Empty room, empty mind.
"We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the empty space
that makes it livable."
This quote comes from passage 11 in the Tao-Te Ching, a book supposedly written around the sixth century B.C. in ancient China by a man who’s life is fairly unknown and who’s name has long been forgotten. We know this man now by the mysterious name of “Lao-tzu”, or “old master” in english.
This quote popped into my head because of a couple reasons. My room is now repainted. The color is a yellow sand color. There are no posters up, no dirty clothes on the floor, and no school papers lying about aimlessly. My room feels empty, but not the lonely unfulfilled empty, a good kind of empty. The feeling that my room gave off transferred over to me tonight and it was great. Empty room, empty mind. To me, the metaphor of the room that lao-tzu uses in the tao-te ching is a metaphor for the human mind. Most of us when asked to describe a room will talk about the furniture, the posters, or the colors. What we forget, is that essentially what the room really is at its core, is empty space. When most of us think of our selves we think of our personality, when asked where our personality resides we might say the consciousness, when asked where the consciousness is we may say the mind, when asked what the mind is we may say our thoughts. However, when all thoughts are gone, what remains? A pure emptiness, an emptiness that is beautiful. Now if at our very core what we are is a pure emptiness, then how different are each and every one of us really? I think that if more people would realize this then there would be less reason for sexism, racism, anti-semitism, so on and so forth. So what is the point of this rambling? One thing: at our very core we are so similar to each other, each of us are a part of that beautiful purity that is emptiness of the mind. In conclusion whoever is reading this, this may sound cheesy, but the next time you find yourself comparing yourself to other people’s looks or attributes, or the next time you think that you are not beautiful, remember what I have said here, and remember how beautiful each one of us including yourself truly is.
but it is the empty space
that makes it livable."
This quote comes from passage 11 in the Tao-Te Ching, a book supposedly written around the sixth century B.C. in ancient China by a man who’s life is fairly unknown and who’s name has long been forgotten. We know this man now by the mysterious name of “Lao-tzu”, or “old master” in english.
This quote popped into my head because of a couple reasons. My room is now repainted. The color is a yellow sand color. There are no posters up, no dirty clothes on the floor, and no school papers lying about aimlessly. My room feels empty, but not the lonely unfulfilled empty, a good kind of empty. The feeling that my room gave off transferred over to me tonight and it was great. Empty room, empty mind. To me, the metaphor of the room that lao-tzu uses in the tao-te ching is a metaphor for the human mind. Most of us when asked to describe a room will talk about the furniture, the posters, or the colors. What we forget, is that essentially what the room really is at its core, is empty space. When most of us think of our selves we think of our personality, when asked where our personality resides we might say the consciousness, when asked where the consciousness is we may say the mind, when asked what the mind is we may say our thoughts. However, when all thoughts are gone, what remains? A pure emptiness, an emptiness that is beautiful. Now if at our very core what we are is a pure emptiness, then how different are each and every one of us really? I think that if more people would realize this then there would be less reason for sexism, racism, anti-semitism, so on and so forth. So what is the point of this rambling? One thing: at our very core we are so similar to each other, each of us are a part of that beautiful purity that is emptiness of the mind. In conclusion whoever is reading this, this may sound cheesy, but the next time you find yourself comparing yourself to other people’s looks or attributes, or the next time you think that you are not beautiful, remember what I have said here, and remember how beautiful each one of us including yourself truly is.