42

It begins with the stupefying, unintroduced Dude.

Then comes the half-and-half.

The half-and-half is poured into a beverage with three parts.

Everything gets mixed up in all this.

All things come from this carefully held beverage:

The world begins with a thirst, and ends with a buzz.

We invent new things my mixing old products together.

The world is a giant supermarket.

Try to find the best ingredients at the lowest cost.

Many people look at the Dude with suspicion,

Yet the wise see the Dude as a hero,

Only, they won’t say that exactly.

They know that in a tumbling tumbled world,

It is the upside down who are often the most upright.

Though many learned men have disputed this,

Those who treat the world as their home

Will be casual and comfortable anywhere they go,

Especially if they subscribe to a club of value.

Tao Te Ching: 42

Tao gives rise to a unified field of being,

The unified field of being splits into the yin and the yang,

The interplay of yin and yang gives birth to creativity,

And creativity produces all the things we perceive in the world.

Elements in the world are vehicles for yin and yang,

Helping to harmoniously blend their vital energies.

Most people hate to be lonely and disrespected,

Yet great men can see the value in being an outsider.

They know that in certain conditions

Loss can be a gain, and gain can be a loss.

It’s been said many times before:

Those who visit violence upon the world

Will surely have violence visited upon them.

This is the most important thing in the world there is to understand.