In
the recognition of beauty as "beautiful"
is the birth of ugliness
In
the recognition of goodness as "good"
is the birth of evil.
"To be" and "not to be" arise mutually;
"Difficult" and
"easy" are mutually realized;
"Long" and
"short" are mutually contrasted;
"High" and
"long" are mutually posited;
"Before" and
"after" are in mutual sequence.
The
consequence of an identification
as a personal entity, as a personality
is the immediate birth of duality,
and the simultaneous placing of a differential valuation
to either of the dualistic poles.
The sense of a personal entity is nothing
but the presence of a hint of a sense of distinction.
Now good is to be pursued and evil to be shunned.
But
every pursuit, every shunning, is only heaps of despair.
For
conditions of existence are not of a mutually exclusive
character
Distinctions are there because of
a trained eye.
Distinction is a learned thing.
Distinction is not there in existence.
Distinction is projected by
"you".
Distinction is given by "you" to the world -
It's
trick played by the trickster on itself
and
lo behold the existence of a world.
Look at Nature.
Nature
itself does not seem to know - or care -
about the man-made opposites
or about this world
of opposites.
Nature seems perfectly satisfied and happy
to produce a world of infinite, rapturous variety
that knows nothing about
anything pretty or ugly,
ethical or unethical.
Nature never apologizes,
never sees the need of it...
And as was muttered by the Grace of Arunachala,
there having been no creation in the first place
there can be no destruction.
Ever.