The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.
~ Swedish Proverb ~
Chuang Tzu would love this one!! It reminds me of a snippet from Chapter One.
The morning mushroom does not know of the waxing and waning of the moon.
In both cases, the message is about frame of reference. It informs us that finite entities are limited in their view of creation. The fixed cannot understand the infinite. That with boundaries cannot understand that without. The formed cannot understand the formless.
Humanity can see the manifestations of the Way, but we can't touch it nor grasp it.
Humanity can see the manifestations of the Way, but we can't touch it nor grasp it.
The morning mushroom is like that cicada you mentioned earlier. (Although the cicada is actually a traditional CHinese symbol of immortality.)
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. Why would the cicada (of all things) be a symbol of immortality? They live very short lives -- at least in comparison to many other things.
ReplyDeleteActually the cicada has a very long life cycle (as well as all that transformation sort of stuff.)
ReplyDeleteI have a book of Chinese symbolism somewhere, but this is from Wikipedia...
"Most cicadas go through a life cycle that lasts from two to five years. Some species have much longer life cycles, such as the North American genus, Magicicada, which has a number of distinct "broods" that go through either a 17-year or, in the South of the USA, a 13-year life cycle."
and...
"In the Chinese classic Journey to the West, the protagonist Priest of Tang was named the Golden Cicada; in this context the multiple shedding of shell of the cicada symbolizes the many stages of transformation required of a person before all illusions have been broken and one reaches enlightenment."
Someday I will blog about the cicada that came home with me from Wudang.
That's so weird. I grew up in Kansas City. The cicadas only showed up every few years. They've sing their songs for a month or two, then they would disappear.
ReplyDeleteThey were in hiding, hibernation...meditating.
ReplyDelete