Before and After Follow Each Other.

wikipedia

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 read this little morsel in S. Mitchell's translation of the Tao Te Ching
this morning, an ancient description of dialectic relationships. The yin and the yang. I willingly admit the moments when I forget the balance of everything, how the world is the way it is whether I like it or not. It is humbling to see one's faults. The awareness of personal flaws allows us empathy for others. In the core of Taoist belief lies a truth that I believe anyone can recognize, the interdependence of all things. If we grapple with it, we entangle to knots. 

I want to emphasize that this interconnectivity is the very thing the majority of our ancestors misinterpreted as supernatural. What I read in the Tao Te Ching is a thing we can see in everything, everywhere. Light and dark. Plus and minus. Up and down. Pain and sublime. If every individual were to acknowledge this interconnectivity and interdependency, even our most ardent beliefs might find a better fit between us. Lao-tzu said that desire creates phantom futures. I do desire but I should recognize the source and reason for the desire and let the path chase the phantoms for me.