Long exposure of the Milky Way main cluster with friend in foreground I took in Solomon Islands years ago (www.slylee.com)
Dào kě dào, fēi cháng dào.
道可道，非常道。
Míng kě míng, fēi cháng míng.
名可名，非常名。
Wú míng tiān dì zhī shǐ; yǒu míng wàn wù zhī mǔ.
无名天地之始；有名万物之母。
Gù cháng wú, yù yǐ guān qí miào; cháng yǒu, yù yǐ guān qí jiǎo.
故常无，欲以观其妙；常有，欲以观其徼。
Cǐ liǎng zhě, tóng chū ér yì míng, tóng wèi zhī xuán.
此两者，同出而异名，同谓之玄。
Xuán zhī yòu xuán, zhòng miào zhī mén.
玄之又玄，众妙之门。
A Dao that could be spoken of, is not the eternal Dao.
A Name that could be named, is not the eternal Name.
Without Name, thus began heaven and earth.
With Name, thus (became) the Mother of all things.
Therefore, often without (something), (we) tend to observe its Truth;
often with (something), (we) tend to observe its mysteries.
These two things (with and without), have the same origin but are differently named.
Both are called Profound, the most Profound of Profound, the gate to Truth.
Notes:
Language enables us to share ideas, but also is limiting at times when one attempts to understand deeper truths. In science, we approach understanding through the scientific method, which has brought forth countless benefits. The scientific method purposely restricts and classifies - it forces us to ask questions about things, constrained by time, by place. We label certain events as starting and stopping, we have labeled this planet we live on, called Earth, but in the opening of the Dao De Jing, a cosmic scene is laid out — when it was all created, there was no name, no specific event that started and stopped. How was the universe was created? It wasn’t; then it was. (incredible realize that 2,500 years ago, 500 years before the birth of Jesus, thousands of years before modern science, the concept of the Big Bang was written about here in chapter 1 of the Dao De Jing, and is repeated throughout the following chapters!).
When one stops and contemplates this, one eventually realizes that the state of being and non-being in inextricably intertwined. They are necessarily relational to one another. Here one can also see the concept of the Yin Yang give rise, without it being explicitly called out, and the richness of its meaning, which goes far beyond the black and white orbiting tear drops that have been plastered ad-nasseum on all things east-asian.
There is no existence without non-existence. Which is the profound message of the the second to last line.
Notes of a surfer:
Surfers use a variety of words to describe different types of waves: beach break, point break, reef break, shore break, crumbly, double-up, hollow, a-frame, closeout, steep, mushy, etc.
But each and every wave on the planet that ever existed is unique. None of these words can describe a particular wave in its entirety. Furthermore, when does a wave become a wave from the rest of the water? When does it cease being a wave?
Extrapolate this to all living and non-living things and you will begin to realize how intertwined everything and everyone and every time really is, and you will experience vast awe in every day circumstance. I try to daily.