Being It
14
Look, and it can’t be seen.
Listen, and it can’t be heard.
Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can’t know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, trans. by Stephen Mitchell
A few minutes ago I read a paragraph about about the Corvette ZO 6 engine. While the terms used were familiar English, absent the math and engineering background, understanding eluded me. I just couldn’t grasp the stratospheric design, – “flat plane crankshaft” really? I intuited the nature of the description. But still I do not get how the construction advances power output. But if I could, how much more would remain outside of my field of insight? Much more I’d guess…
Not to worry though, – there’s experience: the core of my body pressed into the seat, slingshot-like down the straight away, acceleration, rocket-like, toward a 670 horsepower apex in three or four heartbeats. Yes in no more than just a few heartbeats.
There is a great deal that I do not understand. Perhaps understanding anything at all is simply illusion, a trick of the mind, nature’s joke on me! Nevertheless I can “be it” can live in wonder and in fascination. And laugh! Laugh! Laugh!
Join me?
3 thoughts on “Being It”
You are (we all are) the amalgam of our DNA and the predetermined environment within which we live and breathe. The illusion of our minds allows us to believe in the fantasy of free will, which keeps our brain cells from self-destructing, from imploding with confusion. We believe we can alter/steer our present, our future, all while we attempt to reinvent our past. A past that we grapple with and blame, and nurture, and curse, and love.
We try to understand. We philosophize. We feel/emote. We rage and love. We rationalize and ponder. Many of us attempt to destroy that which we do not understand. We fear the inevitable and yet pretend that eternal life is a nonexistent god’s magical gift. Let us pray/prey.
This is the human experience. This is this brief moment prior to flaming out and returning to the oblivion from whence we came. This is life. Let’s enjoy the ride.
Tobin this is a vivid, concise description of our situation. Do I laugh or weep? On balance I am one who laughs because I do not comprehend all that I experience. The terror and the beauty are both essential to the meaning of my destiny. Destiny, fate contains possibility does it not? I like these first lines by T. S. Eliot in Burnt Norton:
When I describe my current situation with regard to an absurd political situation in a small nonprofit organization, the egregious nature of this is so insane many people laugh when I first describe what’s going on. I mention this here because the idea of whether one should weep or laugh comes to mind. Perhaps these two emotions are interconnected much like the far left and far right are almost two peas in the same pod.
Life seems filled with humanity’s inability to self examine. As has been discussed within these postings many times, people react without thought, but rely instead on gut emotions to guide them. This is a dead end path. One in which there is no return, no Mulligan, no “I’m sorry, I should have known better.” In the end there is no one to blame other than the person in the mirror.