Dao De Qing Chapter 2

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

I just love the Daodeqing, because of the simplicity of the texts. When we choose to create (or make) something, there is a residual opposite that is created inadvertently. We don't immediately recognize it nor do we usually acknowledge it. Once we make one, then the ten thousand things follow.

Zen Master Seung Sahn was always saying, "Don't make anything!" I always loved it when, at the end of morning practice he would say; "Don't make anything, don't make anything!"

If we can live free of our habit to label or create a new construct, then we can see the truth as it unfolds, in this very moment.

the translation is from Stephen Mitchell's Tao Te Ching translation. (Stephen Mitchell was the first Western Monk ordained by Zen Master Seung Sahn and was known as Mu Gak Sunim for 14 years)

Picture courtesy of Mu Sang Sunim (Zen Master Seung Sahn and Mu Sang Sunim)