Number Forty Unseen

40
the boy laughs
as he chases the red ball
across the graveyard

Lesson # 40

Go forth and you will return,
eventually.
Take action and you will rest,
eventually.
Everything is set in motion,
and then slows,
and finally is still.
That is what is meant
by the words,
“Being arises from non-being.”

From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching


Number 40 Unseen

The Tao moves in cycles
The Tao is fluid and yielding
yet it wears away the hard and the rigid
What we perceive as the creation
consists of matter and energy
but all of that arises out of what came before Creation
imperceptible yet all powerful

NUMBER FORTY

He who returns is sent forth by Tao,
He who is weak is used by Tao.
In the world things are born into existence,
Existing things are born into Inner Life.

Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.


Number 40 (commentary) Where did we come from?

Scientists excel at breaking down the building blocks of matter, molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, prions, leptons, quarks, strings.
But there is a fundamental “is-ness” that has no form, no spin, no charge.
Physicists call it the field of quantum entanglement.
Gravity and spacetime arise out from it.
All we can perceive arises from the Tao, the fundamental bed of being.

Tangent and Tool #40, It will all work out A question and a reflection: “How can I have any hope?” Things will get much better. We will definitely not be alive to see that. Our species may not be alive to see it. But it will work out. For a while, the Earth may have some very polluted areas and some radioactive spots on it where life struggles to survive. The Chernobyl reactor melted down and made the earth there highly radioactive for centuries to come. But a microscopic worm has adapted and seems to be immune to the effects of that radiation.
It all will work out. Life will go on. The universe will continue to expand, unfold and the experiment that began with the Big Bang will continue to operate in full swing and will play out with or without us.
By all means. fight to save the cheetah, to preserve our topsoil, to clean up our water and air, to bring social justice to our civilization and to support and elect those who value life, freedom to choose, knowledge, education, curiosity and love.
But also, walk outside at night and look up. Know that you are a tiny part of a vast unfolding that is complex beyond your imagination. Seek to learn how to let that awakening bring some peace to your sore, beleaguered heart.