Earth Day 2015

Yes, it is an eerie place. The Methusala tree is the one you are thinking of. We were up there with a bit of snow and not another sole in site at the end of the day. Very primal, reminds you that much of earth goes on living just fine with no humans at all.

 

1

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.

2

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

3

If you overesteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.

The Master leads
by emptying people's minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.

Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into place.

4

The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.

5

The Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.

The Tao is like a bellows:
it is empty yet infinitely capable.
The more you use it, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you understand.

Hold on to the center.

 

indeed!

 

Interesting indeed. Provoking even.

 

...I think I made it to the first of the "groves" (meadows?) at about 10kft?, ..but it was near dusk, so I decided to turn back and hope I could remember the way back! ...it's a neat place, ...apparently the climate is very unique, given its close proximity and orientation to the sierra nevadas, a rain/snow shadow...

 

Yes, it's a rare, small environment, and it will be interesting to see how it fares in the coming decades (like I'll ever know). We had time to go all the way to the far northernmost grove above 11,000. A hell of a fun, fast, dirt road drive in 4 high. No one there.

The black spec at center is the truck.


And we came back down Silver Creek trail, most of it in 2nd or 1st low...

 

...you'll probably recognize this, ..quite desolate, ...I thought ..."moonscape"...