Listen to this Article:
“Those who speak, do not know.
Those who know, do not speak.”
Lao-tzu
“… and yet he said that.”
Alan Watts
There is a strange thing that happens when one shares his or her thoughts about “life.” Even the most profound individuals, those who somehow give words to the indescribable, find themselves faced with a beautiful hypocrisy:
Words have the power to bring us into a shared experience of life, focusing our thoughts and actions and guiding us deeper into the living mystery at the core of our existence… but trying to capture life in words is like trying to catch a rushing river in a bucket. As soon as we scoop water from a river it ceases to flow. As soon as we say anything about life, we exchange a boundless mystery for words on a page, sounds in the air, and thoughts in our head.
“TREE”
When we are caught up in our thoughts about life we are eating the menu instead of the meal. Just as our stomachs would rumble painfully if we ate only descriptions of food, so to do our bodies and minds grow weak when fed only by thoughts.
In our world of facts, logic, laws, experts, authority and truth, we are fed a constant diet of word after word after word, thought after thought after thought. It’s little wonder so many people are starving for something real…
Many a traveler has died of thirst trying to drink the word “water.” Many more have become hopelessly lost in the lines of the map, unaware of the beautiful landscape around them.
Breathing Between The Lines
In sharing the idea of uncomplication I too commit the beautiful hypocrisy: nothing I put on this page can substitute for this life you are experiencing RIGHT NOW. I use these words to invite you past them, to this wordless moment where every breath is a deep sigh of relief.
I will tell you a secret:
On every page of words, there is more space than ink.
In every conversation, there is more silence than sound.
In every life there is more possibility than certainty.
These spaces aren’t empty, they’re infinite.
As you continue on your way,
Remember how much space you have to breathe.
~r.stover