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insignificance
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Spasms of molten rock
Piled a cone three miles high.
Rain and wind split a hundred towering fingers.
In time, trees strove for leverage in the fissures.
After a million years, condors and snakes took up
residence.Mighty rock, carved walls adorned with
Chartreuse and vermilion lichen --
Man yet more puny on those stones.
How long will it take to see Tao?
Until you no longer hold self-importance.
Compared to the massive movements of heaven and earth, compared to the immensity of geologic time, the greatest acts of humanity and their monuments are beneath significance. We climb the highest mountains, we dive to the depths of the sea, we fling ourselves as close to the sun as we dare, and we are not even on the scale of nature's measure. In our egotism and our view of ourselves as the center of the universe, we imagine that our lives have some meaning and importance when placed beside the stars and mountains and rivers. They do not. We cannot hope to have any true meaning in the history of the universe. But we can know it better, we can be a better part of it.
If you want to know the force that keeps the sky blue, the stars burning, the mountain high and still, the rivers running, and the oceans flowing, then remove the veil that stands between you and Tao.
insignificance
365 Tao
Deng Ming-Dao
Daily Meditations
tao water gallery
www.taowatergallery.com
li jin was born in 1958 China, and graduated
from Tianjing Academy of Fine Arts
in 1983 with B.A. degree of Chinese Painting.
Now he is teaching and living in China.
duckdaotsu receives no compensation
for the display of art on this
site