Chapter 23 - The Cycle of Life
Heng was excited when he arrived at the Sage's house. He wanted to tell him about meeting and studying in the inner worlds with Master Chang, but of course the sage was not there. The young prince was coming from ego and the how special he was, rather than from the spontaneous sense of connection with the Tao.
Heng's ego took it as a personal affront that the sage was not waiting for him when he arrived. In a bluster he walked from the house to the Lake of Li. Surely the sage would be waiting for the prince by the lake. He waived away his royal carriage and took his paint, brushes and canvas to the lake. When he arrived the sage was nowhere to be seen.
Angry, the prince sat on his log waiting impatiently for his teacher to appear. It had only been minutes but in his mind it had seemed like hours. Why was the sage treating a prince in such a way; surely he would have to be punished for his disrespect? The prince was working himself up into such an agitated state, when all of a sudden he saw the sage on a small boat in the middle of the lake.
Heng looked across the lake to the sage and noticed how small he looked in comparison to the Lake and the Forest which surrounded him. It reminded him of what Master Chang had told him about landscape painting, 'No lordly position should be given to humans in a landscape painting, because it is in nature that we find symbolic values and universally harmony. A human is no more important than a blade of grass or a tree, they are only a part of what makes up the Great Tao; so they should never overwhelm the image.'
With the sun shining down on the lake and the sage bobbling on its surface the young prince dropped his anger and looked deeper into the picture before him. Nature had come alive for him. The forest around the lake moved under the influence of the air as it was warmed and moved by the sun. The lake itself never stopped moving and it was teeming with life. At first he watched the fish swimming around the edges and then he could see the wind stirring up the water and creating small waves which were driving the sage's boat forward. The boat was at the mercy of the seasons, but the sage did not seem to mind and reveled in the freedom that nature provided.
Off in the distance Heng looked towards the Great Mountains standing above the Forest of K'an, like sentinels protecting its family underneath. Heng sent his feelings into the mountains and what returned was such a mystical understanding of nature and the millions of years that the mountains had been there. His only reaction was to cry as he was so overwhelmed by the feelings of love which was returned from the mountains. He felt like the mountains were honored by him for painting them.
He reached for a brush and began to paint; his brush flowing in weird lines across the surface of the canvas. Had he set out to copy the vista before him he would have painted a small section at a time, but here he was with longer more flowing brushstrokes which seemed to encompass the whole canvass. His ego wanted to pull back and paint in small sections; it was afraid of the unknown, but the real Heng, the eternal, immortal and infinite being was reveling in the freedom his inner creative self was allowing him. It did not matter what the painting looked like; for it was an expression of his inner self's connection with the Tao of nature. He was not even really look at the painting, but rather allowing the brush to follow the feelings which were coming from deep within.
He had not even noticed that the sage had pulled his boat up onto the bank and was walking towards him, so engrossed was he in the painting.
The sage stood behind Heng and watched as he painted. The young prince was almost in a trance as his brush danced across the canvas in concert with his inner feelings and pictures. It was a beauty to behold; for a moment the sage allowed jealousy to exist in his being; it was only for a moment, as the Sage's ego did not understand that his own creativity had nothing to do with painting, but the ego hates to lose in anything.
Huo waited while the Heng completed his painting. He was immediately struck by the sense of life in the painting. It was a little naive, in technique, when compared to some of the great works had seen on his journey, but Huo could not help but to be drawn into its honesty. The painting was alive with the Tao, the force and beauty of nature showing through in the colors and the brush strokes.
The beauty of the Tao as reflected in the painting sent Huo deeper into himself; so deep that his own creativity came through the words that followed as once again became the teacher. "Watch nature it is your greatest teacher; it moves and flows and moves again. Watch as the seasons change; there is much movement and such a wonderful array of changing colors. To learn about the Tao you need to watch nature. Just as you did with the painting, you need to look below the surface to see what is happening. In winter when everything appears to be stuck and frozen, you only have to look beyond the surface to see the potential of things to come. For it is in the winter that nature readies itself for the spring. Winter may seem harsh but underneath there is much beauty. In the spring when the snow thaws you will begin to see the livingness of things and the abundance of growth. As the season changes to summer we begin to see the harvest and with it the warmth and the summer storms. This in turn gives way to the autumn when what is no longer required falls away ready to begin the cycle again. Nature is your greatest teacher. Because it does not fear death it can be itself in all it's glory, without having to worry about the future.
"Within everything there is a cycle of life. If your life seems to be getting a little stale or you are losing energy over something then return to nature and you will see that nothing ever stays the same. After spending time within nature, many times what was seeming stuck or boring will often seem reenergized. If not then it may be time to walk away, but before doing so, look underneath the surface to find that it is not your ego that is scared to go deeper or you may find yourself always at the beginning."
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