I've struggled with depression and alcoholism in my life. Sometimes, it seems one is always searching and seeking, rarely finding anything that really sticks. We may feel hopeless, useless and worthless but we are always greater than those transitory feelings. So, when I can remember to, I open the Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell's translation, and find a few words that ground me. Like...
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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.
-Matt
