It's a close call for me - THIS could also be my favorite sacred book of the world's religions (The Tao Te Ching is the other contender!) Chuang Tzu is the outrageous, hilarious and brilliant Taoist. whose poetic insights cut to the core of the large issues of the meanings of life and death, achievement and failure, prestige and humility, etiquette and homeliness - and he turns the world's values upside down. This translation is actually a rendering of many translations by the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. Merton did not know Chinese, but loved the spirit of the texts. He read and meditated on the translations over a period of years, and ended up with this - more beautiful and clear than most direct translations.
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.
-Chuang Tzu vi.II, Man is born in Tao
Nieh Chueh, who had no teeth,
Came to Pi and asked for a lesson on Tao.
(Maybe he could bite on that!)
So Pi began:
First, gain control of the body
And all its organs.
Then control the mind.
Attain one-pointedness.
Then the harmony of heaven will
comedown and dwell in you.
You will be radiant with Life.
You will rest in Tao.
You will have the simple look of a
new-born calf.O, lucky you,
You will not even know the
cause of your state.
But long before Pi 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 Pi was satisfied.He wandered away singing:
His body is dry
Like an old leg bone,
His mind is dead
As dead as 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?
[xxii. 3]
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.
Chuang Tzu iii.4. Lao Tzu's Wake
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 tail?He shall be my friend!
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 produce roast 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 is 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.
Where is there a reason to be discouraged?
Chuang Tzu vi.9 Metamorphosis
If you persist in trying to attain what is never attained (It is Tao's gift!)
If you persist in making effort
To obtain what effort 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 Way of Chuang Tzu, Keng's Disciple
When Chuang Tzu 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 Chuang Tzu, 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 partialto birds?
Chuang Tzu xxxii:14 Chuang Tzu's Funeral
There is no greater sin than desire,
No greater curse than discontent,
No greater misfortune than wanting
Something for oneself.
Therefore he who knows that enough
is enough Will always have enough.
"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 say you were hemmed in by contradictions.
Your words confirm 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 self.
Chuang Tzu 46
"Miserable!"said Lao.
"All blocked up!
Tied in knots! Try to get untied!
If your obstructions are on the outside,
Do not attempt to grasp them one by one
And thrust the 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 Way of Chuang Tzu, Keng's Disciple
Khing, the master carver, made a bell standof precious wood.When it was finished, all who saw it were astounded.They said it must be the work of spirits. The Prince of Lu said to the master carver: “What is your secret?”
Khing 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 to 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.”
Chuang Tzu xix.10,The Woodcarver
With all the variedbusiness 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 judgement, decision.Their pronouncements are as final astreaties between emperors.O, they make their point!Yet their arguments fall faster &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 drain pipes.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 mould.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 grow!If there were no that there would be no this.If there were no this there would be nothing for all these winds to play on.So far can we go.But how shall we understand what brings it about?One may suppose the True Governor to be behind it all.That such a Power worksI can believe.I cannot see his form.He acts, but has no form.
Is there to be found on earth a fullness of joy, or is there no such thing?
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. 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. In doing so they are alienated from themselves, and exhaust themselves in their own service as though they were slaves of others.
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 cease 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 is 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
