The Larva in the Midst of Chaos: Letting go of everything but this moment

"Return to the state of the uncarved block. When the block is carved, it becomes useful. When the sage uses it, he becomes the ruler. Thus, 'A great tailor cuts little.'" -Lao Tzu, from the Tao Te Ching

I have had the Tao Te Ching in my book collection for years, and I have read it a few times — but today, I opened it up to the passage above and realized that I never really got the Tao Te Ching. Not that I "get it" in it's entirety — I don't know if that's possible. But that one line:

Return to the state of the uncarved block

That line spoke to me. I started to think about the uncarved block and what that represents; about Taoism and the importance placed on mindfulness and the present moment. I was also reminded of the words of Osho:

"Personality is a farce, personality is pseudo, personality is that which is given to you by the society. Personality is imposed on you from the outside; it is a mask. Individuality is your very being. Individuality is that which you bring into the world... Personality is ugly because it is pseudo. And the more personality you have, the less is the possibility for individuality to grow. The personality starts occupying the whole of your space. It leaves no space for individuality to have even its own corner. The personality has to be dropped, so that the individuality can be." -Osho

An uncarved block has not been stained by past experience or societal mores and demands; I suppose to be an uncarved block would be similar to being a newborn baby. You see the world and everything in it for the first time. Imagine if you had never seen a tree, or anything like it (even a plant) before. You would approach it quietly and carefully. Its beauty would astound you. The leaves and the trunk, the bark, those things wouldn't be the only things you would notice. The sunlight creeping through the leaves and the branches and landing on the grass below. The smell of the vibrant green leaves and their intricate vein system. The roots, digging through the soil and spreading and anchoring in the ground below. The animals and insects and birds that call the tree home. If you really let yourself see, let yourself forget that you have ever seen a tree, then that specimen of nature becomes what it truly is: majestic and magical.

Sitting on my patio yesterday afternoon, I tried this. I have always either been afraid of insects or incredibly annoyed by them— but I let myself be an uncarved block, a blank slate. I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them, the flies that always hang around my patio in the summer . . . they were dancing. Not buzzing around incessantly to make my life more annoying, but they were doing a kind of waltz— and as I looked at them, I felt incredibly tethered to that moment. And I was grateful for gaining this ability—to see out of new eyes. Try this the next time you are in nature, or anywhere, really. Even with someone you love— look at them with new eyes, the way you did when you first met. This won't be my only post on letting go of personality and tethering yourself to the here and now; because it's incredibly hard, and it is always a struggle. I don't have it down, but I want to. Approach that blank slate. Think of yourself as a newborn, seeing the world with new eyes.