dejection and resurrection

The Master doesn't try to be powerful;
thus he is truly powerful.
The ordinary man keeps reaching for power;
thus he never has enough.

The Master does nothing,
yet he leaves nothing undone.
The ordinary man is always doing things,
yet many more are left to be done.

The kind man does something,
yet something remains undone.
The just man does something,
and leaves many things to be done.
The moral man does something,
and when no one responds
he rolls up his sleeves and uses force.

When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is ritual.
Ritual is the husk of true faith,
the beginning of chaos.

Therefore the Master concerns himself
with the depths and not the surface,
with the fruit and not the flower.
He has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
and lets all illusion go.
-- Stephen Mitchell, Chapter 38, Tao Te Ching

I sat dejected.

"He's down in the dumps," said Lao Tzu.

"What's the matter?" asked Jesus.

"They say I am nothing but a pile of neurons yakking," I said.

"And that there is no meaning, no God, no Tao except what I invent," I continued.

"Who are 'they' except by 'their' own definition a pile of neurons yakking?" said Jesus.

Lao Tzu poked me. "Why would you believe a pile of neurons yakking instead of us?"

I sat up straighter. A smile began in my heart.

"It's snowing," said Jesus. "Let's go for a walk and listen to the snow fall."

"What is the sound of a snow flake falling?" asked Lao Tzu as we went out the door.

I looked at him.

"Joy," he said.

All around us was great beauty.