Today’s Between
Master and Disciples –
“The Inner Teachings of
Chuang Tzu:
Enjoyment
in Untroubled Ease”
will be presented
in Chinese
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The great philosopher
Chuang Tzu lived
from approximately 370
to 301 BCE.
He is considered one of
the greatest literary
and philosophical figures
of China.
His philosophy is
contained in the book
bearing his name,
Chuang Tzu.
His teachings were
true to wu-wei,
the Taoist doctrine
which means
to refrain from action
contrary to Nature.
He espoused a way of life
which is simple
and natural, yet fulfilling.
He advocated
for a flexible
and pragmatic approach
to understanding concepts.
Today, we present to you
excerpts from
“Enjoyment
in Untroubled Ease”
from The Inner Teachings
of Chuang Tzu.
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May Providence
guide you in light,
wisdom and peace.
We thank you
for your company
for today’s episode of
Between Master
and Disciples.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television for
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home,
up next right after
Noteworthy News.
May Providence
guide you in light,
wisdom and peace.
Enjoyment
in Untroubled Ease
In the Northern Ocean
there is a fish,
the name of which is Kun –
I do not know how many
li in size.
It changes into a bird
with the name of Peng,
the back of which is also -
I do not know
how many li in extent.
When this bird
rouses itself and flies,
its wings are like clouds
all round the sky.
When the sea is moved
(so as to bear it along),
it prepares to remove
to the Southern Ocean.
The Southern Ocean is
the Pool of Heaven.
There is the book
called Qi Xie,
a record of marvels.
We have in it these words:
“When the peng
is removing
to the Southern Ocean
it flaps its wings
on the water for 3000 li.
Then it ascends
on a whirlwind 90,000 li,
and it rests only
at the end of six months.”
But similar to this
is the movement of
the breezes which we call
the horses of the fields,
of the dust which quivers
in the sunbeams,
and of living things
as they are blown against
one another by the air.
Is its azure the
proper color of the sky?
Or is it occasioned
by its distance
and illimitable extent?
If one were looking down
from above,
the very same appearance
would just meet his view.
And moreover, to speak
of the accumulation
of water; if it be not great,
it will not have strength
to support a large boat.
Upset a cup of water
in a cavity, and
a straw will float on it
as if it were a boat.
Place a cup in it
and it will stick fast;
the water is shallow
and the boat is large.
So it is with
the accumulation of wind;
if it be not great,
it will not have strength
to support great wings.
Therefore,
the peng ascended
to the height of 90,000 li,
and there was such a mass
of wind beneath it;
thenceforth
the accumulation of wind
was sufficient.
As it seemed to bear
the blue sky on its back,
and there was nothing to
obstruct or arrest its course,
it could pursue its way
to the South.
A cicada and a little dove
laughed at it, saying,
“We make an effort
and fly towards an elm
or sapanwood tree;
and sometimes
before we reach it,
we can do no more
but drop to the ground.
Of what use is it
for this creature
to rise 90,000 li,
and make for the South?”
He who goes to
the grassy suburbs,
returning to the third meal
of the day,
will have his belly
as full as when he set out;
he who goes to a distance
of 100 li will have to
pound his grain where
he stops for the night;
he who goes 1,000 li,
will have to carry
with him provisions
for three months.
What should
these two small creatures
know about the matter?
The knowledge of that
which is small
does not reach
to that which is great;
the experience
of a few years does not
reach to that of many.
How do we know
that it is so?
The mushroom
of a morning
does not know
what takes place
between the beginning
and end of a month;
the short-lived cicada
does not know
what takes place between
the spring and autumn.
These are instances
of a short term of life.
In the south of Chu
there is the tree
called Ming-ling,
whose spring is 500 years,
and its autumn the same;
in high antiquity there was
that called Da-chun,
whose spring
was 8,000 years,
and its autumn the same.
And Peng Zu
is the one man renowned
to the present day
for his length of life:
if all men were to wish
to match him, would they
not be miserable?
In the questions
put by Tang to Ji we have
similar statements:
“In the bare
and barren north
there is the dark
and vast ocean –
the Pool of Heaven.
In it there is a fish,
several thousand li
in breadth, while
no one knows its length.
Its name is the kun.
There is also a bird
named the peng; its back
is like the Tai mountain,
while its wings are like
clouds all round the sky.
On a whirlwind
it mounts upwards
as on the whorls
of a goat’s horn
for 90,000 li,
till, far removed
from the cloudy vapors,
it bears on its back
the blue sky, and then
it shapes its course
for the South, and proceeds
to the ocean there.”
A quail
by the side of a marsh
laughed at it, and said,
“Where is it going to?
I spring up with a bound,
and come down again
when I have reached
but a few fathoms,
and then fly about
among the brushwood
and bushes; and this is
the perfection of flying.
Where is
that creature going to?”
This shows the difference
between the small
and the great.
Thus it is that men,
whose wisdom is
sufficient for the duties
of some one office,
or whose conduct
will secure harmony
in some one district,
or whose virtue
is befitting a ruler so that
they could efficiently
govern some one state,
are sure
to look on themselves
in this manner
like the quail,
and yet Rongzi of Song
would have smiled
and laughed at them.
This Rongzi,
though the whole world
should have praised him,
would not for that
have stimulated himself
to greater endeavor, and
though the whole world
should have
condemned him,
would not have exercised
any more repression
of his course;
so fixed was he
in the difference between
the internal judgment
of himself and
the external judgment
of others, so distinctly
had he marked out
the bounding limit
of glory and disgrace.
Here, however, he stopped.
His place in the world
indeed had become
indifferent to him,
but still he had not
planted himself firmly
in the right position.
There was Liezi, who
rode on the wind and
pursued his way, with
an admirable indifference
to all external things,
returning, however, after
fifteen days, to his place.
In regard to the things
that are supposed to
contribute to happiness,
he was free
from all endeavors
to obtain them; but though
he had not to walk,
there was still something
for which he had to wait.
But suppose one
who mounts on the ether
of Heaven and Earth
in its normal operation,
and drives along
the six elemental energies
of the changing seasons,
thus enjoying himself
in the illimitable –
what has he to wait for?
Therefore it is said,
“The Perfect man
has no thought of self;
the Spirit-like man,
none of merit;
the Sagely-minded man,
none of fame.”
Yao, proposing to resign
the throne to Xu You, said,
“When the sun and moon
have come forth,
if the torches
have not been put out,
would it not be difficult
for them to give light?
When the seasonal rains
are coming down,
if we still keep
watering the ground,
will not our toil
be labor lost for
all the good it will do?
Do you, Master,
stand forth as sovereign,
and the kingdom will
at once be well governed.
If I still continue
to preside over it,
I must look on myself as
vainly occupying the place -
I beg to resign
the throne to you.”
Xu You said, “You, Sir,
govern the kingdom,
and the kingdom
is well governed.
If I in these circumstances
take your place,
shall I not be doing so
for the sake of the name?
But the name is but
the guest of the reality;
shall I be playing
the part of the guest?
The tailor-bird makes
its nest in the deep forest,
but only uses
a single branch; the mole
drinks from the river,
but only takes
what fills its belly.
Return and rest
in being ruler –
I will have nothing to do
with the throne.
Though the cook was not
attending to his kitchen,
the representative
of the dead and
the officer of prayer would
not leave their cups and
stands to take his place.”
Jian Wu asked Lian Shu,
saying, “I heard Jie Yu
talking words
which were great,
but had nothing
corresponding to them
in reality; once gone,
they could not
be brought back.
I was frightened by them;
they were like
the Milky Way
which cannot be traced
to its beginning or end.
They had no connection
with one another,
and were not akin to
the experiences of men.”
“What were his words?”
asked Lian Shu,
and the other replied,
that “Far away
on the hill of Gu Ye
there dwelt a Spirit-like
man whose flesh and skin
were smooth as ice
and white as snow;
that his manner
was elegant and delicate
as that of a virgin;
that he did not eat
any of the five grains,
but inhaled the wind
and drank the dew; that
he mounted on the clouds,
drove along
the flying dragons,
rambling and
enjoying himself
beyond the four seas;
that by the concentration
of his spirit-like powers
he could save men from
disease and pestilence,
and secure every year
a plentiful harvest.”
These words appeared to me
wild and incoherent and
I did not believe them.
“So it is,” said Lian Shu.
“The blind have no
perception of the beauty
of elegant figures,
nor the deaf of the sound
of bells and drums.
But is it only
the bodily senses of which
deafness and blindness
can be predicated?
There is also a similar
defect in the intelligence;
and of this your words
supply an illustration
in yourself.
That man,
with those attributes,
though all things were
one mass of confusion,
and he heard
in that condition
the whole world crying out
to him to be rectified,
would not have to
address himself
laboriously to the task,
as if it were his business
to rectify the world.
Nothing could hurt that
man; the greatest floods,
reaching to the sky,
could not drown him, nor
would he feel the fervor
of the greatest heats
melting metals and stones
till they flowed,
and scorching
all the ground and hills.
From the dust and chaff
of himself, he could still
mould and fashion
Yaos and Shuns –
how should he
be willing to occupy
himself with things?”
A man of Song, who dealt
in the ceremonial caps
of Yin,
went with them to Yue,
the people of which
cut off their hair
and tattooed their bodies,
so that they had no use
for them.
Yao ruled the people
of the kingdom,
and maintained
a perfect government
within the four seas.
Having gone to see
the four Perfect Ones on
the distant hill of Gu Ye,
when he returned
to his capital on the south
of the Fen water,
his throne appeared
no more to his
deep-sunk oblivious eyes.
Huizi said to Zhuangzi,
“I have a large tree, which
men call the Ailantus.
Its trunk swells out
to a large size, but
is not fit for a carpenter
to apply his line to it;
its smaller branches
are knotted and crooked,
so that the disk and square
cannot be used on them.
Though planted
on the wayside,
a builder would not
turn his head to look at it.
Now your words, Sir,
are great, but of no use –
all unite in putting them
away from them.”
Zhuangzi replied,
“You, Sir,
have a large tree
and are troubled
because it is of no use –
why do you not plant it
in a tract where
there is nothing else, or
in a wide and barren wild?
There you might
saunter idly by its side,
or in the enjoyment
of untroubled ease sleep
beneath it.
Neither bill nor axe
would shorten its existence;
there would be nothing
to injure it.
What is there
in its uselessness
to cause you distress?”