Languid Dreaming

I resemble an infant who has not yet become a child; Lazy and idle, as though there is no place to return.

Everyone has more than enough; I alone appear as though abandoned.

I have the heart-mind of a fool— Chaotic and unpredictable.

Ordinary people are bright and clear; I alone appear dim and indistinct.

Ordinary people are inquiring and discerning; I alone appear hidden and obscure.

Like an ocean in its tranquility; Like a high wind in its endless movement.

Each person has his reasons; I alone am insolent as though unconcerned.

I alone am different from other people; I revere being fed by the mother.

To light a candle is to cast a shadow

From that fateful day when stinking bits of slime first crawled from the sea and shouted to the cold stars, "I am Man", our greatest dread has always been the knowledge of our mortality. But tonight, we shall hurl the gauntlet of science into the frightful face of death itself. Tonight, we shall ascend into the heavens. We shall mock the earthquake. We shall command the thunders, and penetrate into the very womb of impervious nature herself!

* * * * *

“Perhaps it’s that you can’t go back in time, but you can return to the scenes of a love, of a crime, of happiness, and of a fatal decision; the places are what remain, are what you can possess, are what is immortal. They become the tangible landscape of memory, the places that made you, and in some way you too become them. They are what you can possess and in the end what possesses you.”

From this perspective, the person consists of one hun and one po, though in the later Daoist tradition these are sometimes three and seven in number, respectively (see below). The former is conventionally translated as “cloud” or “ethereal soul,” while the latter is conventionally rendered as “white” or “corporeal soul.” The use of “soul” is misleading, as it implies something substantial and eternal.