The old Taoists sensed the Tao was/is an elementary aspect of existence, always here like time itself, and psyche. Three concepts with a timelessness about them. Time itself being timeless in the sense of being here/there always and forever, like the Tao, like Psyche, elements of being that “just are” in an always have been and always will be kind of way.
How we fit into the picture, like this truck, belongs to the “circumstances begetting circumstances” explanation, or realization, also verbalized by the Taoists for existence/being itself. A “doing” without “being done,” like Wu-wei itself, an “explanation” for things that appear to be “out of nowhere,” like a tornado or an earthquake whose sudden appearance is the result of “circumstances begetting circumstances” accumulating over time to explode in suddenness that was a long time in the making. And the “mystery” being not so mysterious at all when broken down into individual components/events like a butterfly originating as a caterpillar.
If we simply sit, watching things come and go, we will likely be amazed at what is and isn’t, while, all the time, we, ourselves, are coming and going. I was a new born baby once and now I am approaching my 82nd year. What happened? Circumstances begetting circumstances. And what is “cause” and what is “effect”? Each is both. Both are each. Depending on point of view and what and when which is viewed. And, in a flash of insight, all things become one thing becoming two things becoming everything while doing nothing. And a “miracle” becomes “nothing special” when seen in a certain way.
I returned to the scene where I took this picture a few years after I took it and the truck was gone. Circumstances begetting circumstances. Are we coming or going? Both. At the same time. What we see depends on how we look. And when we look. And we go to war over who is right and who is wrong. Can’t everyone please just sit down and shut up? And wait to see? That everything will be different over time? So what’s so important about here, now? It is changing even as we watch. When, then, do we act? And when do we refrain from acting?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 