Humans who do not need to hunt or gather food or work more than eight to ten hours a day to survive, need to have some way of productively passing their spare time, when not resting or enjoying recreational activities. This requirement, though mostly ignored by the western world, is much more significant than most believe. This human need leads to the realization that regardless of who we are, how well off we might or might not be, how enlightened we might or might not be, throughout its duration, our life will always be influenced by three constants for as long as we are aware of our existence in this world, which are: 1) Time, 2) Change, 3) Death. These constants cannot be dodged or postponed.
Time and space
Time passes, whether we like it or not. Physically, on this planet, time is expressed through its movement around the Sun, our life-giving and benevolent star. Yet, that is not the end of the process, since we are hurtling through space as our solar system also revolves around the center of our galaxy, which is also moving toward what is called the Great Attractor[1]. Therefore, time passes as we move through space. Both of these things are interconnected. As will be discovered, this space-time continuum is one of the primary signposts that we find in Tai Chi training and in our spiritual practice.
Heaven, Earth and I are one
Because time passes and because we are moving through space both externally and internally, there is also constant change, which along with this constant movement never ceases either. These practices are specifically aimed towards aligning our being with the movements, their shapes and frequencies as well as tuning our internal processes with that movement in a manner that integrates our being with heaven and earth. This integration is what gives us agency in the universe so that we can decide whether or not the time, space and change that touches our being can be applied in a positive, constructive and developmental manner, rather than randomly. So that we can attune our lives with the principles of nature and therefore with Tao and so that we can begin to realize the truth of the declaration, “Heaven, earth and I are one.”
This takes us to the last of the constants we must learn to manage. We all know that sooner or later we will meet our death. In and of itself, death is no more or less miraculous than our birth. However, for those who have considered these ideas beyond what is deemed normal in most people’s lives, what we do to improve ourselves and the world in the space between our birth and our death is about the only thing that truly makes any difference in life.
The purpose of life can follow one of two paths circumscribed by these constants whether we are wealthy or not, whether we are young or elderly, healthy or currently chronically ill, whether we are male or female, religious or agnostic or whether we believe these constants are relevant or not. Here I’ll cite Chaung Tzu in a passage from the Inner Chapters that has always truly moved me.
Now I’m going to say something. I don’t know how to categorize it, or whether or not it’s relevant here. It ought to be relevant at some point. Although it’s not anything new, I’d like to say it anyway.
There’s a beginning. There’s no beginning of that beginning. There’s no beginning of that no beginning of beginning. There’s something. There’s nothing. There’s something before the beginning of something and nothing, and something before that.
Suddenly there’s something and nothing. But between something and nothing, I still can’t tell which is something and which is nothing. Now, I’ve just said something, but I really don’t know whether I’ve said anything or not.
There’s nothing greater in the world than the tip of a bird’s feather, and Mount Everest is small. No one has lived longer than a dead child, and old Jimmy Carter died young. Heaven and earth grow together with me, and the myriad things and I are one. Since we are already one, what else is there to say?
Yet, I’ve just said that we’re one, so my words exist also. The one and what I said about the one make two, and two and one make three. Thus it goes on and on. Not even a top mathematician with a quantum computer can reach the end, let alone an ordinary man. Going from nothing to something, we reach three. How much farther could it be going from something to something? Enough. Let’s stop.
[1] See the video on the Great Attractor: https://youtube.com/shorts/uDA6lWJQXHs?si=HNd6UIMBiK90iMFw