April 9th

Homecoming


Where was Tao while I was gone?
Wasn't I following it where I went?
Do you think that there are two?

After traveling awhile, we come home to a familiar place, only we often look at it in a new light. Were things different while we weren't here? We experienced so many new and different things while we were gone -- wasn't that Tao too? How can there be so many differences?You might argue that a mountain is a mountain, but our attitudes toward it are changeable. If we mistake our subjective viewpoints as something that is solid, permanent, and never relative to circumstances, then we will have no end to our problems. However, if we always remember that everything is comparative, then we can move through life in a much more dynamic way.
There are not two ways. There is only one. It is so vast that we can experience widely diverging aspects of it and imagine that we are in different realities. This is a misconception. We cannot outrun Tao, cannot be outside of it. It is only our viewpoints that change to the degree that we think we are in differing dimensions. In the river of Tao, we are like minnows that can never plumb the length and breadth of the water.

Personal Interpretation


Perception defines reality. Experience can cause us to look at the same thing differently. We have not known two realities. In truth, there is only one reality and it can only be glimpsed through the  lens of our senses, which can deceive us or show us different facets of the same object or experience. Our means of seeing and interacting with what is is inherently flawed, but it is what we have. We must make the most of our humanity. Perhaps the best we can do is recognize that perception defines our view of all that is, and that perception will necessarily change as we encounter and experience more of the world.