January 7, 2011
Snow lightly bestows
itself until the dark world
disappears in day.
“If you want the truth to stand clear before you never be for or against.” - Zen Master Seng Ts’an
Normally we experience the world dualistically, see it as either this or that: right or wrong, left or right, black or white, light or dark, happy or sad. The world asks us to make that choice, to choose either one or the other. I no longer subscribe to this worldview. If something is True, its opposite must also be True. That explains all the paradoxes in sacred texts.
When given a choice between two options, there is always a third choice, and the third choice may be as simple as choosing both. To deny a part of either Truth is to create or perpetuate nothing but the false. Choosing both is not a compromise. Once you know who you are, you must not compromise. While the world cannot be black or white, neither should it be gray. The world was not meant to be dismal. When two opposing forces meet, say sun and rain, they do not compromise to form the rainbow. The sun does not become less than the sun; the rain does not stop being rain. If either stops being what it is, a rainbow is impossible. Sun and rain remain what they are – remain true to themselves – and thus together they create beauty. Yet at the same time something is sacrificed: their will to live apart. And that sacrifice takes love.
