Hi everyone – Revesting past thoughts mirrored in Lao Tzu – 14 Mystery

Look at it: nothing to see. Call it colorless.
Listen to it: nothing to hear.
Call it soundless.
Reach for it: nothing to hold.
Call it intangible.
Triply undifferentiated, it merges into oneness, not bright above, not dark below.
Never, oh! Never can it be named.
It reverts, it returns to unbeing.
Call it the form of the unformed, the image of no image.
Call it unthinkable thought.
Face it: no face. Follow it: no end.
Holding fast to the old Way, we can live in the present.
Mindful of the ancient beginnings, we hold the thread of the Tao.

Though empty the canvas contains everything that was and will be painted on it, yet it remains empty. Similarly, the idea that ‘Aum’ is the sound of all words that have and will be spoken yet is its surrounded by silence from which it arises and returns.
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Look upon the canvas: empty, yet infinite. Every color, every form, every story already rests within its silent ground. Though nothing is painted, all paintings are painted. Though nothing is held, all is embraced. This is the form of the unformed, the image of no image.

Listen to the silence: from it arises Aum. Within its vibration, all words are contained, every cry of birth, every sigh of death, every song of joy, every whisper of sorrow. Yet Aum dissolves back into silence, reminding us that sound is born of stillness, and stillness is the eternal ground.

Where nothing is born and nothing dies, there is no loss, no gain, no striving. All is held in the embrace of silence, all is sustained in the stillness of the Way. “Not bright above, not dark below”, beyond naming, beyond grasping, the Tao flows unseen, yet ever-present.
To walk this Way is not to cling, but to release. Not to demand life be other than it is, but to rest in its unfolding. Holding fast to the timeless thread, we live – ‘Present’ – mindful of beginnings that have no beginning, and endings that return to the same stillness.

The canvas remains. The silence remains. The Tao remains.
Empty, yet full. Silent, yet resounding. Unseen, yet embracing all.

Song of the Sparrow
[color=blue]A sparrow lifts on morning air, its wings brush silence everywhere.
No canvas marks the sky with line, yet all horizons still are mine.

The empty holds, the full is near, a song of nothing, yet all I hear.
From silence rises sound and word, from stillness every breath is stirred.

No birth, no death, the Tao remains, beyond all losses, beyond all gains.
The sparrow knows the thread unseen, the timeless Way, both old and green.

I do not veil the endless blue, nor bind the wind that carries through.
Your chains are not of earth or sky, but of a self that asks “not I.”

Awake! Awake! The silence sings, the canvas waits for all it brings.
The gate is open, clear and true, the hidden path is simply you.
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Hi Anita
All is well and I hope your still dancing.

I appreciate how you let associations arise and follow them, it’s often where the most meaningful insights come from.

Reading your post reminded me of a question I’ve asked before: What would it be like to actually live what one says they believe?
The answer that arises of late was that I would stop believing altogether. To live it fully would mean no longer holding onto belief as an idea, but simply being in the flow of what is. Perhaps a Krishnamurti influence…

LOL – I think I need new glasses. Apologies Alissa

Anita, I think we both answer the question in James thread.

Thanks Anita – Perhaps the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend.