Having transcended all life,
     he was clear as the morning.
Having become as clear as the morning,
     he was able to see the One.
Having seen the One,
     he was able to set aside past and present.
Having set aside past and present,
     he was able to enter where there is neither life nor death.
The destruction of life is not death
     and the coming to birth is not life.

The Tao is that which accompanies all things
and greets them and remains
when things are destroyed and completed.
Its name is tranquility in disturbance;
it means that disturbances lead
to its perfection.

Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou trans. by Hyun Hochmann, Yang Guorong, The Great and Honored Teacher.

The theme of this section is the relationship between teaching, instruction and the “way-making” life. They are not the same. A skilled instructor is not necessarily one who is able to follow the Tao. Ability is not enough to insure insight into the Tao. These delicate lines describe the apprenticeship of an individual learning the nature of the Tao.

I think these lines are especially important insofar as the present is a time of exponentially increasing social turmoil. A felon has been elected to be an American head of state, and now occupies the Oval Office. His plans proceed apace to remodel the White House, a monstrous garish ballroom is to bisect the White House complex.

Ukraine is falling, a “peace” plan heavily favoring Russia has been placed before the Europeans. The English text of the 28 point peace agreement seems to have come from a prior original Russian document.

Luke Harding of The Guardian noted that the plan appears to have been translated from Russian, as many of the phrases in the text read naturally in that language but are awkward and clunky in English.

The plan is a Russian wish list. – Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American

To say it once more, this is a time of extraordinary turmoil. Somehow these lines from Zhuangzi are comforting. 

---

How about a tune, music as a tether for us to weather the storm? This anthem seems right.  A tale of discovering order with chaos, and yes – both are real as real can be. The Search Is Over by Survivor, 1984.