/lit/ - Literature

>>11986031
>>11986031
I got away from years of abuse by moving out to the southwest and doing logistical work for an expedition company, which meant that I spent massive periods of time driving 3 ton rigs full of supplies through the deepest deserts of the United States, delivering food, water, and equipment to teams across Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. I'd be out for days at at time alone and I loved it that way. That's where I read the Tao Te Ching.

In that of environment with that sort of literature my thoughts became largely concerned with the concepts of emptiness, and how wonderful it can be. I saw what the ancients meant when they said that nature does not rush, but that everything is always done on time, or that the natural world is perfect in its disorganization. I'd read an idiom written in the Tao about the nature of the world and then I'd look up at a field of stones and witness the concept before me. It was like a guidebook in a way. I began to understand the power of names and how they control our perceptions of ourselves and the world. I'd spend many nights just sitting out under the stars, meditating and listening to the perfect quiet stillness of the massive objects around me, recognizing that the unfractured block of the universe is real, and that everything really is just one undefinable object. There's freedom in that. Mesas, valleys, monolithic boulders, and the pattering feet of commuting stars, they're all the same and I am part of them.

The desert is a harsh place, but like a stone on the ground out there exposed to wind, water, and sand it smooths the traumatized edges of men. The nameless primordial thing "Laotzu" talks about is extraordinarily present out there, and it heals you like nothing else I've ever found. While the book did influence me, I think the land itself did more to shape my thoughts.

>>11986046
Interesting. That was one thing I identified and while it wasn't what I took away from it, I understand where you're coming from