Merge with the Dust

One rather gloomy afternoon - it is said - Chang Tzu put down his iPod Touch and cast a crestfallen gaze towards the mountain peaks emerging through the clouds ahead of him. He lifted his weary head and focused on the heavens and sighed. Bending over, he did up the straps on his sandals, picked up the moon and tucked it under his arm. Chang Tzu set forth to the leave the confusion and chaos and to merge with the dust of the Tao.

Dust Merging however has long since fallen out of fashion in the West and has, over the last 50 years, been misunderstood as the obligatory consequence of hoovering infrequently.

But True Dust Merging is about other things than house keeping alone. It is seeing in that dust bag our interconnectivity with the life of others, the dust of our neighbours and the stellar particles that inhabit our own individual make-up. When we empty the dust bag into the compost heap we are reminded that our birth into this ¨bag of skin and bones¨ is no more or no less than the cosmos recycling its own dust. The heavenly bodies shaking themselves down.

Sometimes, when I feed my dog, he will drop the morsel on the floor before swallowing it so that he can lick up a mouth full of dust to accompany the titbit. There´s nought wrong with a bit of dust on your bocadillo, my Aunt Winibagel would sing as she pedalled to work to the pits.

Questions and Answers:
1. So how do you merge?
Learn to Breathe though your feet and Soften your glare.

2. I have a dust allergy. Can I merge with something else?
Try cous-cous.

3. Who can give me a serious answer?
Try Alan Watts, Lao Tsu or Pooh Bear.