Brief and Empty

Science and man has been dedicated to sorting, classifying, and analyzing matter. We have acquired mountains of knowledge higher than the Alps. Yet, after all the work and thought, the search for true insight reveals that there is "nothing at all". This of course refers to an inner experience which lies beyond the hands of science. When we become aware of the true nature of our own self, we realize that we are in fact "empty", that there is nothing permanent about us. We are a brief manifestation of form and energy which takes shape and disappears, like a wave in the ocean rising and falling to disappear into the endless ocean. There is no use trying to cling to anything for there is nothing to cling to. Clinging to an idea of permanence is holding on to an illusion. To follow the Tao is to accept the perpetual movement and change of which we are an integral part.