The Funny Bone

Darkness and Understanding

One

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

A man, blind from birth, who when feeling his way along the wall encountered a mirror, hanging.
He asked his sister, with whom he lived what it was.  That's a mirror, he was told.  In it is
your reflection.

What is a mirror? 
What is my reflection? I don't understand.

A mirror is a polished glass that reflects the light and shows your image as the light reveals it.

What is light? cried the bewildered man.

All I have is darkness, and endless questions that cannot find their answers.

You have your questions dear brother, that is enough, said the sister.