he who feels punctured must have once been a bubble

i've been working my way through "the world's religions" by huston smith, who i mentioned at the end of last month. the book contains a brief history and description of the major world religions rather than telling the reader how to practice them. i just finished the chapter on taoism and a few quotes stuck out at me.

first, the title of today's post is from the Tao Te Ching. if you've never read it, i'd recommend it. you can read the whole thing in 30 minutes or an hour, but, as smith points out, you could study it for a lifetime. i think i have been a bubble at various points in my life.

in discussing the tao's observation "muddy water let stand will clear," smith writes:

If you want to study the stars after being in a brightly lit room, you must wait twenty minutes for your eyes to dilate for their new assignment. There must be similar periods of waiting if the focal length of the mind is to readjust, withdrawing from the world's glare to the internal recesses of the soul.

the other quote that stood out to me was:

The Chinese word for landscape painting is composed of the radicals mountain and water, one of which suggests vastness and solitude, the other pliability, endurance, and continuous movement.

in some ways i feel that the radicals embody my connection to water and attraction to mountains.

i got to climb sunday evening for a couple hours with my housemate daniel. it was a lot of fun. we went to austin rock gym, which was nice because there weren't too many people there and we didn't have to melt in the heat. my lats and shoulders are a little sore, but that could also be because at core workout last night, the instructor turned 32. because of this, he decided we needed to do 32 sets of 32 reps. when you do a couple sets of 3 minute and 20 second planks, 32 pushups, etc, one can expect to be a wee sore the next day, i suppose.

i'm finishing up my problem set and packing tonight and tomorrow. we leave tomorrow night for leadville!