Today’s Between Master and Disciples – “The Outer Teachings of Chuang Tzu: ‘Letting Be, and Exercising Forbearance’ and ‘Horses’ Hoofs’” – will be presented in Chinese with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech-Slovak, English, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

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 “Letting Be, and Exercising Forbearance” and “Horses’ Hoofs” from The Outer Teachings of Chuang Tzu.

We thank you for your company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Join us again tomorrow for part 2 of the excerpts from “Letting Be, and Exercising Forbearance” and “Horses’ Hoofs”

from The Outer Teachings of Chuang Tzu. 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.

We enjoyed your company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples on Supreme Master Television. Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants is up next right after Noteworthy News. Blessed be your good hearts and noble endeavors!

We thank you for your company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Join us again tomorrow for part 2 of the excerpts from “Letting Be, and Exercising Forbearance” and “Horses’ Hoofs”

from The Outer Teachings of Chuang Tzu. 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.

We enjoyed your company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples on Supreme Master Television. Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants is up next right after Noteworthy News. Blessed be your good hearts and noble endeavors!

: Letting Be, and Exercising Forbearance I have heard of letting the world be, and exercising forbearance; I have not heard of governing the world. Letting be is from the fear that men, when interfered with, will carry their nature beyond its normal condition; exercising forbearance is from the fear that men, when not so dealt with, will alter the characteristics of their nature. When all men do not carry their nature beyond its normal condition, nor alter its characteristics, the good government of the world is secured.

Formerly, Yao's government of the world made men look joyful; but when they have this joy in their nature, there is a want of its proper placidity. The government of the world by Jie, on the contrary, made men look distressed; but when their nature shows the symptoms of distress, there is a want of its proper contentment. The want of placidity and the want of contentment are contrary to the character of the nature; and where this obtains, it is impossible that any man or state should anywhere abide long. Are men exceedingly joyful? The Yang or element of expansion in them is too much developed. Are they exceedingly irritated? The Yin or opposite element is too much developed.

When those elements thus predominate in men, it is as if the four seasons were not to come at their proper times, and the harmony of cold and heat were not to be maintained – would there not result injury to the bodies of men? Men's joy and dissatisfaction are made to arise where they ought not to do so; their movements are all uncertain; they lose the mastery of their thoughts; they stop short midway, and do not finish what they have begun. In this state of things the world begins to have lofty aims, and jealous dislikes, ambitious courses, and fierce animosities, and then we have actions like those of the robber Zhi, or of Zeng (Shen) and Shi (Qiu).

If now the whole world were taken to reward the good it would not suffice, nor would it be possible with it to punish the bad. Thus the world, great as it is, not sufficing for rewards and punishments, from the time of the three dynasties downwards, there has been nothing but bustle and excitement. Always occupied with rewards and punishments, what leisure have men had to rest in the instincts of the nature with which they are endowed?

Moreover, delight in the power of vision leads to excess in the pursuit of ornamental colors; delight in the power of hearing, to excess in seeking the pleasures of sound; delight in benevolence tends to disorder that virtue as proper to the nature; delight in righteousness sets the man in opposition to what is right in reason; delight in the practice of ceremonies is helpful to artful forms; delight in music leads to voluptuous airs; delight in sageness is helpful to ingenious contrivances; delight in knowledge contributes to fault-finding. If all men were to rest in the instincts of their nature, to keep or to extinguish these eight delights might be a matter of indifference; but if they will not rest in those instincts, then those eight delights begin to be imperfectly and unevenly developed or violently suppressed, and the world is thrown into disorder.

But when men begin to honor them, and to long for them, how great is the deception practiced on the world! And not only, when a performance of them is once over, do they not have done with them, but they prepare themselves as with fasting to describe them, they seem to kneel reverentially when they bring them forward, and they go through them with the excitements of music and singing; and then what can be done to remedy the evil of them? Therefore the superior man, who feels himself constrained to engage in the administration of the world will find it his best way to do nothing. In that policy of doing nothing, he can rest in the instincts of the nature with which he is endowed. Hence he who will administer the government of the world honoring it as he honors his own person, may have that government committed to him, and he who will administer it loving it as he loves his own person, may have it entrusted to him.

Therefore, if the superior man will keep the faculties lodged in his five viscera unemployed, and not display his powers of seeing and hearing, while he is motionless as a representative of the dead, his dragon-like presence will be seen; while he is profoundly silent, the thunder of his words will resound; while his movements are unseen like those of a spirit, all heavenly influences will follow them; while he is thus unconcerned and does nothing, his genial influence will attract and gather all things round him: what leisure has he to do anything more for the government of the world?

Cui Ji asked Lao Dan, saying, “If you do not govern the world, how can you make men's minds good?” The reply was, “Take care how you meddle with and disturb men's minds. The mind, if pushed about, gets depressed; if helped forward, it gets exalted. Now exalted, now depressed, here it appears as a prisoner, and there as a wrathful fury. At one time it becomes pliable and soft, yielding to what is hard and strong; at another, it is sharp as the sharpest corner, fit to carve or chisel stone or jade.

Now it is hot as a scorching fire, and anon it is cold as ice. It is so swift that while one is bending down and lifting up his head, it shall twice have put forth a soothing hand beyond the four seas. Resting, it is still as a deep abyss; moving, it is like one of the bodies in the sky; in its resolute haughtiness, it refuses to be bound – such is the mind of man!”

Huang-Di had been on the throne for nineteen years, and his ordinances were in operation all through the kingdom, when he heard that Guang Cheng-zi was living on the summit of Kong-tong, and went to see him. “I have heard,” he said, “that you, Sir, are well acquainted with the perfect Dao. I venture to ask you what is the essential thing in it. I wish to take the subtlest influences of heaven and earth, and assist with them the growth of the five cereals for the better nourishment of the people. I also wish to direct the operation of the Yin and Yang, so as to secure the comfort of all living beings. How shall I proceed to accomplish those objects?”

Guang Cheng-zi replied, “What you wish to ask about is the original substance of all things; what you wish to have the direction of is that substance as it was shattered and divided. According to your government of the world, the vapors of the clouds, before they were collected, would descend in rain; the herbs and trees would shed their leaves before they became yellow; and the light of the sun and moon would hasten to extinction. Your mind is that of a flatterer with his plausible words – it is not fit that I should tell you the perfect Dao.”

Huang-Di withdrew, gave up his government of the kingdom, built himself a solitary apartment, spread in it a mat of the white grass, dwelt in it unoccupied for three months, and then went again to seek an interview with the recluse. Guang Cheng-zi was then lying down with his head to the south. Huang-Di, with an air of deferential submission, went forward on his knees, twice bowed low with his face to the ground, and asked him, saying, “I have heard that you, Sir, are well acquainted with the perfect Dao – I venture to ask how I should rule my body, in order that it may continue for a long time.” Guang Cheng-zi hastily rose, and said, “A good question! Come and I will tell you the perfect Dao. Its essence is surrounded with the deepest obscurity; its highest reach is in darkness and silence.

There is nothing to be seen; nothing to be heard. When it holds the spirit in its arms in stillness, then the bodily form of itself will become correct. You must be still; you must be pure; not subjecting your body to toil, not agitating your vital force – then you may live for long. When your eyes see nothing, your ears hear nothing, and your mind knows nothing, your spirit will keep your body, and the body will live long. Watch over what is within you, shut up the avenues that connect you with what is external – much knowledge is pernicious.

I will proceed with you to the summit of the Grand Brilliance, where we come to the source of the bright and expanding element; I will enter with you the gate of the Deepest Obscurity, where we come to the source of the dark and repressing element. There heaven and earth have their controllers; there the Yin and Yang have their Repositories. Watch over and keep your body, and all things will of themselves give it vigor. I maintain the original unity of these elements, and dwell in the harmony of them. In this way I have cultivated myself for one thousand and two hundred years, and my bodily form has undergone no decay.”

Huang-Di twice bowed low with his head to the ground, and said, “In Guang Cheng-zi we have an example of what is called Heaven.” The other said, “Come, and I will tell you: The perfect Dao is something inexhaustible, and yet men all think it has an end; it is something unfathomable, and yet men all think its extreme limit can be reached. He who attains to my Dao, if he be in a high position, will be one of the August ones, and in a low position, will be a king. He who fails in attaining it, in his highest attainment will see the light, but will descend and be of the Earth. At present all things are produced from the Earth and return to the Earth. Therefore I will leave you, and enter the gate of the Unending, to enjoy myself in the fields of the Illimitable. I will blend my light with that of the sun and moon, and will endure while Heaven and Earth endure. If men agree with my views, I will be unconscious of it; if they keep far apart from them, I will be unconscious of it; they may all die, and I will abide alone!”

Yun Jiang, rambling to the east, having been borne along on a gentle breeze, suddenly encountered Hong Mang, who was rambling about, hopping like a bird. Amazed at the sight, Yun Jiang stood reverentially, and said to the other, “Venerable Sir, who are you? and why are you doing this?” Hong Mang went on hopping like a bird, but replied, “I am enjoying myself.” Yun Jiang said, “I wish to ask you a question.”

Hong Mang lifted up his head, looked at the stranger, and said, “Pooh!” Yun Jiang, however, continued, “The breath of Heaven is out of harmony; the breath of Earth is bound up; the six elemental influences do not act in concord; the four seasons do not observe their proper times. Now I wish to blend together the essential qualities of those six influences in order to nourish all living things – how shall I go about it?” Hong Mang hopped about and shook his head, saying, “I do not know; I do not know!” Yun Jiang could not pursue his question; but three years afterwards, when (again) rambling in the east, as he was passing by the wild of Sung, he happened to meet Hong Mang.

Delighted with the re-encounter, he hastened to him, and said, “Have you forgotten me, O Heaven? Have you forgotten me, O Heaven?” At the same time, he bowed twice with his head to the ground, wishing to receive his instructions. Hong Mang said, “Wandering listlessly about, I know not what I seek; carried on by a wild impulse, I know not where I am going. I wander about in the strange manner which you have seen, and see that nothing proceeds without method and order – what more should I know?”