The Way

"The Way that can be described is not the true Way.

The Name that can be pronounced is not the eternal Name.

That which cannot be named is the beginning of Heaven and Earth."

This is how Lao Tzu writes in the Tao Te Ching. Smart guy. Or perhaps smart guys, as some scholars believe the work may be a compilation of teachings from several wise masters. I would have loved to meet them for tea. Maybe I did, in a previous life, a long, long time ago.

I remember how this text puzzled me as a young man. It seemed full of contradictions. But, as the saying goes, in youth we learn; in age we understand. I now "get it." I walked that path and took that journey. The senseless makes sense. And it is quite simple, really.

When we try to encapsulate an experience, no words can do it justice.

We see a beautiful sunset, taste a delightful piece of cake, or climax (why not? That, too, falls into this category), and our senses explode. When we try to verbalize the experience, we are caging a wild animal. It does not really work. What remains is but a shadow of the experience's true nature, not the real thing.

And so it goes for energetic, emotional, mental, and astral experiences. The true ones cannot be fully expressed.

That is the nature of The Way.