When The Winds Blow South
Have you ever heard the expression “All that is?”
My father gave me a book. Well actually, I helped myself to his abundant library after he died. One of his favorites, one he read constantly was the Tao Te Ching. Lao Tzu often used the words “all that is” in his writings. I often wondered just what he was talking about. In fact, I pondered these words. I tried very hard to imagine what is “all that is”. It seemed too vast to imagine.
There is a place in Yosemite where “all that is” has special meaning to me. At Glacier Point, forever seems imaginable. Looking to the north lies Half Dome and the magnificent stone mountain and valley below stretch on as far as the eye can see. Looking south, one sees another vast set of mountains, connected to the high sierras, with Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls streaming ever downward. Looking to the east, the vast high sierras stretch into infinity. And looking west, we see Yosemite Valley with Yosemite Falls. Farther to the west, Bridal Veil Fall sends its mist skyward; if it is getting toward evening, one can see the sun set. Three hundred sixty degrees of vast beauty.
In the spring, Yosemite flows with water. The falls are full, thunderous, the rivers below overflowing. The source of all that water is snow melt. The size of a snowflake can be almost infantessimal. The number of drops of water in a river cannot be counted. Both the large and the small are in the realm of all that is. The trees of Yosemite seem to touch the sky. But at night at Glacier Point we see but a droplet of the vastness of the heavens.
How do you describe the grandeur that is Yosemite? Can it even be described? Photographs barely make a dent in portraying Yosemite’s grandeur, Yosemite’s beauty, Yosemite’s aliveness, Yosemite’s magnificence. Grandeur, beauty, aliveness, and magnificence cannot be measured, cannot be described, and yet we all know them when we see them and experience them. We go from magnificence to joy, from aliveness to connectedness, from beauty to feelings, from grandeur to serenity. And these are just a few of the immeasurable experiences that help us understand “all that is”.
Have you ever looked at the stars in Yosemite? We see millions and millions. Add a camera and place it on a telescope mount, and we see billions. Keep that camera shutter open for three or four minutes and the camera sees more stars than anyone ever imagined were there. And that is just looking at one galaxy, our Milky Way. Can you imagine how many stars are out there in the two trillion galaxies in the universe? The universe is vast beyond our comprehension, yet we try to comprehend it. We think we can understand it, yet we cannot. Every scientific theory brings us closer, only to evaporate when some of the facts don’t fit the theory. “All that is” is more vast, more ancient, more curious, more complex, far beyond our comprehension – yet we try to comprehend “all that is”.
We leave Yosemite with our hearts full to the brim. We leave, longing to come back, never knowing when the next time will be. Our hearts tell us things we need to know. It tells us what we are longing for; it tells us what we love, what our spirits want, whether our souls are shining or not. The human heart lets us connect with others in a way that is not so deep as it is vast, complex, entangled. And then, sometimes, we also love deeply. The heart is an incredible energy center. The body has a number of these energy centers through which flow the energies that sustain us, the chi. Our hearts entangle us energetically with others. Our hearts are the gateway to “all that is”.
Our hearts are also a gateway through which the soul enters our lives. The heart is the gateway through which the still, small voice can be heard. It is the gateway through which we realize our dreams. It is the gateway through which we come to understand who we are. It is the gateway through which flow love, kindness, patience, generosity, compassion and acceptances. It is a major gateway for peace to flow into our lives. These, too, are dimensions of “all that is".
“All that is” is a very complicated subject. The grasses, the trees, all that grows in every habitat, and all that inhabits every habitat from the elephant to the worm to the microbe forms a sector, a dimension of “all that is”. From the lichen to the oak to the redwood, all are linked to the world of living things. All living things are part of “all that is.”
Human beings are living things. Every race, every color, every culture, every nuance of human life, every nuance of human emotion is part of the world of living things. The ones we love, the ones we hate, the ones against whom we harbor jealousies, the ones who fight, the ones who make peace: each of these are part of “all that is”. The intelligent scholars and the salt of the earth, the ones who feel superior and the ones who feel inferior, the ones who break the rules and the ones who make the rules, the ones who create the beauty and the ones who destroy the beauty, the ones who drive and the ones who ride along, the ones who forge the future and the ones who cling to the past, the ones who curse the ground they walk on and the ones who bless the ground they walk on, those who discover the truth and those who hide the truth, those who bless life and those who curse it: all this human life, in all its infinite forms, are part of “all that is.”
“All that is” is not a concept, it is not an experience you can have, it’s not an attempt to form a gestalt of everything. It’s what happens when the winds blow. In one place they blow east. In another place they blow north. In a third place they blow west. In another place they blow south. But it’s all wind. It’s all air blowing at great speed or small speed depending on the velocity of the wind. But it’s all wind. It can blow southwest, southeast, northwest, and northeast. But it’s still all wind. It can whirl all around us in a tornado or a hurricane. But it’s still all wind. You cannot capture it in your hands, yet it is there whipping around you. It’s not an idea; wind is quite real in fact. Wind slips away too quickly to become a gestalt. Rather, once the wind blows south, after blowing east, north, and west, the circle is complete. And the circle is drawn in every direction, like a sphere. And then the sphere moves through all time and all space, so that now that sphere has become another dimension, . . . or several perhaps. “All that is” is where we can go when the wind finally blows south. “All that is” is a mental, emotional, spiritual realization and acceptance of everything in this dimension and another dimension, . . . or several perhaps.
