Does not come and does not go

Cover calligraphy by Lin Xi: "Neither Coming Nor Going"

"Neither Coming Nor Going" – by adding "not" before "coming" and "going," and then "also," it's not simply that what's come has come; it's that what's come has gone, what hasn't come has gone, what hasn't gone has come, neither coming nor going... These five extremely simple words, when rearranged and recombined, represent situations that transcend three, four, or five dimensions, just like in the human world. When it comes to love, greed, obsession, joy, and sorrow, who can simply utter: let go of attachment, just release it, and it will be done? These newly compiled essays and poems observe relationships in human interactions, view the world with a feeling heart, and construct a human path from each living day, fragmenting the internal and external, the real and illusory, black and white, right and wrong, positive and negative, into fragments, to allow oneself to take each small step forward. To borrow from Lin Xi's lyrics in "Neither Coming Nor Going": "Let's just say at the beginning / Was it okay to tiptoe across the lake? / Not to plant anything / To pluck anything / As if I never came / Never left."

Walking on the frozen lake, each step must be as light as a feather; even breathing too heavily risks cracking the ice and sinking. Yet, as one drifts through life like this, the gentle breeze carried by all sounds, blowing across the lake, echoes back. Is it the sound of water flowing beneath the layered ice, or is it the sound of one's own heart, unheard for too long?

Human nature and worldly affairs, it's as if the world surrounds me; my heart's voice is heavy, but my steps can be light...
"If everything
Is seen as
Never having come, never having gone
Perhaps it is the most gentle encouragement in the world."
Let us encourage each other with this.

As Lin Xi writes in the book:
//Joy
Since it has come
Don't think about
Why, when, or where
It will be lost

Actually, when it arrives
It has also left
Leaving behind faith
What you believe
Existence or non-existence doesn't matter
Only existence matters
Not there when it's not
When it is there
At ease//

Portions of this book are excerpted from "Singing the Happiest Song Without a Price," "Human Nature and Worldly Affairs," and "The World Surrounds Me."