Chapter 25 - Cycles

There is something formlessly created
Born before Heaven and Earth
So silent! So ethereal!
Independent and changeless
Circulating and ceaseless
It can be regarded as the mother of the world

I do not know its name
Identifying it, I call it "Tao"
Forced to describe it, I call it great
Great means passing
Passing means receding
Receding means returning
Therefore the Tao is great
Heaven is great
Earth is great
The sovereign is also great
There are four greats in the universe
And the sovereign occupies one of them
Humans follow the laws of Earth
Earth follows the laws of Heaven
Heaven follows the laws of Tao
Tao follows the laws of nature

What does it mean?

Everything is circular in nature.  If one is to adhere to a life by natural law, one must respect that everything comes and goes in cycles.  Life grows, but it also recedes and returns back to it's tranquil state to nourish and make room for the next life.

This is a great thing!  Imagine a world in which there is infinite growth.  Eventually, you run out of room and resources for anything new, and then life stagnates.  The thing is everything cycles.

Humans cycle.  Individually we live and die.  Collectively our civilizations and constructs rise and fall.  At this very moment, the things that power Western civilization are slowly winding down in the way all living things do.

Life itself cycles.  We have experienced five great extinctions that wipe out over almost all of the life living on earth in a few decades.  Yet, even though it is a horrible, massive loss of life, it made room for the next age.  In fact, they say we are experiencing another extinction at this presice moment.

The heavens cycle too.  Our star will eventually expand and envelop all of the near planets, including ours and get colder.  Eventually it will burn out and explode.  When that happens, the matter that makes up our solar system will explode and become the next celestial body thousands of light years and millions of our years away.

I bet that the entire scope of reality will one day recirculate.  The universe is continually expanding and potentially might simply fade away, or perhaps it will reverse course after losing moment from a Big Bang moment.  We don't know what existed before the universe.  It could look like what the end of this reality will eventually look like.

How do I use this?

Accept the cycles in your life.  Fighting against natural cycles only causes extra suffering for yourself or others.  To be at peace, you have to look at all things as temporary and insubstantial and why that is good.

There are cycles all throughout your life.  You move to new homes, have new jobs, make new friends and learn new things.  You cannot get these new things without losing the old things, not having enough time for old friends or unlearning what you assumed was right.  This is another reason, practically, that making space in all aspects of your life is a good thing.  When, and not if, your life changes, you need to be flexible enough to change with it.

It you have a hard time letting go of the old things, think of those opprotunities you get to have once change occurs.  This does not mean you do not mourn what you loved and lost, but it does mean you have to let things pass to continue the nautral cycles.  In fact, you do yourself a great injustice to ignore your feelings to "be tough" in a swell of difficult change.  Just keep in mind that your feelings and thoughts will change too, and that will to help heal your emotions.

The contradiction is change is changless.  Change is a eternal force on reality.  It is a part of the Tao which is defined by paradox.