Future” “Language” “Silence”.
Today’s offering reminds me of Mark Twain’s unfinished story, The Mysterious Stranger, about a man who created all of existence within his own imagination. Do we not also create our own worlds? How else could we be so diverse in our understanding of truth and facts? And that damn language thing that allows us to transmit ideas and information from one being to another in a manner that is completely open to interpretation. WTF is that all about?
At this moment I’m sitting in the food eating area of Costco waiting for new tires to be placed onto my vehicle. The crush of humanity is rushing by, each person in their own world, each person attempting to survive as best they can, but, for the most part, oblivious to dark clouds over our version of Mordor. Of course they hear the news but unless it hits home, it’s somewhere “out there” and isn’t worth worrying about at this time. This parade of sleepwalkers is both beyond frightening and also reassuring at the same time. What does that say about my own skewed mind? Let’s not think about that right now.
Perhaps life, the thrown dice of chance-circumstance has gifted/cursed you with the power of critical reflection… Perhaps you are owed neither credit nor blame… The only sensible aspect of this scenario is to focus on the work which is ours alone to do. That makes sense to me. Sisyphus again comes to mind.
Mordor! If you were to ask they’d insist they live in Rivendell, in the Misty Mountains.