Enjoy this re-post and Middle Ground pause.
Place of silence Photography by Ingo Dumreicher
“There’s nothing to prove, nothing to figure out, nothing to get, nothing to understand.
When we finally stop explaining to ourselves, we may discover that in silence, complete understanding is already there.”
Steve Hagen
Within nothing is everything
Beyond everything is nothing
When the unknown becomes known there is nothing to know
Let it be found in stillness
The potter knows she plays with clay but works with space,
For the use of the bowl is its empty space.
It is the same with the room,
Made whole by the emptiness between the walls.
Remember that something is not everything.
Nothing is also essential.*
~ Lao Tzu
Without space there would be no substance. Substance is not everything, although our mind likes to think it so.
I remember a time when I was painting watercolors, and learning about negative space. This is the space or background that the subject is set against. Imagine choosing a tree to paint, and rather than painting in the tree, you paint the space around it.
Source: Pinterest
Space must be considered in order to allow the subject to shine forth from the paper. Its brings harmony to the piece.
When we consider that nothing is essential, it turns inside out how we see things. I know it also reminds me how limited our thinking mind can be.
Nothing is essential.
*Braun Jr., John; Tzu, Lao; von Bargen, Julian; Warkentin, David. Tao Te Ching (Kindle Locations 211-215). . Kindle Edition.
Image from Pinterest: Steven DaLuz 1953. American Neo-Luminist Abstract painter
My point of view is not
a fixed or singular thing.
To say “I am the body,”
or “I am the vastness”-
both are true and neither.
To be all of it at once is to
fling my arms wide under
the shining sun and shout
“yes” with all my strength,
but even then I am not done.
Beneath the all and
everything I’ve just
embraced is the great,
unchanging silence, the
emptiness from which
the multiplicity arises.
To let my “yes” encompass
even this annihilates all
labels, takes away the
ground beneath my feet, and
leaves me perilously free.
~ Danna Faulds
I am sitting with these words today.
Please join me.
Namaste
The potter knows she plays with clay but works with space,
For the use of the bowl is its empty space.
It is the same with the room,
Made whole by the emptiness between the walls.
Remember that something is not everything.
Nothing is also essential. *
~ Lao Tzu
We forget about the space in which all comes into being.
This is a lovely reminder for me today.
Nothing is also essential.
… Tell that to the cat.
*Braun Jr., John; Tzu, Lao; von Bargen, Julian; Warkentin, David (2012-12-02). Tao Te Ching (Kindle Locations 211-215). . Kindle Edition.
