Bit by Bit - Chapter 22, Part 13

Trey Smith

"Man's life between heaven and earth is like the passing of a white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall-whoosh!-and that's the end. Overflowing, starting forth, there is nothing that does not come out; gliding away, slipping into silence, there is nothing that does not go back in. Having been transformed, things find themselves alive; another transformation and they are dead. Living things grieve over it, mankind mourns. But it is like the untying of the Heaven-lent bow-bag, the unloading of the Heaven-lent satchel - a yielding, a mild mutation, and the soul and spirit are on their way, the body following after, on at last to the Great Return.

"The formless moves to the realm of form; the formed moves back to the realm of formlessness. This all men alike understand. But it is not something to be reached by striving. The common run of men all alike debate how to reach it. But those who have reached it do not debate, and those who debate have not reached it. Those who peer with bright eyes will never catch sight of it. Eloquence is not as good as silence. The Way cannot be heard; to listen for it is not as good as plugging up your ears. This is called the Great Acquisition."
~ Burton Watson translation ~

Every form that is born eventually dies. This is the Way. Every death provides the foundation of new forms to be born. This too is the Way. The lives that we know today merely are part of this ongoing process. We cannot hope to understand why for it is beyond our comprehension. The best we can hope for is acceptance of the reality of the Way.

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