Since our earliest age we are being taught that there is right and wrong, and we should know them apart.
There is good and bad, and we deserve only the former.
There is ugly and beautiful, and we should always strive for the latter.
Every moment of every day, we are making a judgment whether we like something or not, be it a meal, a TV program, the weather outside, the information we have just received, the noises we hear around us. Somehow we think that the more like boxes we tick next to the countless events of every day, the happier we will be. We believe that all we need to do is work hard to one day finally achieve the situation in which every single thing that has happened to us has the quality of ‘‘I-like-it’’. Should any ‘’I-don’t-like-it’’ events or situations arise, we need to immediately start finding ways how to remove them.
Simple and logical, someone might say.
(Hm!), someone else might raise an eyebrow and think ‘’or is it really?’’
There is good and bad, and we deserve only the former.
There is ugly and beautiful, and we should always strive for the latter.
Every moment of every day, we are making a judgment whether we like something or not, be it a meal, a TV program, the weather outside, the information we have just received, the noises we hear around us. Somehow we think that the more like boxes we tick next to the countless events of every day, the happier we will be. We believe that all we need to do is work hard to one day finally achieve the situation in which every single thing that has happened to us has the quality of ‘‘I-like-it’’. Should any ‘’I-don’t-like-it’’ events or situations arise, we need to immediately start finding ways how to remove them.
Simple and logical, someone might say.
(Hm!), someone else might raise an eyebrow and think ‘’or is it really?’’
In light of these thoughts on man-made dualistic concepts, I am sharing with you a few verses by Lao Tzu, a 6th century BC poet and philosopher from China. The verses are taken from his famous work Tao Te Ching, a body of mystical writing which forms an important basis of Daoism.
I hope you'll understand the poem. Whether you'll like it is far less important. ;)
I hope you'll understand the poem. Whether you'll like it is far less important. ;)
Things as Beautiful
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
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