Landscape with Scholar and Servant

Inside me, it was quiet all day:      I waited until midnight for a sound. Outside me, it was noisy all day:      I waited all night for silence. Tao's power is sound. Tao's potential is silence.

It is said that even if one hears Tao before the day is over, then that day has been worthwhile.  Even if one hears about Tao before one's life is over, then one's life has been worthwhile.

But sometimes it takes a long time to hear about Tao.  There are some days when Tao does not manifest itself right away.  It seems that the more you want to love, the more hatred tempts you.  The more you want to be pure, the more negativity pursues you.  The more you want serenity, the more chaos assaults you.  The ordinary have common problems.  Those who pursue Tao struggle against titanic forces.  What can you do but accept it and persevere?  If you fret about it, then you have not only spent the day away from Tao, but you have ruined that day with emotional turmoil too.

Sometimes Tao does not appear until the very end of the day.  Maybe it's just that you are more relaxed and have put aside all your cares.  Maybe Tao is capricious.  It is hard to say.  When Tao does come, it is as if you are just now hearing a true sound.  When it does come, such a feeling of serenity overcomes you that it quiets all the noise of the day.

worthwhile
365 Tao
Deng Ming-Dao
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Landscape with Scholar and Servant
Huang Shen
China
18 century A.D.
Hanging scroll: ink and color on paper
54 -3/4 x 42
Painting
Purchase made possible through a gift from an anonymous donor

 "The size and shape suggests that [this scroll] might have been mounted as a screen. This may account for the fact that it's rather beat up, as if exposed a lot, but still strong . . . Huang Shen often did big pictures, but they tended to be of large, sometimes rather gross figures. This one is better than most, although also, no doubt, done rather quickly. . . he was prolific, [and] adopted a style that would permit him to be."

 bampfa.berkeley.edu