The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton | FULL AUDIOBOOK 🎧 📖

new directions presents the way of chuang zhu by thomas merton prefaced by his holiness the dalai lama read by greg john a tribute to thomas merton his holiness the dalai lama i have been moved a great deal today at this memorial or recollection of the life of thomas merton and i'm very happy that we have done this from the point of view of a religious practitioner and in particular as a monastic thomas merton really is someone that we can look up to from one point of view he had the complete qualities of hearing which means study contemplating thinking on the teachings and of meditation he also had the qualities of being learned disciplined and having a good heart he not only was able to practice himself but his perspective was very very broad thus it seems to me that in this memorial or recollection of him we should seek to be following his example that he gave to us in this way even though the chapter of his life is over what he was hoping to do and seeking to do can remain forever not only is his wonderful model being followed in this monastery but it seems to me that if all of us followed this model it would become very widespread and would be a very great benefit to the world as for myself i always consider myself as one of his buddhist brothers so as a close friend or as his brother i always remember him and i always admire his activities and his lifestyle since my meeting with him and so often when i examine myself i really follow some of his examples occasionally just as at this meeting i really have a deep satisfaction knowing that i have made some contribution regarding his wishes and so for the rest of my life the impact of meeting him will remain until my last breath i really want to state that i make this commitment and this will remain until my last breath thank you very much abby of gethsemane trappist kentucky july 1996 a note to the reader the rather special nature of this book calls for some explanation the texts from chuangzuo assembled here are the result of five years of reading study annotation and meditation the notes have in time acquired a shape of their own and have become as it were imitations of or rather free interpretive readings of characteristic passages which appeal especially to me these readings of my own grew out of a comparison of four of the best translations of trungzu into western languages two english one french and one german in reading these translations i found very notable differences and soon realized that all who have translated cheong zu have had to do a great deal of guessing their guesses reflect not only their degree of chinese scholarship but also their own grasp of the mysterious way described by a master writing in asia nearly 2500 years ago since i know only a few chinese characters i obviously am not a translator these readings are then not attempts at faithful reproduction but adventures in personal and spiritual interpretation inevitably any rendering of chuang zhu is bound to be very personal though from the point of view of scholarship i am not even a dwarf sitting on the shoulders of these giants and though not all my renderings can even qualify as poetry i believe that a certain type of reader will enjoy my intuitive approach to a thinker who is subtle funny provocative and not easy to get at i believe this not on blind faith but because those who have seen the material in manuscript have given evidence of liking it and have encouraged me to make a book out of it thus though i do not think that this book calls for blame if someone wants to be unpleasant about it he can blame me and my friends and especially dr john woo who is my chief a better and accomplice and has been of great help in many ways we are in this together and i might as well add that i have enjoyed writing this book more than any other i can remember so i declare myself obviously impenitent my dealings with truanzu have been most rewarding john has a theory that in some former life i was a chinese monk i do not know about that and of course i hasten to assure everyone that i do not believe in reincarnation and neither does he but i have been a christian monk for nearly 25 years and inevitably one comes in time to see life from a viewpoint that has been common to solitaries and recluses in all ages and in all cultures one may dispute the thesis that all monasticism christian or non-christian is essentially one i believe that christian monasticism has obvious characteristics of its own nevertheless there is a monastic outlook which is common to all those who have elected to question the value of a life submitted entirely to arbitrary secular presuppositions dictated by social convention and dedicated to the pursuit of temporal satisfactions which are perhaps only a mirage whatever may be the value of life in the world there have been in all cultures men who have claimed to find something they vastly prefer in solitude saint augustine once made a rather strong statement which he later qualified saying that which is called the christian religion existed among the ancients and never did not exist from the beginning of the human race until christ came in the flesh de vera religione 10. it would certainly be an exaggeration to call chuang zhu a christian and it is not my intention to waste time in speculation as to what possible rudiments of theology might be discovered in his mysterious statements about tao this book is not intended to prove anything or to convince anyone of anything that he does not want to hear about in the first place in other words it is not a new apologetic subtlety or indeed a work of jesuitical sleight of hand in which christian rabbits will suddenly appear by magic out of a taoist hat i simply like chongsu because he is what he is and i feel no need to justify this liking to myself or to anyone else he is far too great to need any apologies from me if saint augustine could read plotinus if saint thomas could read aristotle and averroes both of them certainly a long way further from christianity than chongzir ever was and if tayar de chardin could make copious use of marks and angles in his synthesis i think i may be pardoned for consorting with the chinese recluse who shares the climate and peace of my own kind of solitude and who is my own kind of person his philosophical temper is i believe profoundly original and sane it can of course be misunderstood but it is basically simple and direct it seeks as does all the greatest philosophical thought to go immediately to the heart of things is not concerned with words and formulas about reality but with the direct existential grasp of reality in itself such a grasp is necessarily obscure and does not lend itself to abstract analysis it can be presented in a parable a fable or a funny story about a conversation between two philosophers not all the stories are necessarily by chongzi himself indeed some are about him the trungsu book is a compilation in which some chapters are almost certainly by the master himself but many others especially the later ones are by his disciples the whole chuang zhu book is an anthology of the thought the humor the gossip and the irony that were current in taoist circles in the best period the fourth and third centuries bc but the whole teaching the way contained in these anecdotes poems and meditations is characteristic of a certain mentality found everywhere in the world a certain taste for simplicity for humility self-effacement silence and in general a refusal to take seriously the aggressivity the ambition the push and the self-importance which one must display in order to get along in society this other is a way that prefers not to get anywhere in the world or even in the field of some supposedly spiritual attainment the book of the bible which most obviously resembles the taoist classics is ecclesiastes but at the same time there is much in the teaching of the gospels on simplicity childlikeness and humility which responds to the deepest aspirations of the trungsa book and the tao da jing john wu has pointed this out in a remarkable essay on saint therese of lisieux and taoism presently to be republished in a book together with his study of chuang zhu now ecclesiastes is a book of earth and the gospel ethic is an ethic of revelation made on earth of a god incarnate the little way of therese of lisieux is an explicit renunciation of all exalted and disincarnate spiritualities that divide man against himself putting one half in the realm of angels and the other in an earthly hell for as for the gospel to lose one's life is to save it and to seek to save it for one's own sake is to lose it there is an affirmation of the world that is nothing but ruin and loss there is a renunciation of the world that finds and saves man in his own home which is god's world in any event the way of chuang zhu is mysterious because it is so simple that it can get along without being away at all least of all is it a way out chuang tsu would have agreed with saint john of the cross that you enter upon this kind of way when you leave all ways and in some sense get lost abby of gethsemane pentecost 1965. the way of trungzu 1. a study of chongzhou the classic period of chinese philosophy covers about 300 years from 550 to 250 bc chongzhou the greatest of the taoist writers whose historical existence can be verified we cannot be sure of lao tzu flourished toward the end of this period and indeed the last chapter of the chongzi book chapter 33 is a witty and informative history of chinese philosophy up to his time the first document of its kind at least in the orient the humor the sophistication the literary genius and philosophical insight of chongzi are evident to anyone who samples his work but before one can begin to understand even a little of his subtlety one must situate him in his cultural and historical context that is to say that one must see him against the background of the confucianism which he did not hesitate to ridicule along with all the other sedate and accepted schools of chinese thought from that of modi to that of trunks contemporary friend and constant opponent the logician one must also see him in relation to what followed him because it would be a great mistake to confuse the taoism of chuang zhu with the popular degenerate amalgam of superstition alchemy magic and health culture which taoism later became the true inheritors of the thought and spirit of chuang zhu are the chinese zen buddhists of the tang period 7th to 10th centuries a.d but continued to exert an influence on all cultured chinese thought since he never ceased to be recognized as one of the great writers and thinkers of the classical period the subtle sophisticated mystical taoism of chwangzu and laozi has left a permanent mark on all chinese culture and on the chinese character itself there have never been lacking authorities like daiset's t suzuki the japanese zen scholar who declared chongzi to be the very greatest of the chinese philosophers there is no question that the kind of thought and culture represented by chuang zhu was what transformed highly speculative indian buddhism into the humorous iconoclastic and totally practical kind of buddhism that was to flourish in china and in japan in the various schools of zen zan throws light on chongzhou and chong zhu throws light on zen however let us be on our guard this reference to zen which naturally suggests itself at a time when zen is still somewhat popular in the western world may be a clue but it may also be a misleading cliche there are quite a few western readers who have in one way or another heard about zen and even tasted a little of it with the tip of the tongue but tasting is one thing and swallowing is another especially when having only tasted one proceeds to identify the thing tasted with something else which it seems to resemble the fashion of zen in certain western circles fits into the rather confused pattern of spiritual revolution and renewal it represents a certain understandable dissatisfaction with conventional spiritual patterns and with ethical and religious formalism it is a symptom of western man's desperate need to recover spontaneity and depth in a world which is technological skill has made rigid artificial and spiritually void but in its association with the need to recover authentic sense experience western zen has become identified with a spirit of improvisation and experimentation with a sort of moral anarchy that forgets how much tough discipline and what severe traditional mores are presupposed by the zen of china and japan so also with chongxu he might easily be read today as one preaching a gospel of license and uncontrol zhuangzi himself would be the first to say that you cannot tell people to do whatever they want when they don't even know what they want in the first place then also we must realize that while there is a certain skeptical and down-to-earth quality in trungs's critique of confucianism chong's philosophy is essentially religious and mystical it belongs in the context of a society in which every aspect of life was seen in relation to the sacred there is not much danger of confusing chongzhou with confucius or mencius but there is perhaps more difficulty in distinguishing him at first sight from the sofas and hedonists of his own time for example yangchu resembles chongzhou in his praise of reclusion and his contempt for politics he bases a philosophy of evasion which is frankly egotistical on the principle that the bigger and more valuable the tree is the more likely it is to fall victim to the hurricane or to the lumberman's axe the avoidance of political responsibility was therefore essential to young's idea of personal happiness and he carried this to such an extent that menchie has said of him though he might have benefited the whole world by plucking out a single hair he would not have done it however even in yangchu's hedonism we can find elements which remind us of our own modern concern with the person for instance the idea that the life and integrity of the person remain of greater value than any object or any function to which the person may be called to devote himself at the risk of alienation but a personalism that has nothing to offer but evasion will not be a genuine personalism at all since it destroys the relationships without which the person cannot truly develop after all the idea that one can seriously cultivate his own personal freedom merely by discarding inhibitions and obligations to live in self-centered spontaneity results in the complete decay of the true self and of its capacity for freedom personalism and individualism must not be confused personalism gives priority to the person and not the individual self to give priority to the person means respecting the unique and inalienable value of the other person as well as one's own for a respect that is centered only on one's individual self to the exclusion of others proves itself to be fraudulent the classic jew philosophy of confucius and his followers can be called a traditional personalism built on the basic social relationships and obligations that are essential to a humane life and that when carried out as they should be develop the human potentialities of each person in his relation to others in fulfilling the commands of nature as manifested by tradition which are essentially commands of love man develops his own inner potential for love understanding reverence and wisdom he becomes a superior man or a noble-minded man fully in harmony with heaven earth his sovereign his parents and children and his fellow men by his obedience to tao the character of the superior man or noble-minded man according to jew philosophy is constructed around a four-sided mandala of basic virtues the first of these is compassionate and devoted love charged with deep empathy and sincerity that enables one to identify with the troubles and joys of others as if they were one's own this compassion is called gen and is sometimes translated human heartedness the second of the basic virtues is that sense of justice responsibility duty obligation to others which is called ye it must be observed that jew philosophy insists that both jen and yi are completely disinterested the mark of the noble-minded man is that he does not do things simply because they are pleasing or profitable to himself but because they flow from an unconditional moral imperative they are things that he sees to be right and good in themselves hence anyone who is guided by the prophet motive even though it be for the prophet of the society to which he belongs is not capable of living a genuinely moral life even when his acts do not conflict with the moral law they remain amoral because they are motivated by the desire of prophet and not the love of the good the other two basic virtues of jew are necessary to complete this picture of wholeness and humaneness li is something more than exterior and ritual correctness it is the ability to make use of ritual forms to give full outward expression to the love and obligation by which one is bound to others lee is the acting out of veneration and love not only for parents for one's sovereign for one's people but also for heaven and earth it is a liturgical contemplation of the religious and metaphysical structure of the person the family society and the cosmos itself the ancient chinese liturgists made observations of all the movements under the sky directing their attention to the interpenetrations which take place in them this with a view to putting into effect right rituals one's individual self should be lost in the ritual disposition in which one emerges as a higher liturgical self animated by the compassion and respect which have traditionally informed the deepest responses of one's family and people in the presence of heaven tien one learns by lee to take one's place gratefully in the cosmos and in history finally there is wisdom ji that embraces all the other virtues in a mature and religious understanding which orients them to their living fulfillment this perfect understanding of the way of heaven finally enables a man of maturity and long experience to follow all the inmost desires of his heart without disobeying heaven it is saint augustine's love and do what you will but confucius did not claim to have reached this point until he was 70. in any case the man who has attained qi or wisdom has learned a spontaneous inner obedience to heaven and is no longer governed merely by external standards but a long and arduous discipline by external standards remains absolutely necessary these sound and humane ideals admirable in themselves were socially implemented by a structure of duties rights and observances that would seem to us extraordinarily complex and artificial and when we find chongzhou making fun of the confusion practice of li for example the rights of mourning we must not interpret him in the light of our own extremely casual morris empty of symbolic feeling and insensitive to the persuasion of ceremony we must remember that we ourselves are living in a society which is almost unimaginably different from the middle kingdom in 300 bc we might perhaps find analogies for our own way of life in imperial rome if not carthage nineveh or babylon though the china of the fourth century was not without its barbarities it was probably more refined more complex and more humane than these cities that the apocalypse of john portrayed as typical of worldly brutality greed and power the climate of chinese thought was certainly affected by the fact that the jew ideal was taken seriously and was already to some extent built in by education and liturgy to the structure of chinese society we must not however imagine anachronistically that in the time of chongzhou the chinese governing class was systematically educated on mass according to confusion principles as happened later if juan zhu reacted against the jew doctrine it was not in the name of something lower the animal spontaneity of the individual who does not want to be bothered with a lot of tiresome duties but in the name of something altogether higher this is the most important fact to remember when we westerners confront the seeming antinomianism of chongzhou or of the zen masters chongsu was not demanding less than jen and yi but more his chief complaint of jew was that it did not go far enough it produced well-behaved and virtuous officials indeed cultured men but it nevertheless limited and imprisoned them within fixed external norms and consequently made it impossible for them to act really freely and creatively in response to the ever new demands of unforeseen situations jew philosophy also appealed to dao as did chong in fact all chinese philosophy and culture tend to be taoist in a broad sense since the idea of tao is in one form or another central to traditional chinese thinking confucius could speak of maidaao he could demand that the disciple set his heart on the tao he could declare that if a man hears the dao in the morning and dies in the evening his life has not been wasted and he could add that if a man reaches the age of 40 or 50 without ever hearing the tao there is nothing worthy of respect in him yet zhuangzi believed that the tao on which confucius set his heart was not the great tao that is invisible and incomprehensible it was a lesser reflection of tao as it manifests itself in human life it was the traditional wisdom handed down by the ancients the guide to practical life the way of virtue in the first chapter of the tao de jing lao tzu distinguished between the eternal tao that cannot be named which is the nameless and unknowable source of all being and the tao that can be named which is the mother of all things confucius may have had access to the manifest aspects of the tao that can be named but the basis of all chongzi's critique of jew philosophy is that it never comes near to the tao that cannot be named and indeed takes no account of it until relatively late works like the doctrine of the mean which are influenced by taoism confucius refused to concern himself with a tao higher than that of man precisely because it was unknowable and beyond the reach of rational discourse chwangsu held that only when one was in contact with the mysterious tao which is beyond all existent things which cannot be conveyed either by words or by silence and which is apprehended only in a state which is neither speech nor silence could one really understand how to live to live merely according to the tao of man was to go astray the tao of jew philosophy is in the words of confucius threading together into one the desires of the self and the desires of the other this can therefore be called an ethical tao or the tao of man the manifestation in act of a principle of love and justice it is identifiable with the golden rule treating others as one would wish to be treated oneself but it is not the tao of heaven in fact as confucianism developed it continued to divide and subdivide the idea of tao until it became simply a term indicating an abstract universal principle in the realm of ethics thus we hear of the tao of fatherhood the tao of sonship the tao of wiveliness and the tao of ministership nevertheless when confucian thought was deeply influenced by taoism these various human taos could and did become fingers pointing to the invisible and divine tao this is clear for instance in the tao of painting throughout the course of chinese painting the common purpose has been to reaffirm the traditional human tao and to transmit the ideas principles and methods that have been tested and developed by the masters of each period as the means of expressing the harmony of the tao jung-su dryly observed that the pursuit of the ethical dao became illusory if one sought for others what was good for oneself without really knowing what was good for oneself he takes up this question of the good in the meditation that i have called perfect joy first of all he denies that happiness can be found by hedonism or utilitarianism the prophet motive of modi the life of riches ambition pleasure is in reality an intolerable servitude in which one lives for what is always out of reach thirsting for survival in the future and incapable of living in the present the jew philosopher would have no difficulty in agreeing that the motive of profit or pleasure is unworthy of a true man but then chongzi immediately turns against jew and criticizes the heroic and self-sacrificing public servant the superior man or virtue formed in the school of confucius his analysis of the ambiguities of such a life may perhaps seem subtle to us living as we do in such a different moral climate chuang's concern with the problem that the very goodness of the good and the nobility of the great may contain the hidden seed of ruin is analogous to the concern that sophocles or aeschylus felt a little earlier in the west juan za comes up with a different answer in which there is less of religious mystery to put it simply the hero of virtue and duty ultimately lands himself in the same ambiguities as the hedonist and the utilitarian why because he aims at achieving the good as object he engages in a self-conscious and deliberate campaign to do his duty in the belief that this is right and therefore productive of happiness he sees happiness and the good as something to be attained and thus he places them outside himself in the world of objects in so doing he becomes involved in a division from which there is no escape between the present in which he is not yet in possession of what he seeks and the future in which he thinks he will have what he desires between the wrong and the evil the absence of what he seeks and the good that he hopes to make present by his efforts to eliminate the evils between his own idea of right and wrong and the contrary idea of right and wrong held by some other philosophical school and so on chongzi does not allow himself to get engaged in this division by taking sides on the contrary he feels that the trouble is not merely what the means the jew philosopher chooses to attain his ends but with the ends themselves he believes that the whole concept of happiness and unhappiness is ambiguous from the start since it is situated in the world of objects this is no less true of more refined concepts like virtue justice and so on in fact it is especially true of good and evil or right and wrong from the moment they are treated as objects to be attained these values lead to delusion and alienation therefore juan so agrees with the paradox of lao tzu when all the world recognizes good as good it becomes evil because it becomes something that one does not have and which one must constantly be pursuing until in effect it becomes unattainable the more one seeks the good outside oneself as something to be acquired the more one is faced with the necessity of discussing studying understanding analyzing the nature of the good the more therefore one becomes involved in abstractions and in the confusion of divergent opinions the more the good is objectively analyzed the more it is treated as something to be attained by special virtuous techniques the less real it becomes as it becomes less real it recedes further into the distance of abstraction futurity unattainability the more therefore one concentrates on the means to be used to attain it and as the end becomes more remote and more difficult the means become more elaborate and complex until finally the mere study of the means becomes so demanding that all one's effort must be concentrated on this and the end is forgotten hence the nobility of the jew scholar becomes in reality a devotion to the systematic uselessness of practicing means which lead nowhere this is in fact nothing but organized despair the good that is preached and exacted by the moralist thus finally becomes an evil and all the more so since the hopeless pursuit of it distracts one from the real good which one already possesses and which one now despises or ignores the way of tao is to begin with the simple good with which one is endowed by the very fact of existence instead of self-conscious cultivation of this good which vanishes when we look at it and becomes intangible when we try to grasp it we grow quietly in the humility of a simple ordinary life and this way is analogous at least psychologically to the christian life of faith it is more a matter of believing the good than of seeing it as the fruit of one's effort the secret of the way proposed by juan zu is therefore not the accumulation of virtue and merit taught by jew but the non-doing or non-action which is not intent upon results and is not concerned with consciously laid plans or deliberately organized endeavors my greatest happiness consists precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness perfect joy is to be without joy if you ask what ought to be done and what ought not to be done on earth to produce happiness i answer that these questions do not have a fixed and predetermined answer to suit every case if one is in harmony with tao the cosmic dao great dao the answer will make itself clear when the time comes to act for then one will act not according to the human and self-conscious mode of deliberation but according to the divine and spontaneous mode of which is the mode of action of tao itself and is therefore the source of all good the other way the way of conscious striving even though it may claim to be a way of virtue is fundamentally a way of self-aggrandizement and it is consequently bound to come into conflict with dao hence it is self-destructive for what is against tao will cease to be this explains why the dao de jing criticizing jew philosophy says that the highest virtue is non-virtuous and therefore it has virtue but low virtue never frees itself from virtuousness therefore it has no virtue chongzi is not against virtue why should he be but he sees that mere virtuousness is without meaning and without deep effect either in the life of the individual or in society once this is clear we see that trunks's ironic statements about righteousness and ceremonies are not made in the name of lawless hedonism and antinomianism but in the name of that genuine virtue which is beyond virtuousness once this is clear one can reasonably see a certain analogy between juan zu and saint paul the analogy must certainly not be pushed too far chongzi lacks the profoundly theological mysticism of saint paul but his teaching about the spiritual liberty of wu way and the relation of virtue to the indwelling tao is analogous to paul's teaching on faith and grace contrasted with the works of the old law the relation of the chongzu book to the analects of confucius is not unlike that of the epistles to the galatians and romans to the torah for changsu the truly great man is therefore not the man who has by a lifetime of study and practice accumulated a great fund of virtue and merit but the man in whom tao acts without impediment the man of tao several of the texts in this present book describe the man of dao others tell us what he is not one of the most instructive in this respect is the long and delightful story of the anxiety-ridden perfectionistic disciple of gangsangchu who is sent to laozu to learn the elements he is told that if you persist in trying to attain what is never attained in reasoning about what cannot be understood you will be destroyed on the other hand if he can only know when to stop be content to wait listen and give up his own useless strivings this melts the ice then he will begin to grow without watching himself grow and without any appetite for self-improvement chongzi surrounded by ambitious and supposedly practical men reflected that these operators knew the value of the useful but not the greater value of the useless as john woo has put it to su the world must have looked like a terrible tragedy written by a great comedian he saw scheming politicians falling into pits they had dug for others he saw predatory states swallowing weaker states only to be swallowed in their turn by stronger ones thus the much vaunted utility of the useful talents proved not only useless but self-destructive the man of dao will prefer obscurity and solitude he will not seek public office even though he may recognize that the tao which inwardly forms the sage outwardly forms the king in the turtle changsu delivers a curt and definite refusal to those who come to tempt him away from his fishing on the riverbank in order to give him a job at the capitol he has an even more blunt response when his friend huizu suspects him of plotting to supplant him in his official job compare owl and phoenix on the other hand chongzi is not merely a professional recluse the man of tao does not make the mistake of giving up self-conscious virtuousness in order to immerse himself in an even more self-conscious contemplative recollection one cannot call chong a contemplative in the sense of one who adopts a systematic program of spiritual self-purification in order to attain to certain definite interior experiences or even merely to cultivate the interior life chuangsu would condemn this just as roundly as the cultivation of anything else on an artificial basis all deliberate systematic and reflexive self-cultivation whether active or contemplative personalistic or politically committed cuts one off from the mysterious but indispensable contact with dao the hidden mother of all life and truth one of the things that causes the young disciple of kung sang chu to be so utterly frustrated is precisely that he shuts himself up in a cell and tries to cultivate qualities which he thinks desirable and get rid of others which he dislikes a contemplative and interior life which would simply make the subject more aware of himself and permit him to become obsessed with his own interior progress would for juan zu be no less an illusion than the active life of the benevolent man who would try by his own efforts to impose his idea of the good on those who might oppose this idea and thus in his eyes become enemies of the good the true tranquility sought by the man of tao is yin ning tranquility in the action of non-action in other words a tranquility which transcends the division between activity and contemplation by entering into union with the nameless and invisible dao chuang zhu insists everywhere that this means abandoning the need to win see the fighting in monkey mountain he shows the peril of cleverness and virtuosity and repeats one of his familiar themes that we might summarize as no one is so wrong as the man who knows all the answers like lao tzu master chuang preaches an essential humility not the humility of virtuousness and conscious self-abasement which in the end is never entirely free from the unctuousness of uriah heap but the basic one might say ontological or cosmic humility of the man who fully realizes his own nothingness and becomes totally forgetful of himself like a dry tree stump like dead ashes one may call this humility cosmic not only because it is rooted in the true nature of things but also because it is full of life and awareness responding with boundless vitality and joy to all living beings it manifests itself everywhere by a franciscan simplicity and con naturality with all living creatures half the characters who are brought before us to speak the mind of juan zu are animals birds fishes frogs and so on juan's taoism is nostalgic for the primordial climate of paradise in which there was no differentiation in which man was utterly simple unaware of himself living at peace with himself with tao and with all other creatures but for chuang this paradise is not something that has been irrevocably lost by sin and cannot be regained except by redemption it is still ours but we do not know it since the effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not it is this self-awareness which we try to increase and perfect by all sorts of methods and practices that is really a forgetfulness of our true roots in the unknown tao and our solidarity in the uncarved block in which there are as yet no distinctions paradoxical teaching that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it must not therefore be negatively interpreted he is not preaching a retreat from a full active human existence into inertia and quietism he is in fact saying that happiness can be found but only by non-seeking and non-action it can be found but not as the result of a program or of a system a program or a system has this disadvantage it tends to situate happiness in one kind of action only and to seek it only there but the happiness and freedom which strong saw in tao is to be found everywhere since tao is everywhere and until one can learn to act with such freedom from care that all action is perfect joy because without joy one cannot really be happy in anything as fung yulon sums it up in his spirit of chinese philosophy page 77 the sage will accompany everything and welcome everything everything being in the course of being constructed and in the course of being destroyed hence he cannot but obtain joy and freedom and his joy is unconditional the true character of wu way is not mere inactivity but perfect action because it is act without activity in other words it is action not carried out independently of heaven and earth and in conflict with the dynamism of the whole but in perfect harmony with the whole it is not mere passivity but it is action that seems both effortless and spontaneous because performed rightly in perfect accordance with our nature and with our place in the scheme of things it is completely free because there is in it no force and no violence it is not conditioned or limited by our own individual needs and desires or even by our own theories and ideas it is precisely this unconditional character of wu way that differentiates chuang zhu from other great philosophers who constructed systems by which their activity was necessarily conditioned the abstract theory of universal love preached by modi was shrewdly seen by chuang zhu to be false precisely because of the inhumanity of its consequences in theory modi held that all men should be loved with an equal love that the individual should find his own greatest good in loving the common good of all that universal love was rewarded by the tranquility peace and good order of all and the happiness of the individual but this universal love will be found upon examination like most other utopian projects to make such severe demands upon human nature that it cannot be realized and indeed even if it could be realized it would in fact cramp and distort man eventually ruining both him and his society not because love is not good and natural to man but because a system constructed on a theoretical and abstract principle of love ignores certain fundamental and mysterious realities of which we cannot be fully conscious and the price we pay for this inattention is that our love in fact becomes hate hence the society of universal love planned by modi was drab joyless and grim since all spontaneity was regarded with suspicion the humane and ordered satisfactions of the confusion life of friendship ritual music and so on were all banned by modi it is important to remember that in this case chongzi defends music and writes though in other places he laughs at exaggerated love of them modi he said would have no singing in life no mourning in death notwithstanding men will sing he condemns singing men will mourn and still he condemns mourning man will express joy and still he condemns it is this truly in accord with man's nature in life toil in death stinginess his way is one of hard-heartedness from such a passage as this we can see that trunc's own irony about elaborate funerals is to be seen in the right light the amusing and of course entirely fictitious description of laodza's wake gives juan an opportunity to criticize not mourning as such or even piety toward one's master but the artificial attachments formed by a cult of the master as master the tao of discipleship is for juan zu a figment of the imagination and it can in no way substitute for the great tao in which all relationships find their proper order and expression that should be able to take one side of a question in one place and the other side in another context warns us that in reality he is beyond mere partisan dispute though he is a social critic his criticism is never bitter or harsh irony and parable are his chief instruments and the whole climate of his work is one of tolerant impartiality which avoids preaching and recognizes the uselessness of dogmatizing about obscure ideas that even the philosophers were not prepared to understand though he did not follow other men in their follies he did not judge them severely he knew that he had follies of his own and had the good sense to accept the fact and enjoy it in fact he saw that one basic characteristic of the sage is that he recognizes himself to be as other men are he does not set himself apart from others and above them and yet there is a difference he differs in his heart from other men since he is centered on tao and not on himself but he does not know in what way he is different he is also aware of his relatedness to others his union with them but he does not understand this either he merely lives it the key to trungs's thought is the complementarity of opposites and this can be seen only when one grasps the central pivot of tao which passes squarely through both yes and no i and not i life is a continual development all beings are in a state of flux chuang zhu would have agreed with heraclitus what is impossible today may suddenly become possible tomorrow what is good and pleasant today may tomorrow become evil and odious what seems right from one point of view may when seen from a different aspect manifest itself as completely wrong what then should the wise man do should he simply remain indifferent and treat right and wrong good and bad as if they were all the same chongsu would be the first to deny that they were the same but in so doing he would refuse to grasp one or the other and cling to it as to an absolute when a limited and conditioned view of good is erected to the level of an absolute it immediately becomes an evil because it excludes certain contemporary elements which are required if it is to be fully good to cling to one partial view one limited and conditioned opinion and to treat this as the ultimate answer to all questions is simply to obscure the tao and make oneself obdurate in error he who grasps the central pivot of tao is able to watch yes and no pursue their alternating course around the circumference he retains his perspective and clarity of judgment so that he knows that yes is yes in the light of the no which stands over against it he understands that happiness when pushed to an extreme becomes calamity that beauty when overdone becomes ugliness clouds become rain and vapor ascends again to become clouds to insist that the cloud should never turn to rain is to resist the dynamism of tao these ideas are applied by chuang zhu to the work of the artist and craftsmen as well as to the teacher of philosophy in the wood carver we see that the accomplished craftsman does not simply proceed according to certain fixed rules and external standards to do so is of course perfectly all right for the mediocre artisan but the superior work of art proceeds from a hidden and spiritual principle which in fasting detachment forgetfulness of results and abandonment of all hope of profit discovers precisely the tree that is waiting to have this particular work carved from it in such a case the artist works as though passively and it is tao that works in and through him this is a favorite theme of juan zu and we find it often repeated the right way of making things is beyond self-conscious reflection for when the shoe fits the foot is forgotten in the teaching of philosophy chongzi is not in favor of putting on tight shoes that make the disciple intensely conscious of the fact that he has feet because they torment him for that very reason chuang is critical not only of confucians who are too attached to method and system but also of taoists who try to impart knowledge of the unnamable tao when it cannot be imparted and when the hearer is not even ready to receive the first elements of instruction about it symphony for a seabird is to be read in this light it does not apply merely to the deadening of spontaneity by an artificial insistence on jew philosophy but also to a wrong-headed and badly timed zeal in the communication of tao in fact dao cannot be communicated yet it communicates itself in its own way when the right moment arrives even one who seems incapable of any instruction whatever will become mysteriously aware of tao meanwhile though he consistently disagreed with his friend the dialectician and though his disciples who were not without the need to win always represented chuang as beating way in debate chuang sa actually used many of weights as metaphysical ideas he realized that by the principle of complementarity his own thought was not complete merely in itself without the opposition of huizu one of the most famous of all chuang's principles is that called three in the morning from the story of the monkeys whose keeper planned to give them three measures of chestnuts in the morning and four in the evening but when they complained changed his plan and gave them four in the morning and three in the evening what does this story mean simply that the monkeys were foolish and that the keeper cynically outsmarted them quite the contrary the point is rather that the keeper had enough sense to recognize that the monkeys had irrational reasons of their own for wanting four measures of chestnuts in the morning and did not stubbornly insist on his original arrangement he was not totally indifferent and yet he saw that an accidental difference did not affect the substance of his arrangement nor did he waste time demanding that the monkeys try to be more reasonable about it when monkeys are not expected to be reasonable in the first place it is when we insist most firmly on everyone else being reasonable that we become ourselves unreasonable firmly centered on tao could see these things in perspective his teaching follows the principle of three in the morning and it is at home on two levels that of the divine and invisible tao that has no name and that of ordinary simple everyday existence the way of chongzi two readings from chongzhou the useless tree hueitsu said to chuang i have a big tree the kind they call a stink tree the trunk is so distorted so full of knots no one can get a straight plank out of it the branches are so crooked you cannot cut them up in any way that makes sense there it stands beside the road no carpenter will even look at it such is your teaching big and useless chongzhou replied have you ever watched the wildcat crouching watching his prey this way it leaps and that way high and low and at last lands in the trap but have you seen the yak great as a thundercloud he stands in his might big sure he can't catch mice so for your big tree no use then plant it in the wasteland in emptiness walk idly around rest under its shadow no axe or bill prepares its end no one will ever cut it down useless you should worry a hat salesman and a capable ruler a man of song did business in silk ceremonial hats he traveled with a load of hats to the wild men of the south the wild men had shaved heads tattooed bodies what did they want with silk ceremonial hats yao had wisely governed all china he had brought the entire world to a state of rest after that he went to visit the four perfect ones in the distant mountains of kushi when he came back across the border into his own city his lost gaze saw no throne the breath of nature when great nature sighs we hear the winds which noiseless in themselves awaken voices from other beings blowing on them from every opening loud voices sound have you not heard this rush of tones there stands the overhanging wood on the steep mountain old trees with holes and cracks like snouts moths and ears like beam sockets like goblets grooves in the wood hollows full of water you hear mooing and roaring whistling shouts of command grumblings deep drones sad flutes one call awakens another in dialogue gentle winds sing timidly strong ones blast on without restraint then the wind dies down the openings empty out their last sound have you not observed how all then trembles and subsides you replied i understand the music of earth sings through a thousand holes the music of man is made on flutes and instruments what makes the music of heaven master key said something is blowing on a thousand different holes some power stands behind all this and makes the sounds die down what is this power great knowledge great knowledge sees all in one small knowledge breaks down into the many when the body sleeps the soul is enfolded in one when the body wakes the openings begin to function they resound with every encounter with all the varied business of life the strivings of the heart men are blocked perplexed lost in doubt little fears eat away their peace of heart great fears swallow them whole arrows shot at a target hit and miss right and wrong that is what men call judgment decision their pronouncements are as final as treaties between emperors oh they make their point yet their arguments fall faster and feebler than dead leaves in autumn and winter their talk flows out like piss never to be recovered they stand at last blocked bound and gagged choked up like old drainpipes the mind fails it shall not see light again pleasure and rage sadness and joy hopes and regrets change and stability weakness and decision impatience and sloth all are sounds from the same flute all mushrooms from the same wet mold day and night follow one another and come upon us without our seeing how they sprout enough enough early and late we meet the that from which these all growl if there were no that there would be no this if there were no this there would be nothing for all these wins to play on so far can we go but how shall we understand what brings it about one may well suppose the true governor to be behind it all that such a power works i can believe i cannot see his form he acts but has no form the pivot tao is obscured when men understand only one of a pair of opposites or concentrate only on a partial aspect of being then clear expression also becomes muddled by mere word play affirming this one aspect and denying all the rest hence the wrangling of confucians and moists each denies what the other affirms and affirms what the other denies what use is this struggle to set up no against yes and yes against no better to abandon this hopeless effort and seek true light there is nothing that cannot be seen from the standpoint of the not i and there is nothing which cannot be seen from the standpoint of the eye if i begin by looking at anything from the viewpoint of the not i then i do not really see it since it is not i that sees it if i begin from where i am and see it as i see it then it may also become possible for me to see it as another season hence the theory of reversal that opposites produce each other depend on each other and complement each other however this may be life is followed by death death is followed by life the possible becomes impossible the impossible becomes possible right turns into wrong and wrong into right the flow of life alters circumstances and thus things themselves are altered in their turn but disputants continue to affirm and to deny the same things they have always affirmed and denied ignoring the new aspects of reality presented by the changing conditions the wise man therefore instead of trying to prove this or that point by logical disputation sees all things in the light of direct intuition he is not imprisoned by the limitations of them for the viewpoint of direct intuition is that of both i and not i hence he sees that on both sides of every argument there is both right and wrong he also sees that in the end they are reducible to the same thing once they are related to the pivot of tao when the wise man grasps this pivot he is in the center of the circle and there he stands while yes and no pursue each other around the circumference the pivot of tao passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge he who grasps the pivot is at the still point from which all movements and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship hence he sees the limitless possibilities of both yes and no abandoning all thought of imposing a limit or taking sides he rests in direct intuition therefore i said better to abandon disputation and seek the true light three in the morning when we wear out our minds stubbornly clinging to one partial view of things refusing to see a deeper agreement between this and its complementary opposite we have what is called three in the morning what is this three in the morning a monkey trainer went to his monkeys and told them as regards your chestnuts you are going to have three measures in the morning and four in the afternoon at this they all became angry so he said all right in that case i will give you four in the morning and three in the afternoon this time they were satisfied the two arrangements were the same in that the number of chestnuts did not change but in one case the animals were displeased and in the other they were satisfied the keeper had been willing to change his personal arrangement in order to meet objective conditions he lost nothing by it the truly wise man considering both sides of the question without partiality sees them both in the light of tao this is called following two courses at once cutting up an ox prince one way's cook was cutting up an ox out went a hand down went to shoulder he planted a foot he pressed with a knee the ox fell apart with a whisper the bright cleaver murmured like a gentle wind rhythm timing like a sacred dance like the mulberry grove like ancient harmonies good work the prince exclaimed your method is faultless method said the cook laying aside his cleaver what i follow is tau beyond all methods when i first began to cut up oxen i would see before me the whole ox all in one mass after three years i no longer saw this mass i saw the distinctions but now i see nothing with the eye my whole being apprehends my senses are idle this spirit free to work without plan follows its own instinct guided by natural line by the secret opening the hidden space my cleaver finds its own way i cut through no joint chop no bone a good cook needs a new chopper once a year he cuts a poor cook needs a new one every month he hacks i have used this same cleaver 19 years it has cut up a thousand oxen its edge is as keen as if newly sharpened there are spaces in the joints the blade is thin and keen when this thinness finds that space there is all the room you need it goes like a breeze hence i have this cleaver 19 years as if newly sharpened true there are sometimes tough joints i feel them coming i slow down i watch closely hold back barely move the blade and whoop the part falls away landing like a clod of earth then i withdraw the blade i stand still and let the joy of the work sink in i clean the blade and put it away prince one way said this is it my cook has shown me how i ought to live my own life the man with one foot and the marsh pheasant kong won shun saw a maimed official whose left foot had been cut off a penalty in the political game what kind of man he cried is this one-footed oddity how did he get that way shall we say man did this or heaven heaven he said this comes from heaven not from man when heaven gave this man life it willed he should stand out from others and sent him into politics to get himself distinguished see one foot this man is different the little marsh pheasant must hop ten times to get a bite of grain she must run a hundred steps before she takes a sip of water yet she does not ask to be kept in a hen run though she might have all she desired set before her she would rather run and seek her own little living uncaged the fasting of the heart the favorite disciple of confucius came to take leave of his master where are you going asked confucius i am going to weigh and what for i have heard that the prince of way is a lusty full-blooded fellow and is entirely self-willed he takes no care of his people and refuses to see any fault in himself he pays no attention to the fact that his subjects are dying right and left corpses lie all over the country like hay in a field the people are desperate but i have heard you master say that one should leave the state that is well governed and go to that which is in disorder at the door of the physician there are plenty of sick people i want to take this opportunity to put into practice what i have learned from you and see if i can bring about some improvement in conditions there alas said confucius you do not realize what you are doing you will bring disaster upon yourself tao has no need of your eagerness and you will only waste your energy in your misguided efforts wasting your energy you will become confused and then anxious once anxious you will no longer be able to help yourself the sages of old first sought dao in themselves then looked to see if there was anything in others that corresponded with thou as they knew it but if you do not have dao yourself what business have you spending your time in vain efforts to bring corrupt politicians into the right path however i suppose you must have some basis for your hope of success how do you propose to go about it yenhue replied i intend to present myself as a humble disinterested man seeking only to do what is right and nothing else a completely simple and honest approach will this win his confidence certainly not confucius replied this man is convinced that he alone is right he may pretend outwardly to take an interest in an objective standard of justice but do not be deceived by his expression he is not accustomed to being opposed by anyone his way is to reassure himself that he is right by trampling on other people if he does this with mediocre men he will all the more certainly do it to one who presents a threat by claiming to be a man of high qualities he will cling stubbornly to his own way he may pretend to be interested in your talk about what is subjectively right but interiorly he will not hear you and there will be no change whatever you will get nowhere with this yenhue then said very well instead of directly opposing him i will maintain my own standards interiorly but outwardly i will appear to yield i will appeal to the authority of tradition and to the examples of the past he who is interiorly uncompromising is a son of heaven just as much as any ruler i will not rely on any teaching of my own and will consequently have no concern about whether i am approved or not i will eventually be recognized as perfectly disinterested and sincere they will all come to appreciate my candor and thus i will be an instrument of heaven in their midst in this way yielding in obedience to the prince as other men do bowing kneeling prostrating myself as a servant should i shall be accepted without blame then others will have confidence in me and gradually they will make use of me seeing that i desire only to make myself useful and to work for the good of all thus i will be an instrument of men meanwhile all i have to say will be expressed in terms of ancient tradition i will be working with the sacred tradition of the ancient sages though what i say may be objectively a condemnation of the prince's conduct it will not be i who say it but tradition itself in this way i will be perfectly honest and yet not give offense thus i will be an instrument of tradition do you think i have the right approach certainly not said confucius you have too many different plans of action when you have not even got to know the prince and observed his character at best you might get away with it and save your skin but you will not change anything whatever he might perhaps superficially conform to your words but there will be no real change of heart yenhue then said well that is the best i have to offer will you master tell me what you suggest you must fast said confucius do you know what i mean by fasting it is not easy but easy ways do not come from god oh said yen way i am used to fasting at home we were poor we went for months without wine or meat that is fasting is it not well you can call it observing a fast if you like said confucius but it is not the fasting of the heart tell me said yen way what is fasting of the heart confucius replied the goal of fasting is inner unity this means hearing but not with the ear hearing but not with the understanding hearing with the spirit with your whole being the hearing that is only in the ears is one thing the hearing of the understanding is another but the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty to the ear or to the mind hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties and when the faculties are empty then the whole being listens there is then a direct grasp of what is right there before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind fasting of the heart empties the faculties frees you from limitation and from preoccupation fasting of the heart begets unity and freedom i see said yen way what was standing in my way was my own self-awareness if i can begin this fasting of the heart self-awareness will vanish then i will be free from limitation and preoccupation is that what you mean yes said confucius that's it if you can do this you will be able to go among men in their world without upsetting them you will not enter into conflict with their ideal image of themselves if they will listen sing them a song if not keep silent don't try to break down their door don't try out new medicines on them just be there among them because there is nothing else for you to be but one of them then you may have success it is easy to stand still and leave no trace but it is hard to walk without touching the ground if you follow human methods you can get away with deception in the way of tao no deception is possible you know that one can fly with wings you have not yet learned about flying without wings you are familiar with the wisdom of those who know but you have not yet learned the wisdom of those who know not look at this window it is nothing but a hole in the wall but because of it the whole room is full of light so when the faculties are empty the heart is full of light being full of light it becomes an influence by which others are secretly transformed three friends there were three friends discussing life one said can men live together and know nothing of it work together and produce nothing can they fly around in space and forget to exist world without end the three friends looked at each other and burst out laughing they had no explanation thus they were better friends than before then one friend died confucius sent a disciple to help the other two chant his obseques the disciple found that one friend had composed a song while the other played a loot they sang hey sung who where'd you go hey sung who where'd you go you have gone where you really were and we are here damn it we are here then the disciple of confucius burst in on them and exclaimed may i inquire where you found this in the rubrics for obsequies this frivolous caroling in the presence of the departed the two friends looked at each other and laughed poor fellow they said he doesn't know the new liturgy lao tzu's wake laudan lay dead she attended the wake he let out three yells and went home one of the disciples said were you not the master's friend certainly he replied is it then sufficient for you to mourn know better than you have just done in the beginning said jinxi i thought he was the greatest of men no longer when i came to mourn i found old men lamenting him as their son young men sobbing as though for their mother how did he bind them to himself so tight if not by words he should never have said and tears he should never have wept he weakened his true being he laid on load upon load of emotion increased the enormous reckoning he forgot the gift god had entrusted to him this the ancients called punishment for neglecting the true self the master came at his right time into the world when his time was up he left it again he who awaits his time who submits when his work is done in his life there is no room for sorrow or for rejoicing here is how the ancients said all this in four words god cuts the thread we have seen a fire of sticks burn out the fire now burns in some other place where who knows these brands are burnt out confucius and the madman when confucius was visiting the state of jew along came kieu the mad men of jew and sang outside the master's door oh phoenix phoenix where's your virtue gone it cannot reach the future or bring the past again when the world makes sense the wise have work to do they can only hide when the world's askew today if you can stay alive lucky are you try to survive joy is feather light but who can carry it sorrow falls like a landslide who can parry it never never teach virtue more you walk in danger beware beware even ferns can cut your feet when i walk crazy i walk right but am i a man to imitate the tree on the mountain height is its own enemy the grease that feeds the light devours itself the cinnamon tree is edible so it is cut down the lacquer tree is profitable they maim it every man knows how useful it is to be useful no one seems to know how useful it is to be useless the true man what is meant by a true man the true men of old were not afraid when they stood alone in their views no great exploits no plans if they failed no sorrow no self-congratulation in success they scaled cliffs never dizzy plunged in water never walked through fire and were not burnt thus their knowledge reached all the way to dao the true men of old slept without dreams woke without worries their food was plain they breathed deep true men breathe from their heels others breathe with their gullets half strangled in dispute they heave up arguments like vomit where the fountains of passion lie deep the heavenly springs are soon dry the true men of old knew no lust for life no dread of death their entrance was without gladness their exit yonder without resistance easy come easy go they did not forget where from nor ask where to nor drive grimly forward fighting their way through life they took life as it came gladly took death as it came without care and went away yonder yonder they had no mind to fight thou they did not try by their own contriving to help dao along these are the ones we call true men minds free thoughts gone brows clear faces serene were they cool only cool is autumn were they hot no hotter than spring all that came out of them came quiet like the four seasons metamorphosis four men got in a discussion each one said who knows how to have the void for his head to have life as his backbone and death for his tale he shall be my friend at this they all looked at one another saw they agreed burst out laughing and became friends then one of them fell ill and another went to see him great is the maker said the sick one who has made me as i am i am so doubled up my guts are over my head upon my navel i rest my cheek my shoulders stand out beyond my neck my crown is an ulcer surveying the sky my body is chaos but my mind is in order he dragged himself to the well saw his reflection and declared what a mess he has made of me his friend asked are you discouraged not at all why should i be if he takes me apart and makes a rooster of my left shoulder i shall announce the dawn if he makes a crossbow of my right shoulder i shall procure rose duck if my buttocks turn into wheels and if my spirit is a horse i will hitch myself up and ride around in my own wagon there was a time for putting together and another time for taking apart he who understands this course of events takes each new state in its proper time with neither sorrow nor joy the ancients said the hanged man cannot cut himself down but in due time nature is stronger than all his ropes and bonds it was always so where is there a reason to be discouraged man is born in dao fishes are born in water man is born in tao if fishes born in water seek the deep shadow of pond and pool all their needs are satisfied if man born in tao sinks into the deep shadow of non-action to forget aggression and concern he lacks nothing his life is secure moral all the fish needs is to get lost in water all man needs is to get lost in tao two kings and no form the south sea king was act on your hunch the north sea king was act in a flash the king of the place between them was no form now south sea king and north sea king used to go together often to the land of no form he treated them well so they consulted together they thought of a good turn a pleasant surprise for no form in token of appreciation men they said have seven openings for seeing hearing eating breathing and so on but no form has no openings let's make him a few holes so after that they put holes in no form one a day for seven days and when they finish the seventh opening their friend lay dead lao dan said to organize is to destroy cracking the safe for security against robbers who snatch purses rifle luggage and crack safes one must fasten all property with ropes lock it up with locks bolt it with bolts this for property owners is elementary good sense but when a strong thief comes along he picks up the whole lot puts it on his back and goes on his way with only one fear that ropes locks and bolts may give way thus what the world calls good business is only a way to gather up the loot pack it make it secure in one convenient load for the more enterprising thieves who is there among those called smart who does not spend his time amassing loot for a bigger robber than himself in the land of key from village to village you could hear growing dogs barking fishermen cast their nets plowmen plowed the wide fields everything was neatly marked out by boundary lines for five hundred square miles there were temples for ancestors altars for field gods and corn spirits every canton county and district was running according to the laws and statutes until one morning the attorney general tian kang did away with the king and took over the whole state was he content to steal the land no he also took over the laws and statutes at the same time and all the lawyers with them not to mention the police they all formed part of the same package of course people called kang tsu a robber but they left him alone to live as happy as the patriarchs no small state would say a word against him no large state would make a move in his direction so for twelve generations the state of ki belonged to his family no one interfered with his inalienable rights the invention of weights and measures makes robbery easier signing contracts setting seals makes robbery more sure teaching love and duty provides a fitting language with which to prove that robbery is really for the general good a poor man must swing for stealing a belt buckle but if a rich man steals a whole state he is acclaimed as statesman of the year hence if you want to hear the very best speeches on love duty justice etc listen to statesmen but when the creek dries up nothing grows in the valley when the mound is leveled the hollow next to it is filled and when the statesmen and lawyers and preachers of duty disappear there are no more robberies either and the world is at peace moral the more you pile up ethical principles and duties and obligations to bring everyone in line the more you gather loot for a thief like kang by ethical argument and moral principle the greatest crimes are eventually shown to have been necessary and in fact a signal benefit to mankind leaving things alone i know about letting the world alone not interfering i do not know about running things letting things alone so that men will not blow their nature out of shape not interfering so that men will not be changed into something they are not when men do not get twisted and maimed beyond recognition when they are allowed to live the purpose of government is achieved too much pleasure young has too much influence too much suffering yin has too much influence when one of these outweighs the other it is as if the seasons came at the wrong times the balance of cold and heat is destroyed the body of man suffers too much happiness too much unhappiness out of due time men are thrown off balance what will they do next thought runs wild no control they start everything finish nothing here competition begins here the idea of excellence is born and robbers appear in the world now the whole world is not enough reward for the good nor enough punishment for the wicked since now the world itself is not big enough for reward or punishment from the time of the three dynasties men have been running in all directions how can they find time to be human you train your eye and your vision lusts after color you train your ear and you long for delightful sound you delight in doing good and your natural kindness is blown out of shape you delight in righteousness and you become righteous beyond all reason you overdo liturgy and you turn into a ham actor overdue your love of music and you play corn love of wisdom leads to wise contriving love of knowledge leads to fault finding if men would stay as they really are taking or leaving these eight delights would make no difference but if they will not rest in their right state the eight delights develop like malignant tumors the world falls into confusion since men honor these delights and lust after them the world has gone stone blind when the delight is over they still will not let go of it they surround its memory with ritual worship they fall on their knees to talk about it play music and sing fast and discipline themselves in honor of the eight delights when the delights become a religion how can you control them the wise man then when he must govern knows how to do nothing letting things alone he rests in his original nature he who will govern will respect the governed no more than he respects himself if he loves his own person enough to let it rest in its original truth he will govern others without hurting them let him keep the deep drives in his own guts from going into action let him keep still not looking not hearing let him sit like a corpse with the dragon power alive all around him in complete silence his voice will be like thunder his movements will be invisible like those of a spirit but the powers of heaven will go with them unconcerned doing nothing he will see all things grow ripe around him where will he find time to govern the kingly man my master said that which acts on all and medals in none is heaven the kingly man realizes this hides it in his heart grows boundless wide-minded draws all to himself and so he lets the gold lie hidden in the mountain leaves the pearl lying in the deep goods and possessions are no gain in his eyes he stays far from wealth and honor long life is no ground for joy nor early death for sorrow success is not for him to be proud of failure is no shame had he all the world's power he would not hold it as his own if he conquered everything he would not take it to himself his glory is in knowing that all things come together in one and life and death are equal how deep is dao my master said tao how deep how still it's hiding place dao how pure without this stillness metal would not ring stone when struck would give no answer the power of sound is in the metal and tao is in all things when they clash they ring with tao and are silent again who is there now to tell all things their places the king of life goes his way free inactive unknown he would blush to be in business he keeps his deep roots down in the origin down in the spring his knowledge is unfolded in spirit and he grows great great opens a great heart a world's refuge without forethought he comes out in majesty without plan he goes his way and all things follow him this is the kingly man who rides above life this one sees in the dark hears where there is no sound in the deep dark he alone sees light in soundlessness he alone perceives music he can go down into the lowest of low places and find people he can stand in the highest of high places and see meaning he is in contact with all beings that which is not goes his way that which moves is what he stands on great is small for him long is short for him and all his distances are near the lost pearl the yellow emperor went wandering to the north of the red water to the quan lon mountain he looked around over the edge of the world on the way home he lost his night-colored pearl he sent out science to seek his pearl and got nothing he sent analysis to look for his pearl and got nothing he sent out logic to seek his pearl and got nothing then he asked nothingness and nothingness had it the yellow emperor said strange indeed nothingness who was not sent who did no work to find it had the night-colored pearl in my end is my beginning in the beginning of beginnings was void of void the nameless and in the nameless was the one without body without form this one this being in whom all find power to exist is the living from the living comes the formless the undivided from the act of this formless come the existence each according to its inner principle this is form here body embraces and cherishes spirit the two work together as one blending and manifesting their characters and this is nature but he who obeys nature returns through form and formless to the living and in the living joins the unbegun beginning the joining is sameness the sameness is void the void is infinite the bird opens its beak and sings its note and then the beak comes together again in silence so nature and the living meet together in void like the closing of the bird's beak after its song heaven and earth come together in the unbegun and all is foolishness all is unknown all is like the lights of an idiot all is without mind to obey is to close the beak and fall into unbeginning when life was full there was no history in the age when life on earth was full no one paid any special attention to worthy men nor did they single out the man of ability rulers were simply the highest branches on the tree and the people were like deer in the woods they were honest and righteous without realizing that they were doing their duty they loved each other and did not know that this was love of neighbor they deceived no one yet they did not know that they were men to be trusted they were reliable and did not know that this was good faith they lived freely together giving and taking and did not know that they were generous for this reason their deeds have not been narrated they made no history when a hideous man when a hideous man becomes a father and a son is born to him in the middle of the night he trembles and lights a lamp and runs to look in anguish on that child's face to see whom he resembles the five enemies with wood from a hundred year old tree they make sacrificial vessels covered with green and yellow designs the wood that was cut away lies unused in the ditch if we compare the sacrificial vessels with the wood in the ditch we find them to differ in appearance one is more beautiful than the other yet they are equal in this both have lost their original nature so if you compare the robber and the respectable citizen you find that one is indeed more respectable than the other yet they agree in this they have both lost the original simplicity of man how did they lose it here are the five ways love of colors bewilders the eye and it fails to see right love of harmonies bewitches the ear and it loses its true hearing love of perfumes fills the head with dizziness love of flavors ruins the taste desires unsettle the heart until the original nature runs amok these five are enemies of true life yet these are what men of discernment claim to live for they are not what i live for if this is life then pigeons in a cage have found happiness action and non-action the non-action of the wise man is not inaction it is not studied it is not shaken by anything the sage is quiet because he has not moved not because he wills to be quiet still water is like glass you can look in it and see the bristles on your chin it is a perfect level a carpenter could use it if water is so clear so level how much more the spirit of man the heart of the wise man is tranquil it is the mirror of heaven and earth the glass of everything emptiness stillness tranquility tastelessness silence non-action this is the level of heaven and earth this is perfect tao wise men find here their resting place resting they are empty from emptiness comes the unconditioned from this the conditioned the individual things so from the sages emptiness stillness arises from stillness action from action attainment from their stillness comes their non-action which is also action and is therefore their attainment for stillness is joy joy is free from care fruitful in long years joy does all things without concern for emptiness tranquility tastelessness silence and non-action are the root of all things duke juan and the wheel right the world values books and thinks that in so doing it is valuing tao but books contain words only and yet there is something else which gives value to the books not the words only nor the thought in the words but something else within the thought swinging it in a certain direction that words cannot apprehend but it is the words themselves that the world values when it commits them to books and though the world values them these words are worthless as long as that which gives them value is not held in honor that which man apprehends by observation is only outward form and color name and noise and he thinks that this will put him in possession of tao form and color name and sound do not reach to reality that is why he who knows does not say he who says does not know how then is the world going to know dao through words du quan of ki first in his dynasty sat under his canopy reading his philosophy and pian the wheel right was out in the yard making a wheel pian laid aside hammer and chisel climbed the steps and said to duquan may i ask you lord what is this you are reading the duke said the experts the authorities and pian asked alive or dead dead a long time then said the wheel right you are reading only the dirt they left behind then the duke replied what do you know about it you are only a wheel right you would better give me a good explanation or else you must die the wheel right said let us look at the affair from my point of view when i make wheels if i go easy they fall apart if i'm too rough they do not fit if i am neither too easy nor too violent they come out right the work is what i wanted to be you cannot put this into words you just have to know how it is i cannot even tell my own son exactly how it is done and my own son cannot learn it from me so here i am 70 years old still making wheels the men of old took all they really knew with them to the grave and so lord what you are reading there is only the dirt they left behind them autumn floods the autumn floods had come thousands of wild torrents poured furiously into the yellow river it surged and flooded its banks until looking across you could not tell an ox from a horse on the other side then the river god laughed delighted to think that all the beauty in the world had fallen into his keeping so downstream he swung until he came to the ocean there he looked out over the waves toward the empty horizon in the east and his face fell gazing out at the far horizon he came to his senses and murmured to the ocean god well the proverb is right he who has got himself a hundred ideas thinks he knows more than anybody else such a one am i only now do i see what they mean by expanse the ocean god replied can you talk about the sea to a frog in a well can you talk about ice to dragonflies can you talk about the way of life to a doctor of philosophy of all the waters in the world the ocean is greatest all the rivers pour into it day and night it is never filled it gives back its waters day and night it is never emptied in dry seasons it is not lowered in flood time it does not rise greater than all other waters there is no measure to tell how much greater but am i proud of it what am i under heaven what am i without yang and yin compared with the sky i am a little rock a scrub oak on the mountainside shall i act as if i were something of all the beings that exist and there are millions man is only one among all the millions of men that live on earth the civilized people that live by farming are only a small proportion smaller still the number of those who having office or fortune travel by carriage or by boat and of all these one man in his carriage is nothing more than the tip of a hair on a horse's flank why then all the fuss about great men and great offices why are the disputations of scholars why all the wrangling of politicians there are no fixed limits time does not stand still nothing endures nothing is final you cannot lay hold of the end or the beginning he who is wise sees near and far as the same does not despise the small or value the great where all standards differ how can you compare with one glance he takes in past and present without sorrow for the past or impatience with the present all is in movement he has experience of fullness and emptiness he does not rejoice in success or lament in failure the game is never over birth and death are even the terms are not final great and small when we look at things in the light of dao nothing is best nothing is worse each thing seen in its own light stands out in its own way it can seem to be better than what is compared with it on its own terms but seen in terms of the whole no one thing stands out as better if you measure differences what is greater than something else is great therefore there is nothing that is not great what is smaller than something else is small therefore there is nothing that is not small so the whole cosmos is a grain of rice and the tip of a hair is as big as a mountain such is the relative view you can break down walls with battering rams but you cannot stop holes with them all things have different uses fine horses can travel 100 miles a day but they cannot catch mice like terriers or weasels all creatures have gifts of their own the white horned owl can catch fleas at midnight and distinguish the tip of a hair but in bright day it stares helpless and cannot even see a mountain all things have varying capacities consequently he who wants to have right without wrong order without disorder does not understand the principles of heaven and earth he does not know how things hang together can a man cling only to heaven and know nothing of earth they are correlative to no one is to know the other to refuse one is to refuse both can a man cling to the positive without any negative in contrast to which it is seen to be positive if he claims to do so he is a rogue or a madman thrones pass from dynasty to dynasty now in this way now in that he who forces his way to power against the grain is called tyrant and usurper he who moves with a stream of events is called a wise statesman quee the one-legged dragon is jealous of the centipede the centipede is jealous of the snake the snake is jealous of the wind the wind is jealous of the eye the eye is jealous of the mind cui said to the centipede i manage my one leg with difficulty how can you manage a hundred the centipede replied i do not manage them they land all over the place like drops of spit the centipede said to the snake with all my feet i cannot move as fast as you do with no feet at all how is this done the snake replied i have a natural glide that can't be changed what do i need with feet the snake spoke to the wind i ripple my backbone and move along in a bodily way you without bones without muscles without method blow from the north sea to the southern ocean how do you get there with nothing the wind replied true i rise up in the north sea and take myself without obstacle to the southern ocean but every eye that remarks me every wing that uses me is superior to me even though i can uproot the biggest trees or overturn big buildings the true conqueror is he who is not conquered by the multitude of the small the mind is this conqueror but only the mind of the wise man the man of tao the man in whom tao acts without impediment harms no other being by his actions yet he does not know himself to be kind to be gentle the man in whom tao acts without impediment does not bother with his own interests and does not despise others who do he does not struggle to make money and does not make a virtue of poverty he goes his way without relying on others and does not pride himself on walking alone while he does not follow the crowd he won't complain of those who do rank and reward make no appeal to him disgrace and shame do not deter him he is not always looking for right and wrong always deciding yes or no the ancient said therefore the man of tao remains unknown perfect virtue produces nothing no self is true self and the greatest man is nobody the turtle chong with his bamboo pole was fishing in pooh river the prince of chu sent two vice chancellors with a formal document we hereby appoint you prime minister changsu held his bamboo pole still watching pooh river he said i am told there is a sacred tortoise offered and canonized three thousand years ago venerated by the prince wrapped in silk in a precious shrine on an altar in the temple what do you think is it better to give up one's life and leave a sacred shell as an object of cult in a cloud of incense three thousand years or better to live as a plain turtle dragging its tail in the mud for the turtle said the vice chancellor better to live and drag its tail in the mud go home said jongsu leave me here to drag my tail in the mud owl and phoenix was prime minister of liang he had what he believed to be inside information that chong coveted his post and was intriguing to supplant him in fact when chongsu came to visit liang the prime minister sent out the police to apprehend him the police searched for him three days and three nights but meanwhile trung presented himself before huizu of his own accord and said have you heard about the bird that lives in the south the phoenix that never grows old this undying phoenix rises out of the south sea and flies to the sea of the north never alighting except on certain sacred trees he will touch no food but the most exquisite rare fruit drinks only from clearest springs once an owl chewing a dead rat already half decayed saw the phoenix fly over looked up and screeched with alarm clutching the rat to himself in fear and dismay why are you so frantic clinging to your ministry and screeching at me in dismay the joy of fishes changsu and huizu were crossing hau river by the dam trung said see how free the fishes leap and dart that is their happiness way replied since you are not a fish how do you know what makes fishes happy chuang said since you are not i how can you possibly know that i do not know what makes fishes happy hui argued if i not being you cannot know what you know it follows that you not being a fish cannot know what they know chong said wait a minute let us get back to the original question what you asked me was how do you know what makes fishes happy from the terms of your question you evidently know i know what makes fishes happy i know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy as i go walking along the same river perfect joy is there to be found on earth a fullness of joy or is there no such thing is there some way to make life fully worth living or is this impossible if there is such a way how do you go about finding it what should you try to do what should you seek to avoid what should be the goal in which your activity comes to rest what should you accept what should you refuse to accept what should you love what should you hate what the world values is money reputation long life achievement what it counts as joy is health and comfort of body good food fine clothes beautiful things to look at pleasant music to listen to what it condemns is lack of money a low social rank a reputation for being no good and an early death what it considers misfortune is bodily discomfort and labor no chance to get your fill of good food not having good clothes to wear having no way to amuse or delight the eye no pleasant music to listen to if people find that they are deprived of these things they go into a panic or fall into despair they are so concerned for their life that their anxiety makes life unbearable even when they have the things they think they want they're very concerned for enjoyment makes them unhappy the rich make life intolerable driving themselves in order to get more and more money which they cannot really use in so doing they are alienated from themselves and exhaust themselves in their own service as though they were slaves of others the ambitious run day and night in pursuit of honors constantly in anguish about the success of their plans dreading the miscalculation that may wreck everything thus they are alienated from themselves exhausting their real life in service of the shadow created by their insatiable hope the birth of a man is the birth of his sorrow the longer he lives the more stupid he becomes because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute what bitterness he lives for what is always out of reach his thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present what about the self-sacrificing officials and scholars they are honored by the world because they are good upright self-sacrificing men yet their good character does not preserve them from unhappiness nor even from ruin disgrace and death i wonder in that case if their goodness is really so good after all is it perhaps a source of unhappiness suppose you admit they are happy but is it a happy thing to have a character and a career that lead to one's own eventual destruction on the other hand can you call them unhappy if in sacrificing themselves they save the lives and fortunes of others take the case of the minister who conscientiously and uprightly opposes an unjust decision of his king some say tell the truth and if the king will not listen let him do what he likes you have no further obligation on the other hand tsushu continued to resist the unjust policy of his sovereign he was consequently destroyed but if he had not stood up for what he believed to be right his name would not be held in honor so there is the question shall the course he took be called good if at the same time it was fatal to him i cannot tell if what the world considers happiness is happiness or not all i know is that when i consider the way they go about attaining it i see them carried away headlong grim and obsessed in the general onrush of the human herd unable to stop themselves or to change their direction all the while they claim to be just on the point of attaining happiness for my part i cannot accept their standards whether of happiness or unhappiness i ask myself if after all their concept of happiness has any meaning whatever my opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it my greatest happiness consists precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness and this in the minds of most people is the worst possible course i will hold to the saying that perfect joy is to be without joy perfect praise is to be without praise if you ask what ought to be done and what ought not to be done on earth in order to produce happiness i answer that these questions do not have an answer there is no way of determining such things yet at the same time if i see striving for happiness the right and the wrong at once become apparent all by themselves contentment and well-being at once become possible the moment you cease to act with them in view and if you practice non-doing wu wei you will have both happiness and well-being here's how i sum it up heaven does nothing its non-doing is its serenity earth does nothing its non-doing is its rest from the union of these two non-doings all actions proceed all things are made how vast how invisible this coming to be all things come from nowhere how vast how invisible no way to explain it all beings in their perfection are born of non-doing hence it is said heaven and earth do nothing yet there is nothing they do not do where is the man who can attain to this non-doing symphony for a seabird you cannot put a big load in a small bag nor can you with a short rope draw water from a deep well you cannot talk to a power politician as if he were a wise man if he seeks to understand you if he looks inside himself to find the truth you have told him he cannot find it there not finding he doubts when a man doubts he will kill have you not heard how a bird from the sea was blown in shore and landed outside the capital of lou the prince ordered a solemn reception offered the seabird wine in the sacred precinct called for musicians to play the compositions of schwein slaughtered cattle to nourish it dazed with symphonies the unhappy seabird died of despair how should you treat a bird as yourself or as a bird ought not a bird to nest in deep woodland or fly over meadow and marsh audit not to swim on river and pond feed on eels and fish fly in formation with other waterfowl and rest in the reeds bad enough for a seabird to be surrounded by men and frightened by their voices that was not enough they killed it with music play all the symphonies you like on the marshlands of tang ting the birds will fly away in all directions the animals will hide the fish will dive to the bottom but men will gather around to listen water is for fish and air for men natures differ and needs with them hence the wise men of old did not lay down one measure for all wholeness how does the true man of dao walk through walls without obstruction stand in fire without being burnt not because of cunning or daring not because he has learned but because he is unlearned all that is limited by form semblance sound color is called object among them all man alone is more than an object though like objects he has form and semblance he is not limited to form he is more he can attain to formlessness when he is beyond form and semblance beyond this and that where is the comparison with another object where is the conflict what can stand in his way he will rest in his eternal place which is no place he will be hidden in his own unfathomable secret his nature sinks to its root in the one his vitality his power hide in secret thou when he is all one there is no flaw in him by which a wedge can enter so a drunken man falling out of a wagon is bruised but not destroyed his bones are like the bones of other men but his fall is different his spirit is entire he is not aware of getting into a wagon or falling out of one life and death are nothing to him he knows no alarm he meets obstacles without thought without care takes them without knowing they are there if there is such security in wine how much more in tao the wise man is hidden in tao nothing can touch him the need to win when an archer is shooting for nothing he has all his skill if he shoots for a brass buckle he is already nervous if he shoots for a prize of gold he goes blind or sees two targets he is out of his mind his skill has not changed but the prize divides him he cares he thinks more of winning than of shooting and the need to win drains him of power the sacrificial swine the grand auger who sacrificed the swine and red omens in the sacrifice came dressed in his long dark robes to the pig pen and spoke to the pigs as follows here is my counsel to you do not complain about having to die set your objections aside please realize that i shall now feed you on choice grain for three months i myself will have to observe strict discipline for 10 days and fast for three then i will lay out grass mats and offer your hands and shoulders upon delicately carved platters with great ceremony what more do you want then reflecting he considered the question from the pig's point of view of course i suppose you would prefer to be fed with ordinary course feed and be left alone in your pen but again seeing it once more from his own viewpoint he replied no definitely there is a nobler kind of existence to live in honors to receive the best treatment to ride in a carriage with fine clothes even though at any moment one may be disgraced and executed that is the noble though uncertain destiny that i have chosen for myself so he decided against the pig's point of view and adopted his own point of view both for himself and for the pigs also how fortunate those swine whose existence was thus ennobled by one who was at once an officer of state and a minister of religion the fighting was a trainer of fighting for king swin he was training a fine bird the king kept asking if the bird were ready for combat not yet said the trainer he is full of fire he is ready to pick a fight with every other bird he is vain and confident of his own strength after ten days he answered again not yet he flares up when he hears another bird crow after ten more days not yet he still gets that angry look and ruffles his feathers again ten days the trainer said now he is nearly ready when another bird crows his eye does not even flicker he stands immobile like a of wood he is a mature fighter other birds will take one look at him and run the wood carver king the master carver made a bell stand of precious wood when it was finished all who saw it were astounded they said it must be the work of spirits the prince of lou said to the master carver what is your secret king replied i am only a workman i have no secret there is only this when i began to think about the work you commanded i guarded my spirit did not expend it on trifles that were not to the point i fasted in order to set my heart at rest after three days fasting i had forgotten gain and success after five days i had forgotten praise or criticism after seven days i had forgotten my body with all its limbs by this time all thought of your highness and of the court had faded away all that might distract me from the work had vanished i was collected in the single thought of the bell stand then i went to the forest to see the trees in their own natural state when the right tree appeared before my eyes the bell stand also appeared in it clearly beyond doubt all i had to do was put forth my hand and begin if i had not met this particular tree there would have been no bell stand at all what happened my own collected thought encountered the hidden potential in the wood from this live encounter came the work which you ascribe to the spirits when the shoe fits chway the draftsman could draw more perfect circles freehand than with a compass his fingers brought forth spontaneous forms from nowhere his mind was meanwhile free and without concern with what he was doing no application was needed his mind was perfectly simple and new no obstacle so when the shoe fits the foot is forgotten when the belt fits the belly is forgotten when the heart is right for and against are forgotten no drives no compulsions no needs no attractions then your affairs are under control you are a free man easy is right begin right and you are easy continue easy and you are right the right way to go easy is to forget the right way and forget that the going is easy the empty boat he who rules men lives in confusion he who is ruled by men lives in sorrow yao therefore desired neither to influence others nor to be influenced by them the way to get clear of confusion and free of sorrow is to live with dao in the land of the great void if a man is crossing a river and an empty boat collides with his own skiff even though he be a bad tempered man he will not become very angry but if he sees a man in the boat he will shout at him to steer clear if the shout is not heard he will shout again and yet again and begin cursing and all because there is somebody in the boat yet if the boat were empty he would not be shouting and not angry if you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world no one will oppose you no one will seek to harm you the straight tree is the first to be cut down the spring of clear water is the first to be drained dry if you wish to improve your wisdom and shame the ignorant to cultivate your character and outshine others a light will shine around you as if you had swallowed the sun and the moon you will not avoid calamity a wise man has said he who is content with himself has done a worthless work achievement is the beginning of failure fame is the beginning of disgrace who can free himself from achievement and from fame descend and be lost amid the masses of men he will flow like dao unseen he will go about like life itself with no name and no home simple is he without distinction to all appearances he is a fool his steps leave no trace he has no power he achieves nothing has no reputation since he judges no one no one judges him such is the perfect man his boat is empty the flight of leanway linhue of kia took to flight pursued by enemies he threw away the precious jade symbol of his rank and took his infant child on his back why did he take the child and leave the jade which was worth a small fortune whereas the child if sold would only bring him a paltry sum lin hue said my bond with the jade symbol and with my office was the bond of self-interest my bond with the child was the bond of tao where self-interest is the bond the friendship is dissolved when calamity comes where tao is the bond friendship is made perfect by calamity the friendship of wise men is tasteless as water the friendship of fools is sweet as wine but the tastelessness of the wise brings true affection and the savor of fool's company ends in hatred when knowledge went north knowledge wandered north looking for tao over the dark sea and up the invisible mountain there on the mountain he met non-doing the speechless one he inquired please inform me sir by what system of thought and what technique of meditation i can apprehend tao by what renunciation or what solitary retirement may i rest endow where must i start what road must i follow to reach thou such were his three questions non-doing the speechless one made no reply not only that he did not even know how to reply knowledge swung south to the bright sea and climbed the luminous mountain called doubts end here he met act on impulse the inspired prophet and asked the same questions ah cried the inspired one i have the answers and i will reveal them but just as he was about to tell everything he forgot all he had in mind knowledge got no reply so knowledge went at last to the palace of emperor tea and asked his questions of tea tea replied to exercise no thought and follow no way of meditation is the first step toward understanding tao to dwell nowhere and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in tao to start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining tao knowledge replied you know this and now i know it but the other two they did not know it what about that who is right t replied only non-doing the speechless one was perfectly right he did not know act on impulse the inspired prophet only seemed right because he had forgotten as for us we come nowhere near being right since we have the answers for he who knows does not speak he who speaks does not know and the wise man gives instruction without the use of speech this story got back to act on impulse who agreed with tea's way of putting it it is not reported that non-doing ever heard of the matter or made any comment the importance of being toothless nietzsche who had no teeth came to pee and asked for a lesson on tao maybe he could bite on that so p began first gain control of the body and all its organs then control the mind attain one pointedness then the harmony of heaven will come down and dwell in you you will be radiant with life you will rest in tao you will have the simple look of a newborn calf oh lucky you you will not even know the cause of your state but long before p had reached this point in his sermon the toothless one had fallen asleep his mind just could not bite on the meat of doctrine but he was satisfied he wandered away singing his body is dry like an old leg bone his mind is dead as dead ashes his knowledge is solid his wisdom true in deep dark night he wanders free without aim and without design who can compare with this toothless man where is dao master tangkwa asked juan show me where the tao is found trungzhu replied there is nowhere it is not to be found the former insisted show me at least some definite place where tao is found it is in the ant sejuang is it in some lesser being it is in the weeds can you go further down the scale of things it is in this piece of tile further it is in this turd at this dongwo had nothing more to say but juan continued none of your questions are to the point they are like the questions of inspectors in the market testing the weight of pigs by prodding them in their thinnest parts why look for tao by going down the scale of being as if that which we call least had less of tao tao is great in all things complete in all universal in all whole in all these three aspects are distinct but the reality is one therefore come with me to the palace of nowhere where all the many things are one there at last we might speak of what has no limitation and no end come with me to the land of non-doing what shall we there say that tao is simplicity stillness indifference purity harmony and ease all these names leave me indifferent for their distinctions have disappeared my will is aimless there if it is nowhere how should i be aware of it if it goes and returns i know not where it has been resting if it wanders here then there i know not where it will end the mind remains undetermined in the great void here the highest knowledge is unbounded that which gives things their thus-ness cannot be delimited by things so when we speak of limits we remain confined to limited things the limit of the unlimited is called fullness the limitlessness of the limited is called emptiness tao is the source of both but it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness dao produces both renewal and decay but is neither renewal or decay it causes being and non-being but is neither being nor non-being tau assembles and it destroys but it is neither the totality nor the void starlight and non-being starlight asked non-being master are you or are you not since he received no answer whatever starlight set himself to watch for non-being he waited to see if non-being would put in an appearance he kept his gaze fixed on the deep void hoping to catch a glimpse of non-being all day long he looked and he saw nothing he listened but heard nothing he reached out to grasp and grasped nothing then starlight exclaimed at last this is it this is the furthest yet who can reach it i can comprehend the absence of being but who can comprehend the absence of nothing if now on top of all this non-being is who can comprehend it master gong sang chu a disciple of laozi became famous for his wisdom and the people of waile began to venerate him as a sage he avoided their homage and refused their gifts he kept himself hidden and would not let them come to see him his disciples remonstrated with him and declared that since the time of yao and schwein it had been the tradition for wise men to accept veneration and thus exercise a good influence master kong replied come here my children listen to this if a beast big enough to swallow a wagon should leave its mountain forest it will not escape the hunter's trap if a fish big enough to swallow a boat lets itself be stranded by the outgoing tide then even ants will destroy it so birds fly high beasts remain in trackless solitudes keep out of sight and fishes or turtles go deep down down to the very bottom the man who has some respect for his person keeps his carcass out of sight hides himself as perfectly as he can as for yao and schwein why praise such kings what good did their morality do they knocked a hole in the wall and let it fill up with brambles they numbered the hairs of your head before combing them they counted out each grain of rice before cooking their dinner what good did they do to the world with their scrupulous distinctions if the virtuous are honored the world will be filled with envy if the smart man is rewarded the world will be filled with thieves you cannot make men good or honest by praising virtue and knowledge since the days of pious yao and virtuous schwein everybody has been trying to get rich a son will kill his father for money a minister will murder his sovereign to satisfy his ambition in broad daylight they rob each other at midnight they break down walls the root of all this was planted in the time of yao and schwein the branches will grow for a thousand ages and a thousand ages from now men will be eating one another raw gang's disciple a disciple complained to gang the eyes of all men seem to be alike i detect no difference in them yet some men are blind their eyes do not see the ears of all men seem to be alike i detect no difference in them yet some men are deaf their ears do not hear the minds of all men have the same nature i detect no difference between them but the mad cannot make another man's mind their own here am i apparently like the other disciples but there is a difference they get your meaning and put it in practice i cannot you tell me hold your being secure and quiet keep your life collected in its own center do not allow your thoughts to be disturbed but however hard i try tao is only a word in my ear it does not ring any bells inside gang-san replied i have nothing more to say bantams do not hatch goose eggs though the fowl of lou can it is not so much a difference of nature as a difference of capacity my capacity is too slight to transform you why not go south and see lao tzu the disciple got some supplies traveled seven days and seven nights alone and came to laozi lao asked do you come from gong yes replied the student who are all those people you have brought with you the disciple whirled around to look nobody there panic lao said don't you understand the disciple hung his head confusion then a sigh alas i have forgotten my answer more confusion i have also forgotten my question lao said what are you trying to say the disciple when i don't know people treat me like a fool when i do know the knowledge gets me into trouble when i fail to do good i hurt others when i do good i hurt myself if i avoid my duty i am remiss but if i do it i am ruined how can i get out of these contradictions that is what i came to ask you lao tzu replied a moment ago i looked into your eyes i saw you were hemmed in by contradictions your words confirmed this you are scared to death like a child who has lost father and mother you are trying to sound the middle of the ocean with a six foot pole you have got lost and are trying to find your way back to your own true self you find nothing but illegible signposts pointing in all directions i pity you the disciple asked for admittance took a cell and there meditated trying to cultivate qualities he thought desirable and get rid of others which he disliked ten days of that despair miserable said lao all blocked up tied in nuts try to get untied if your obstructions are on the outside do not attempt to grasp them one by one and thrust them away impossible learn to ignore them if they are within yourself you cannot destroy them piecemeal but you can refuse to let them take effect if they are both inside and outside do not try to hold on to tao just hope that tao will keep hold of you the disciple groaned when a farmer gets sick and the other farmers come to see him if he can at least tell them what is the matter his sickness is not bad but as for me in my search for tao i am like a sick man who takes medicine that makes him ten times worse just tell me the first elements i will be satisfied lao tzu replied can you embrace the one and not lose it can you foretell good things in bad without the tortoiseshell or the straws can you rest where there is rest do you know when to stop can you mind your own business without cares without desiring reports of how others are progressing can you stand on your own feet can you duck can you be like an infant that cries all day without getting a sore throat or clenches his fist all day without getting a sore hand or gazes all day without eye strain you want the first elements the infant has them free from care unaware of self he acts without reflection stays where he is put does not know why does not figure things out just goes along with them is part of the current these are the first elements the disciple asked is this perfection lao replied not at all it is only the beginning this melts the ice this enables you to unlearn so that you can be led by tao be a child of tao if you persist in trying to attain what is never attained it is tau's gift if you persist in making effort to obtain whatever cannot get if you persist in reasoning about what cannot be understood you will be destroyed by the very thing you seek to know when to stop to know when you can get no further by your own action this is the right beginning the tower of the spirit the spirit has an impregnable tower which no danger can disturb as long as the tower is guarded by the invisible protector who acts unconsciously and whose actions go astray when they become deliberate reflexive and intentional the unconsciousness and entire sincerity of tao are disturbed by any effort at self-conscious demonstration all such demonstrations are lies when one displays himself in this ambiguous way the world outside storms in and imprisons him he is no longer protected by the sincerity of tao each new act is a new failure if his acts are done in public in broad daylight he will be punished by men if they are done in private and in secret they will be punished by spirits let each one understand the meaning of sincerity and guard against display he will be at peace with men and spirits and will act rightly unseen in his own solitude in the tower of his spirit the inner law he whose law is within himself walks in hiddenness his acts are not influenced by approval or disapproval he whose law is outside himself directs his will to what is beyond his control and seeks to extend his power over objects he who walks in hiddenness has light to guide him in all his acts he who seeks to extend his control is nothing but an operator while he thinks he is surpassing others others see him merely straining stretching to stand on tiptoe when he tries to extend his power over objects those objects gain control of him he who is controlled by objects loses possession of his inner self if he no longer values himself how can he value others if he no longer values others he is abandoned he has nothing left there is no deadlier weapon than the will the sharpest sword is not equal to it and there is no robber so dangerous as nature yang and yin yet it is not nature that does the damage it is man's own will apologies if a man steps on a stranger's foot in the marketplace he makes a polite apology and offers an explanation this place is so terribly crowded if an elder brother steps on his younger brother's foot he says sorry and that is that if a parent treads on his child's foot nothing is said at all the greatest politeness is free of all formality perfect conduct is free of concern perfect wisdom is unplanned perfect love is without demonstrations perfect sincerity offers no guarantee advising the prince the recluse shusu had come to see prince wu the prince was glad i have desired he said to see you for a long time tell me if i am doing right i want to love my people and by the exercise of justice to put an end to war is this enough by no means said the recluse your love for your people puts them in mortal danger your exercise of justice is the root of war after war your grand intentions will end in disaster if you set out to accomplish something great you only deceive yourself your love and justice are fraudulent they are mere pretexts for self-assertion for aggression one action will bring on another and in the chain of events your hidden intentions will be made plain you claim to practice justice should you seem to succeed success itself will bring more conflict why all these guards standing at attention at the palace gate around the temple altar everywhere you are at war with yourself you do not believe in justice only in power and success if you overcome an enemy and annex his country you will be even less at peace with yourself than you are now nor will your passions let you sit still you will fight again and again for the sake of a more perfect exercise of justice abandon your plan to be a loving and equitable ruler try to respond to the demands of inner truth stop vexing yourself and your people with these obsessions your people will breathe easily at last they will live and war will end by itself active life if an expert does not have some problem to vex him he is unhappy if a philosopher's teaching is never attacked he pines away if critics have no one on whom to exercise their spite they are unhappy all such men are prisoners in the world of objects he who wants followers seeks political power he who wants reputation holds an office the strong man looks for weights to lift the brave man looks for an emergency in which he can show bravery the swordsman wants a battle in which he can swing his sword men pass their prime prefer a dignified retirement in which they may seem profound men experienced in law seek difficult cases to extend the application of laws liturgists and musicians like festivals in which they parade their ceremonious talents the benevolent the dutiful are always looking for chances to display virtue where would the gardener be if there were no more wheats what would become of business without a market of fools where would the masses be if there were no pretext for getting jammed together and making noise what would become of labor if there were no superfluous objects to be made produce get results make money make friends make changes or you will die of despair those who are caught in the machinery of power take no joy except inactivity and change the whirring of the machine whenever an occasion for action presents itself they are compelled to act they cannot help themselves they are inexorably moved like the machine of which they are apart prisoners in the world of objects they have no choice but to submit to the demands of matter they are pressed down and crushed by external forces fashion the market events public opinion never in a whole lifetime do they recover their right mind the active life what a pity monkey mountain the prince of wu took a boat to monkey mountain as soon as the monkey saw him they all fled in panic and hid in the treetops one monkey however remained completely unconcerned swinging from branch to branch an extraordinary display the prince shot an arrow at the monkey but the monkey dexterously caught the arrow in mid-flight at this the prince ordered his attendants to make a concerted attack in an instant the monkey was shot full of arrows and fell dead then the king turned to his companion yen puy you see what happened he said this animal advertised his cleverness he trusted in his own skill he thought no one could touch him remember that do not rely on distinction and talent when you deal with men when they returned home yen pui became the disciple of a sage to get rid of everything that made him outstanding he renounced every pleasure he learned to hide every distinction soon no one in the kingdom knew what to make of him thus they held him in awe good fortune master key had eight sons one day he called in a physionomist lined the boys up and said study their faces tell me which is the fortunate one after his examination the expert said quan is the fortunate one key was pleased and surprised in what way he inquired the physionomist replied quan shall eat meat and drink wine for the rest of his days at government expense he broke down and sobbed my poor son my poor son what has he done to deserve this misfortune what cried the physionomist when one shares the meals of a prince blessings reach out to all the family especially to father and mother will you refuse good fortune he said what makes this fortune good meat and wine are for mouth and belly is good fortune only in the mouth and in the belly these meals of the prince how shall he share them i am no shepherd and a lamb is suddenly born in my house i am no game keeper and quails are born in my yard these are awful portents i have had no wish for my sons and myself but to wander at liberty through earth and heaven i seek no joy for them and for myself but joy of heaven simple fruits of earth i seek no advantage make no plans engage in no business with my boys i seek dao alone i have not fought life yet now this uncanny promise of what i never sought good fortune every strange effect has some strange cause my sons and i have done nothing to deserve this it is an inscrutable punishment therefore i weep and so it happened sometime afterward that key sent his son kwan on a journey the young man was captured by brigands who decided to sell him as a slave believing they could not sell him as he was they cut off his feet thus unable to run away he became a better bargain they sold him to the government of chi and he was put in charge of a toll gate on the highway he had meat and wine for the rest of his life at government expense in this way it turned out that quan was the fortunate one flight from benevolence shuyu was met by a friend as he was leaving the capital city on the main highway leading to the nearest frontier where are you going the friend asked i am leaving king yao he is so obsessed with the ideas of benevolence that i am afraid something ridiculous will come of it in any event funny or not this kind of thing eventually ends with people eating each other raw at the moment there is a great wave of solidarity the people think they are loved and they respond with enthusiasm they are all behind the king because they think he is making them rich praise is cheap and they are all competing for favor but soon they will have to accept something they do not like and the whole thing will collapse when justice and benevolence are in the air a few people are really concerned with the good of others but the majority are aware that this is a good thing ripe for exploitation they take advantage of the situation for them benevolence and justice are traps to catch birds thus benevolence and justice rapidly come to be associated with fraud and hypocrisy then everybody doubts and that is when trouble really begins king yao knows how dutiful and upright officers benefit the nation but he does not know what harm comes from their uprightness they are a front behind which crooks operate more securely but you have to see this situation objectively to realize it there are three classes of people to be taken into account yes men bloodsuckers and operators the yes men adopt the line of some political leader and repeat his statements by heart imagining that they know something confident that they are getting somewhere and thoroughly satisfied with the sound of their own voices they are complete fools and because they are fools they submit in this way to another man's line of talk the bloodsuckers are like lice on a sow they rush together where the bristles are thin and this becomes their palace and their park they delight in crevices between the sows toes around the joints and teats or under the tail here they entrench themselves and imagine they cannot be routed out by any power in the world but they do not realize that one morning the butcher will come with knife and swinging scythe he will collect dry straw and set it alight to singe away the bristles and burn out all the lice such parasites appear when the sow appears and vanish when the sow is slaughtered operators are men like schwein mutton is not attracted to ants but ants are attracted to mutton because it is high and rank so schwein was a vigorous and successful operator and people liked him for it three times he moved from city to city and each time his new home became the capital eventually he moved out into the wilderness and there were a hundred thousand families that went with him to colonize the place finally yao put forward the idea that schwein ought to go out into the desert to see if he could make something out of that though by this time schwenn was an old man and his mind was getting feeble he could not refuse he could not bring himself to retire he had forgotten how to stop his wagon he was an operator and nothing else the man of spirit on the other hand hates to see people gather around him he avoids the crowd for where there are many men there are also many opinions and little agreement there is nothing to be gained from the support of a lot of halfwits who are doomed to end up in a fight with each other the man of spirit is neither very intimate with anyone nor very aloof he keeps himself interiorly aware and he maintains his balance so that he is in conflict with nobody this is your true man he lets the ants be clever he lets the mutton reek with activity for his own part he imitates the fish that swims unconcerned surrounded by a friendly element and minding its own business the true man sees what the eye sees and does not add to it something that is not there he hears what the ears hear and does not detect imaginary undertones or overtones he understands things in their obvious interpretation and is not busy with hidden meanings and mysteries his course is therefore a straight line yet he can change his direction whenever circumstance is suggested dao cox crow dogs bark this all men know even the wisest cannot tell whence these voices come or explain why dogs bark and crow when they do beyond the smallest of the small there is no measure beyond the greatest of the great there is also no measure where there is no measure there is no thing in this void you speak of cause or of chance you speak of things where there is no things to name a name is to delimit a thing when i look beyond the beginning i find no measure when i look beyond the end i find also no measure where there is no measure there is no beginning of anything you speak of cause or chance you speak of the beginning of some thing does thou exist is it then a thing that exists can it non-exist is there then thing that exists that cannot not exist to name tao is to name nothing tau is not the name of an existent cause and chance have no bearing on tao tao is a name that indicates without defining tao is beyond words and beyond things it is not expressed either in word or in silence where there is no longer word or silence tao is apprehended the useless said to change all your teaching is centered on what has no use chuang replied if you have no appreciation for what has no use you cannot begin to talk about what can be used the earth for example is broad and vast but of all this expanse a man uses only a few inches upon which he happens to be standing now suppose you suddenly take away all that he is not actually using so that all around his feet a gulf yawns and he stands in the void with nowhere solid except right under each foot how long will he be able to use what he is using wait so said it would cease to serve any purpose juan su concluded this shows the absolute necessity of what has no use means and ends the gatekeeper in the capital city of sang became such an expert mourner after his father's death and so emaciated himself with fasts and austerities that he was promoted to high rank in order that he might serve as a model of ritual observance as a result of this his imitators so deprived themselves that half of them died the others were not promoted the purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish and when the fish are caught the trap is forgotten the purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits when the rabbits are caught the snare is forgotten the purpose of words is to convey ideas when the ideas are grasped the words are forgotten where can i find a man who has forgotten words he is the one i would like to talk to flight from the shadow there was a man who was so disturbed by the sight of his own shadow and so displeased with his own footsteps that he determined to get rid of both the method he hit upon was to run away from them so he got up and ran but every time he put his foot down there was another step while his shadow kept up with him without the slightest difficulty he attributed his failure to the fact that he was not running fast enough so he ran faster and faster without stopping until he finally dropped dead he failed to realize that if he merely stepped into the shade his shadow would vanish and if he sat down and stayed still there would be no more footsteps funeral when changsu was about to die his disciples began planning a splendid funeral but he said i shall have heaven and earth for my coffin the sun and moon will be the jade symbols hanging by my side planets and constellations will shine as jewels all around me and all beings will be present as mourners at the wake what more is needed everything is amply taken care of but they said we fear that crows and kites will eat our master well said changsu above ground i shall be eaten by crows and kites below it by ants and worms in either case i shall be eaten why are you so partial to birds this is greg chun we hope you have enjoyed this unabridged production of the way of chongxu by thomas merton this program was produced by dion audio services executive producer christopher waite text copyright 1965 by the abbey of gethsemane copyright 1997 by monastic inter-religious dialogue production copyright 2018 by new directions all rights reserved neither this recording or any portion of it may be used for any purpose without prior authorization from new directions thank you for listening

Channel: DandyLion

Views: 50,618

Rating: 4.8472996 out of 5

Keywords: Chuang Tzu, The Way of Chuang Tzu, Zhuangzi, FULL AUDIOBOOK, musings of a Chinese mystic, zen, meditation, Lao Tzu, Tao, Dao, The Dao, Daoism, Taoism, ying yang, Chinese Philosophy, Thomas Merton, Confucius, analects

Id: mpRtmwLcRqA

Length: 171min 11sec (10271 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021