What is the meaning of the experience of life? I believe it is to see heaven and earth, to see all beings, and to see yourself. These three ways of seeing are revelations for the soul’s growth, and also a complete cycle of energy.
The first way of seeing: heaven and earth.
We are born between heaven and earth, yet we try to explore endlessly outward, longing to converse with nature and the universe.
Zhuangzi said: “Heaven and earth have great beauty but do not speak; the four seasons follow clear laws but do not debate them.”
The beauty of heaven and earth lies not in their grandeur, but in the endless wisdom nurtured in their silence. Heaven and earth are vast and transcendent; they take us in and raise us, and lead us to know the different layers and possibilities of life. All our lives, we move in rhythm with the energy that flows ceaselessly between heaven and earth.
The universe teaches through nature: mountains and rivers keep their own courses; flowers, birds, insects and fish each follow their own laws of growth.
Because we have seen heaven and earth, we learn humility and how to go with the way of things.
The second way of seeing: all beings.
Buddhism says: “All beings suffer.” This is not a pessimistic fatalism, but a deep understanding of the restlessness and dissatisfaction within human nature. Suffering comes not only from material lack, but more from the loneliness, confusion and unease deep in our hearts, and from desires that can flare up and burn at any moment.
Because we see all beings, we fall from our self-importance and run into walls in the hidden corners of human nature. We are all creatures of the same heaven and earth; people are often so different from one another, and yet at times so alike. We strive to leap above the torrent of humanity, and then, at some moment, choose to merge back into the great sea of ordinary life.
Sometimes we bristle with thorns because we refuse to be ordinary; sometimes we huddle together because we are afraid of being alone. Sometimes we marvel at how infinite and great a single person is; sometimes we suddenly realize we are as small as dust.
Zhuangzi said: “Heaven and earth were born together with me, and the ten thousand things and I are one.” We are as faint as dust, and yet is this universe not held up by countless grains of dust?
We walk through the world in our bodies, coming to know what all humans share, and seeing into both the complexity and the purity of life. Every life in this vast world carries its own meaning, and every stage of life bears its own challenges and responsibilities.
Because we have seen all beings, we are filled with reverence for life, and compassion grows in us.
The third way of seeing: yourself.
Heaven and earth are vast, and all beings take countless forms, but all of this is only nourishment for turning back and coming to know ourselves anew.
Our identities, roles, achievements and failures in this three-dimensional world are like shards of a broken mirror, pieced together into the body we have now. But which shards are the true self?
All of them are the self, and none of them are. As Tagore said: “My deepest self calls me to myself.”
Much of the time we get lost in the false image the self has built for the moment. These fragments are only tools for calling ourselves home.
The three ways of seeing move from far to near and in the end return to the self. We are the point of origin from which this three-dimensional world is projected. Only by facing the pain and imperfection of that origin, admitting how small and humble it is, and patiently parting the layers of fog to see how true and unique it is, can we find the source from which our energy bursts forth.
Find that source, find this point of origin called the self. When we reach a place of inner stillness, where heaven and the human are one, we can use new wisdom and insight to project a new heaven and earth, and new beings, once again.
The three ways of seeing are one, without beginning or end. They reveal the nature of life and where the soul belongs, like a wondrous cycle that lets us keep breaking open the self and reshaping the soul.
A life can be very short, or very long. May we all one day truly witness the vastness of heaven and earth, the joys and sorrows of all beings, and the truth of ourselves. And then love this heaven and earth, hold all beings in our hearts, and return to our original heart.
I see all beings, all beings see me, and I see myself.
Only then is the circle complete.