Tao of the Day - Embracing Melancholy and the Less Culturally Palatable Moods
Ecstasy and anger
Sadness and happiness
Worry about the future
and Regret about the past
Rashness and stubbornness
Modesty and arrogance
These are the mood music of the void
Day and night
They follow one upon the other
Spontaneously emerging within us from who knows where!
Let them be.
Moods are with us from morning until night
We can't exist without them
It is the way things are
I don't know why
If moods have a master, then I have never met him
- Chuang Tzu (trans. Timothy Freke)
In the day of prosperity, be agreeable.
In the day of evil, be evil.
- Maori Proverb
When it blows,
there is only wind.
When it rains,
there is only rain.
- Lao Tzu (#23, trans. Stephen Mitchell)
And many thanks to Kris (kfrye) for sharing this one with me:
From The only way to conquer melancholy is to embrace it by Ian Frazier
I had one opportunity recently in Nome, Alaska, a far-northern town on the Bering Sea. I had gone there to do some reporting, which bad weather made impossible. I sat in my motel room for several days, getting gloomier and gloomier. Rain fell constantly. The month was August, and the rainy twilight lasted from four in the morning until midnight. Outside my window Bering Sea waves the color of wet cement landed on the riprap shoreline with thuds. To say that Nome, Alaska, is mainly mud with pieces of rusted iron sticking out of it is to be unfair to that interesting place, but so it appeared to me at the time. On my motel-room bed I read obscure books to the sound of the rain and the waves, taking occasional breaks to stare at the ceiling. I saw almost no one, never cracked a smile, and was as sorry for myself as I could be. After three or four days, completely bummed out, I went to the airport and flew home. I arrived pale, monosyllabic, and wonderfully refreshed.
Sadness and happiness
Worry about the future
and Regret about the past
Rashness and stubbornness
Modesty and arrogance
These are the mood music of the void
Day and night
They follow one upon the other
Spontaneously emerging within us from who knows where!
Let them be.
Moods are with us from morning until night
We can't exist without them
It is the way things are
I don't know why
If moods have a master, then I have never met him
- Chuang Tzu (trans. Timothy Freke)
In the day of prosperity, be agreeable.
In the day of evil, be evil.
- Maori Proverb
When it blows,
there is only wind.
When it rains,
there is only rain.
- Lao Tzu (#23, trans. Stephen Mitchell)
And many thanks to Kris (kfrye) for sharing this one with me:
From The only way to conquer melancholy is to embrace it by Ian Frazier
I had one opportunity recently in Nome, Alaska, a far-northern town on the Bering Sea. I had gone there to do some reporting, which bad weather made impossible. I sat in my motel room for several days, getting gloomier and gloomier. Rain fell constantly. The month was August, and the rainy twilight lasted from four in the morning until midnight. Outside my window Bering Sea waves the color of wet cement landed on the riprap shoreline with thuds. To say that Nome, Alaska, is mainly mud with pieces of rusted iron sticking out of it is to be unfair to that interesting place, but so it appeared to me at the time. On my motel-room bed I read obscure books to the sound of the rain and the waves, taking occasional breaks to stare at the ceiling. I saw almost no one, never cracked a smile, and was as sorry for myself as I could be. After three or four days, completely bummed out, I went to the airport and flew home. I arrived pale, monosyllabic, and wonderfully refreshed.