As a biology major, I have been taught the way the universe works. I have been taught how water moves through semi-permeable membranes and how sodium reacts with chloride. I have been taught how the body responds to foreign pathogens and how blood travels through the cavities of the heart. While taking this class, however, I realized that as much knowledge as I have gained as a STEM major about how the universe works, I never was taught how the universe is. I was able to see facts, and not patterns. I could name every protein involved with the creation of a new cell, a new organ, a new human being, but I never asked myself why things happened this way. This class has allowed me to explore the same questions about the universe’s being with a new perspective.

I have learned that the universe is cyclical. Life and love are ever-changing, dancing with the harmony of the world. As Lao Tzu points out in the Tao Te Ching in verse 23, “The wind and rain are from Heaven and Earth, and even these do not last long.” From an evolutionary standpoint, Earth is a perfect entity. Each organism, from the proudest trees of California to the microscopic zooplankton in the Atlantic, have been repeatedly crafted and reshaped via natural selection for millions of years until the perfect organism can function in wildly intertwined ecosystems. Lao Tzu places the Earth alongside Heaven in verse 23, implying its innate perfection. However, this verse points out that the Earth, which is just as perfect as heaven, still has rainstorms that are impermanent and cyclical. The Earth still allows life to be dynamic, “emerging, flourishing, and dissolving back again,” as stated in verse 16, even if humankind wishes life to be stagnant and forever.

I experienced this human tendency of longing for permanence first hand as I sat at My Place in White Clay Creek each week in the February rain. Armed with a journal and a trash bag to sit on, I was overwhelmed with the idea of waiting for the warmth of Mother Nature’s May embrace. I was unenthusiastic about waiting for flowers to bloom and birds to chirp; I wanted spring now and always. This is the very problem with humans; we spend so much time wishing for flowers that we forget to appreciate snow. We spend so much time wishing to be happy that we forget how to cope with sadness, and we spend so much time wanting to stay alive that we forget how to feel alive. Though we all wish to live forever, to be permanent, we must remember, as stated by Lao Tzu, that “’As you plant, so you reap, As you live, so you die’” (verse 42). As I returned to White Clay week after week, just as it does every year, spring sprung. Birds eventually chirped and flowers eventually bloomed, no matter how brittle the February winds.

I have learned that the universe is malleable. It is neither this nor that, it is not black nor white, right nor wrong. The universe practices balance and cooperation; to reference verse 42 of the Tao Te Ching, “all beings support yin and embrace yang, and the interplay of these two forces, fills the universe.” I was unaware that I already knew this. Since the seventh grade, I have been fed the definition of ‘homeostasis’ as it pertains to biology: the maintenance of an internal equilibrium while experiencing external changes. Cold blooded animals can literally change the entire temperature of their body to exist with the changing environment. Water flows in and out of cells to keep them in equilibrium with their surroundings. At My Place in White Clay, the water levels rise and fall with the weather, yet it can still sustain all of the life held within.

The Tao Te Ching offers ways for people to behave that would be in stronger accordance with the universe. The most important teaching is to be like water, for “water benefits all things, and goes against none of them” (verse 8). There are many different lessons that reflect the teachings of water throughout the text.

First, the Tae Te Ching suggests that humans should be kind. As seen in verse 61, “a great state is like a river basin, that receives everything flowing into it…where all the world is welcomed.” People should be open to all things, human or non-human, just as the water of a river basin is. Kindness should be practiced in all scenarios, as stated in verse 49: “Those who are good [the Sage] treats with goodness, Those who are bad he also treats with goodness.” Humans are so quick to dismiss nature as something they need not be kind to, simply because it is different. However, a river basin accepts all things, whether that be more water, or leaves, birds, or fish. Additionally, when humans begin to label each other (rich or poor, black or white, male or female), it leads to an institutional imbalance of power in the world that would not exist otherwise. A river does not look down upon a tree, just as a tree does not look down upon a bee. In fact, they work together to sustain a dynamic ecosystem, and could not exist without one another. The universe is fluid and interdependent, webbed, connected, harmonious.

Next, the Tao Te Ching teaches humility. As stated in verse 66, “Why do hundreds of rivers turn and rush towards the sea? Because it naturally stays below them.” It is important to remain conscious of our place in the world rather than playing God. Humans tend to place themselves above nature, which is a problem that can be seen in John McPhee’s The Control of Nature. The Atchafalaya is a river that lies geologically below the Mississippi River, that rushes towards the ocean that stays below it (McPhee 4). Humans, however, have imposed themselves upon this natural process, as they built a river control structure to keep the Mississippi the more dominant river (McPhee 24). This was meant keep New Orleans as a major port city and to supply money to the major chemical companies along the river, such as Exxon, Monsanto, and Dow (McPhee 6). This river control system allows for the river to become more powerful, with “three million cubic feet per second coming past Old River,” as well as to detrimental flooding problems and backed up sediment in the river (44).

This is a perfect example of mankind selfishly using nature for personal gain. Though humans do have certain capabilities that other organisms do not have, such as, in this case, the ability to engineer, they should use it to benefit the world, not harm or disrupt it. People should use their ability to think to do things like remove invasive species, because they know they are invasive, or do things like clean rivers or plant native species—things that would leave the earth in a better condition.

Finally, the Tao Te Ching expresses that humans should be like water because “Nothing in this world is as soft and yielding as water” (verse 78). Humans should “live without forcing” because “the most yielding thing in the world will overcome the most rigid” (verse 30, verse 43). Again, I was able to observe this first-hand in My Place. As I sat in White Clay Creek each week, I watched one of the tallest trees on the riverbank begin to lean inward just a little more each week, as something as soft as water washed away the soil underneath the tree causing it to fall. It is important to dance nature’s dance rather than dancing on its grave after acting forcefully against it.

The Control of Nature shows an example of Americans who act forcefully against nature instead of working with it. McPhee discusses how the city of Los Angeles refuses to yield against the forces of nature, as people choose to live in the San Gabriel mountains which frequently experience debris flows. As the city became overpopulated by those looking to ‘make it big,’ some of the population began moving into the mountains surrounding the city, which can have slopes with an average of sixty-five to seventy percent incline (207). The debris flows that occur in the mountains have been recorded to have six hundred thousand tons run down the mountains into residential neighborhoods, destroying property and even killing people (221). Additionally, in order for people to maintain their fancy mountain homes, LA continually monitors fires that burn chaparral, a flammable plant. Though this seems beneficial, the fire is necessary and natural for both the health of the plant and the mountain. One case of many is described in the text; chaparral that had not been touched by natural fire for ninety-nine years evidently burst into flames, because “the older chaparral becomes, the hotter it burns” (216). Not only do these fires rage more violently and for longer than a regular fire, but it also causes for more intense debris flows (213).

This displays exactly why humans should be yielding to nature. The city of LA is ignoring the universe’s natural tendencies such as debris flows, and is acting forcefully upon the natural fires that would occur in the San Gabriels. It almost seems as though these LA residents are making the universe so angry that Mother Nature is literally trying to punish them. I can almost hear her laugh as she designs fire that would burn longer and stronger if chaparrals are left untouched by flames for too long, followed by heavier debris flows. As the Tao Te Ching suggests, if humans were to be more like water and yield to nature, both humans and nature would be more at ease.

Upon reflection, I have always known how the universe is. I had all the pieces necessary to formulate an answer to the question ‘how does the universe behave;’ I learned through my STEM career that the heart beats, blood pumps, cells die, cells reproduce. I now realize that this is how the universe behaves, I just have never been able to see it as such before; the body is constantly pulsing, producing, emerging, dying, and emerging again. The Tao Te Ching teaches valuable lessons on how the universe is, and how humans can behave more like the universe, because in the end, we are part of the universe.