The better part of the day had been spent walking in silence, which gave me time to think.  Then I would remember that I think too much and I would try to walk without thinking of anything.  This led to me thinking about keeping my mind empty and that wasn’t working at all.  However it did serve to distract me from the sights along the road as I passed by them.  I began to think that the more I tried to get the point, the more I was missing it.

It was about then I noticed the sunset pouring lazily orange across the mountains on the horizon.

“Isn’t that beautiful?” I asked Laozi, pointing toward the horizon.

Laozi paused, “It is a sunset.”

“Come on now, it’s beautiful.”

“When you find something beautiful, in like manner you create ugliness.”

“How is that so?”

“When you see some things as pleasant, then you must see some things as unpleasant, or else there would be no way to distinguish the difference.”

“Well, everything can’t be the same, right?”

“Everything is what it is.  By assigning extra meaning to things, we must also assign opposite meaning to things.”

“So by the existence of a standard such as good, we create by necessity the standard of evil?”

“Yes. Non-being sprouts from being.  Difficult is defined by easy.  Short is derived in comparison to long.”

“I think I see.  A high position is only in relation to a low position.  One perspective reveals the other and they are fully dependent on each other, so one is unable to exist without the other.”

“Yin is defined by Yang and Yang is defined by Yin.”

“I don’t want there to be ugliness and evil, but how can anything be accomplished without these distinctions?”

“The wise person will accomplish without doing.”

“That just makes no sense to me.”

“What will be will be without having to do anything.  We must trust in the natural balance of things.  By trying to alter that balance in favor of our will, we must contend with the complementary effects of our actions.  This is not saying that we must stand still, but rather we are best to move with the currents instead of trying to move against them.”

“So go with the flow, so to speak.”

“Things come your way and you do not stop them.  Things move on and you let them go.  Allow things to come without interference.  Let things be without controlling.  Let things act without exploiting.  In this manner you have without possessing, you do without expectation.”

I nodded and looked back at the mountains as the last light of day began to fade.  It was a sunset and no matter how else I chose to think of it, it’s still just a sunset.  There is no good or evil except in our minds.  Beauty and ugliness are just illusions we attach to things.  I felt a strange calmness as I considered these ideas.

The crackling of a campfire caught my attention and I saw Laozi sitting beside it.

“Do the work of the day,” he said, “and when it is done, forget about it.  Do not claim accomplishment and it cannot be taken from you.”

Taking a seat by the fire, I felt fulfilled.