Chapter 14.2: Homecoming and the Restoration of the Way

 


Its heights are unbounded – light cannot shine down upon it, 

and yet its depths are undarkened. 

Coiling and coiling as an endless length of rope, it cannot be labeled.

Coming and going, back and forth, over and over again, 

it is a homecoming to the myriad things.

This is called the form of formlessness, the image of no-thing – 

This is called a flash of perspective.

The Way is unlimited.  Its heights are so high that light cannot shine down upon it; yet even it’s deepest depths are undimmed by the darkness.  No matter how far down, we may find ourselves, there is no hole too deep, no abyss too dark that it is out of reach.  There is ALWAYS a Way – a Way forward, a Way upward, a Way out, a Way through, from wherever we find ourselves to wherever we want to go! The Way coils and coils, like an endless rope – sometimes seemingly twisted and tangled like an indistinct mass – no limiting labels can constrain or contain it.  The Way is an infinite network and nexus of possibilities and potential, opportunities and options, intersections and crossings, back and forth, like strands in the tapestry of our lives.  It’s never too late, we’ve never fallen too far.  We’re never beyond hope.  The Way is always available to us and leads us home to ourselves.  It returns and restores us to a state of pure being and authentic existence – to a form of ourselves that existed before we “formed” all of our ideas and beliefs about ourselves and the world and we just were; before we inherited subjective social stereotypes, felt compelled to conform to conditional cultural constructs, and became resigned to our relative realities; before we were told what was “beautiful” and “good” and thereby what was “ugly” and “bad” – before we started "robbing" ourselves of our own self-worth and “selling” ourselves short, felt the need to “show off” and put ourselves on display, and prove ourselves worthy, having forgotten that we are already unique, priceless treasures in this universe.   The Way returns all things to a place where they just are without an imagined image or contrived concept of things.  With a flash of insight, the Way can lead us back to place where ne no longer distinguish or feel the need to distinguish between things or make distinctions – we can just accept ourselves, others, and everything in the natural world as having an inherent and innate worth and value.  The Way repeatedly reunites us with that feeling of homecoming.  As the root system of the universe, it brings everything back home to its roots.  It guides us back to our core selves and helps us clear away the clutter from our lives and rediscover our true selves. That rediscovery can happen in an instant, like a flash of lightning, undoing years and even decades of (mis)judgment and distinction, deconstructing the narratives we have unwittingly created. 

The character 歸 means to "return home" or "homecoming." The imagery of “homecoming” is rich and symbolic.  In traditional China, when a daughter married, she became a homemaker 婦 (abbreviated to 帚, without the woman 女 radical, in 歸) and went to live with her husband’s family.  This often made it difficult for her to return home to see her own family.  Traditionally, daughters returned home on the second day of Chinese New Year.  They brought gifts from their husband’s families.  The day the daughters returned home was a day of great rejoicing and gratitude, a joyous reunion.  Regardless of the struggles of the past year, it was a moment of respite, comfort, and connection with their roots.  So it is with us.  We can go home, reconnect with our roots, and uncover our core. ~ DCB

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