Shamanic Vision: Living Life through the Eyes of the Heart Issue # 7: 2nd Quarter, 2018 | Page 16

Be Like Uncarved Wood
Lao Tzu is fond of the image of the uncarved wood as a symbol of simplicity and humility. A piece of
wood is simple and yet it contains limitless possibilities. When carved, it can become almost anything
desired. Yet, nothing surpasses the natural state of wood before it is transformed by the carvers knife.
It is folly to believe that we improve the wood by our carving. We only change it. Though it may become
more useful to us, in no way is it finer than how it was in its original state.
This is even more obvious if compared to that piece of wood when it was still part of a living tree. Then,
the wood participated in the rich and complex process of life and growth. When it was cut from its home,
perhaps it becomes a log. It became, in the eyes of man, little more than a chunk of material, diminished
and dis-empowered, abandoned and decomposed, something to do anything we want to it. We now
dominate it.
However, whatever we do to wood, it can never be more splendid as it was when it was part of a living
tree.
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