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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.
— Lao Tzu

The Opening Reflection

One of the deepest, and most personal truths that I have held within myself are captured in Lao Tzu’s words:

When you create a thing of beauty, ugliness comes with it.

When you create a thing of security, insecurity comes with it.

When you create boundaries, the need to protect them arises.

When you create faithfulness, betrayal is born.

When you restrict the flow of life, the need to let life flow arises.

When you create work, the need for pleasure arises with it.

This is a truth that can be approached from an infinite number of angles:

Negative creates positive.

Matter, anti-matter.

Visible, invisible.

Measurement, measureles.

Finite, Infinite.

Knowledge, a recognition of ignorance.

Honesty, cheating.

Nationalism, globalisation.

Religion, non-religion.

Man, woman.

Adult, child.

Short, tall.

High, low.

The Whole

The fullness of things, the completeness, the truth—
It is not in the division,
It is in seeing the whole.

A master fights nothing, relies on nothing,
Depends on nothing,
Doesn’t chase freedom, nor abhor stillness.

For he sees the whole,
Lives in the whole.
That’s what informs all his actions.

In division, we create conflict within ourselves.
But in preventing division, we risk building nothing to enjoy, to use, to experience, to gift, to share.

In building things to use, we leave life on the table.
Fear creates elation.
Elation creates fear.
The need to hold creates the recognition of letting go.
Letting go creates the need to anchor yourself.

The Cost of Creation

A lack of understanding of these fundamental truths is responsible for human confusion, conflict, and pain.

It births, War and ugliness.

Organisations, hierarchies, and division

But also the master and the apprentice

The hospitals, the roads, the banks, restaurants, home and travel.

In not seeing the truth, we divide ourselves and commit great injustices against our own being.

The answer isn’t to choose one side over the other,
But to see both,
To use both,
In whatever approximation we desire.

But no matter what you choose, what you create,
There is a price to be paid.
Without a price, there is no life.
Without life, there is no price to pay.

The complete truth?
It is not about choosing.
It is about seeing the whole.

The Undivided

The truth is:
All is one.
One is all.
When there is no division, there’s love

— undivided.

Undivided love is God
Who made perhaps the man,
Man, the animal,
The human who recognises life as such, lives as such,

Is one rare to find,

Show me such a person,
And I will show you a god.
And that man will show you the face of god.

A king recognises this.
A queen her bees.
And when they see each other, they complete each other.
When indulged in one another,
They are lost—and found.
That is love.
Immeasurable, complete.

A love that rests fully in each other,
But places no burden upon the other.

The Shedding

What is a burden to carry but your own fear and insecurity?
To recognise this is to shed fear, is to shed insecurity.
And in shedding, we are naked—like life itself.

When naked, what is there to hide?
In hiding, what is the glory?
In glory, what is the chastity?
In chastity, the impurity.

The cycle goes on endlessly.

The Human

Man creates problems when he gets stuck.
When he attaches too deeply.

So, he forms marriages,
Creates religions,
Establishes nations,
Raises kids—
Kids he won’t let go.

What life gives, man restricts.
So begins the misery.

The conflicts,
The daily living,
The never-ending cycle.

What’s the solution?
There is no solution.
That is the only freedom possible.

And in digging for a way out,
You’re only digging deeper.
In finding a way out,
You are already lost.

No one escapes life.
And not escaping?
That is death.

The Sly Wanderer

Hold your loved ones close,
Hold them close enough, you may kill them,
So let them wander, once in a while

Wander, you may let them,
But don’t bind yourself in the process.
Because if you bind,
They can’t wander.
And without wandering,
They won’t return.

When they return, let them come home,

to your bed, to sleep
So you can hold them again—
And then let go again.

Until one day,
You wonder where they have wandered.
And in that wondering,
You have wandered too.

“You sly wanderer,”
You smile to yourself,
And fall asleep.
At peace.
awake within,
One with the universe itself.

You the one.