The rules that programmed an entire century: form follows function. We planned cities, tone-deaf buildings, urban social engineering, so soul-crushing it finally had to be leveled. Monster homes plopped on the seashore, boxes upon boxes, right to the property line, curve of the shore against the straight-lime imagination of the developers. Post-modern architecture was…
December 21st. The dark outside is palpable reminder. Today is the shortest day of the year. The tilt of the earth’s axis away from the sun is at an oblique angle in the northern hemisphere. Is the dark evil, the diminished light an omen? On the other hand might we celebrate this interlude, pause…
Tuesday morning and it is mid-December. Winter is settling in. The temperature is in the teens. That the season arrives as expected anchors my sense of well being. We utterly depend upon Nature. Yes, I am “of Nature” and there is nothing “higher” that I can say of myself. I have the benefit of…
Rän Qiu asked Zhongni, saying,‘Can it be knownhow it was before heaven and earth?’ The reply was,‘It can. It was the same of old as now… [Zhongni] Was that which was produced before Heaven and Earth a thing?That which made things and gave to each its character was not itself a thing.Things came forth…
‘Men’s life between heaven and earth is like a white colt’s passing a crevice, and suddenly disappearing. As with a plunge and an effort they all come forth; easily and quietly they all enter again. By a transformation they live, and by another transformation they die. Living things are made sad (by death), and…
Nie Qüe asked about the Tao from Bei-yi who replied, ‘If you keep your body as it should be, and look only at the one thing, the Harmony of Heaven will come to you. Call in your knowledge, and make your measures uniform, and the spiritual (belonging to you) will come and lodge with…
The life is due to the collecting of the breath. When that is collected, there is life; when it is dispersed, there is death. Since death and life thus attend on each other, why should I account (either of) them an evil? ‘Therefore all things go through one and the same experience. (Life) is…
Knowledge had rambled northwards to the region of the Dark Water, where he ascended the height of Imperceptible Slope, when it happened that he met with Dumb Inaction. Knowledge addressed him, saying, ‘I wish to ask you some questions: By what process of thought and anxious consideration do we get to know the Tao?…
The king of Ku and the ruler of Fan were sitting together. After a little while, the attendants of the king said, ‘Fan has been destroyed three times.’ The ruler of Fan rejoined, ‘The destruction of Fan has not been sufficient to destroy what we had that was most deserving to be preserved.’ Now,…
“Beasts that feed on grass do not fret over a change of pasture; creatures that live in water do not fret over a change of stream. They accept the minor shift as long as the all-important constant is not lost. [Be like them,] And joy, anger, grief, and happiness can never enter your breast….
