I’ve been thinking as I listen to Wayne Dyer’s commentary on the Tao Te Ching. So much of my life is spent in being and doing and what is really important in me and in my life is really non-being. I’m grateful for this book and these moments of insight that have come from it. Until now, the concept of non-being has been elusive. What were they speaking of? Now, it seems so clear. I’m looking more deeply at what surrounds me and appreciating the duality or non-duality. In the “world of the ten thousand things,” there exists paradox and contradiction. There are no absolutes in this world. All that is, is just that.
At Mass yesterday as I looked at the lovely maple floor in Holy Peace Chapel I saw the blue sky, the rain and the sun. I saw dead leaves, decaying matter and ancestors. As each person made their way to communion, I saw moms, dads, sisters, brothers, grandparents. I saw Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, Yahweh, Gitchi Manitou and all the other names which cannot be named.
Without non-being there would be no being. One is needed as much as the other. Darkness and light are part of the same continuum and without one we would not appreciate the other. I am a being but I am made up of non-being. Without non-being I am nothing, just a collection of tissue and bones.
As a free person I can always come and go,
Not caught in ideas of is and is not.
Not caught in ideas of being and non-being
Let your steps be leisurely.
Waxing or waning the moon is always the moon
The wind is still flying. Can you feel it my dear?
Bringing the rain from afar to nourish the nearby cloud
Drops of sunshine fall from no high to earth below
And the lap of earth touches the clear vault of the sky.–Thich Nhat Hanh