NOTES
FOREWORD
page xi two Chinese anthologies: This pairing might have seemed illegitimate to scholars of a generation ago. But since excellence is horizontal, not vertical, it feels more appropriate to group the best of these texts according to insight, not according to tradition. Besides, at the time they were compiled there was no rigid dichotomy between Taoist and Confucian. “Any simplistic division of the spectrum of ancient Chinese philosophy into narrowly defined competing ‘schools of thought’ loses sight of the deep fount of issues, assumptions and common lore shared—and freely exchanged—by pre-Ch’in thinkers of virtually every ideological stripe” (Andrew Plaks, Ta Hsüeh and Chung Yung, p. 80).
page xi the Chuang-tzu: The basis for all extant editions is the recension by Kuo Hsiang (c. 300 Ce), who abridged an earlier anthology from fifty-two to thirty-three sections and arranged them in the order we have today.
page xi parts of which were written by the eponymous sage: The traditional view is that the first seven sections (known as the “inner chapters”) were written by him, and the rest of the book by his students and followers. But in fact it’s impossible to know which passages were written by Chuang-tzu himself. I would bet that the brilliant section 2 originated with him and that most of the stories about him didn’t. In the end, all we can say is that the inner chapters contain passages of clarity, wit, and great spiritual depth, and others that are silly and dull. In the outer chapters the proportion of dullness increases, but even there, especially in sections 17-19, we find passages that equal the best of the first seven sections.
page xi Master Chuang: Tzu means “Master.” The only details we have about his life come from Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s Historical Records (c. 104 BCe), which states that he came from Meng (probably in present-day Honan), that his surname was Chuang and his given name Chou, and that he once served as an official in the “lacquer garden” in Meng.
page xi Chung Yung: This could also be translated as “The Doctrine of Moderation” or “The Balance Between Polarities.” Pound’s title is “The Unwobbling Pivot.”
page xi Tzu-ssu: His personal name was K’ung Chi. Almost nothing is known about him. All we’re told is that he was Confucius’ grandson and Mencius’ teacher and that he lived in the ancient country of Lu (present Shantung province).
page xiii a Zen poet-descendant: Zen Master Hsueh-tou (980-1052), compiler of the famous koan collection The Blue Cliff Record.
ABOUT THE ADAPTATION
page xv Octavio Paz: Chuang-Tzu, p. 14.
page xvi a particular elegance to it: Even the innumerate, like me, may get a kick out of knowing that 81 is a perfect totient number, a heptagonal number, a centered octagonal number, a tribonacci number, an open meandric number, the ninth member of the Mian-Chowla sequence, and, in base 10, a Harshad number and one of three numbers that, when its digits are added together, produces a sum that, when multiplied by its reversed self, yields the original number (information according to
wikipedia.org).
page xvi so does 64: 64 is the smallest number with exactly seven divisors, the lowest positive power of 2 that is adjacent to neither a Mersenne prime nor a Fermat prime, the sum of Euler’s totient function for the first fourteen integers, a dodecagonal number and a centered triangular number, and a self number—i.e., an integer that in a given base (in this case, base 10) cannot be generated by any other integer added to the sum of its digits (
wikipedia.org).
page xvi the only two-digit number ever to star: Other two-digit numbers have, at best, supporting roles: 10 in “All Together Now” and in “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!,” 15 in “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window,” 17 in “I Saw Her Standing There,” and 50 and 31 in “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” (The only other number that stars in a major song happens to be the square root of 64.)
CHAPTER 1 (Chung Yung, 1)
page 2 The Tao is the way things are: Minus our thoughts about the way things are.
page 2 which you can’t depart from / even for one instant: A most profound statement.—“You mean it’s impossible to do it wrong?” —That’s what he’s saying.
page 2 looks into her own heart: What you don’t see inside, you can’t see outside. If there is chaos in your mind, the world seems chaotic; if your mind is clear, the world, with all its apparent horror, can’t help but appear as beautiful. When you can rest in the space before thought, you understand the Tao without substance, the reality that is above, beneath, before, after, and always now.
CHAPTER 2 (Chung Yung, 1)
page 4 Before sorrow, anger: It’s equally true to say that after sorrow, anger, yearning, or fear have arisen, you are in the center; you’ve just lost the awareness of it.
page 4 heaven and earth take their proper places: In the I Ching, heaven over earth (12) is the hexagram for stagnation, whereas earth over heaven (11) is the hexagram for peace.
COMMENTARY
page 5 There’s no one else you can save:
Any bodhisattva who undertakes the practice of meditation should cherish one thought only: “When I attain perfect wisdom, I will liberate all sentient beings in every realm of the universe, and allow them to pass into the eternal peace of Nirvana.” And yet, when vast, uncountable, unthinkable myriads of beings have been liberated, truly no being has been liberated. Why? Because no bodhisattva who is a true bodhisattva entertains such concepts as “self” or “others.” Thus there are no sentient beings to be liberated and no self to attain perfect wisdom.
—The Diamond Sutra (4th century Ce)
CHAPTER 3 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 6 It is the inexhaustible treasury:
When Hui-hai first came to Ma-tzu, the Zen Master asked him, “What have you come here for?”
Hui-hai said, “I have come seeking the Buddha’s teaching.”
“What a fool you are!” Ma-tzu said. “You have the greatest treasure in the world inside you, and yet you go around asking other people for help. What good is this? I have nothing to give you.”
Hui-hai bowed and said, “Please, tell me what this treasure is.”
Ma-tzu said, “Where is your question coming from? This is your treasure. It is precisely what is asking the question at this very moment. Everything is stored in this precious treasure-house of yours. It is here at your disposal; you can use it as you wish; nothing is lacking. You are the master of everything. Why then are you running away from yourself and seeking for things outside?”
Upon hearing these words, Hui-hai realized his own mind.
COMMENTARY
page 7 Every ism is a wasm: Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989).
page 7 don’t-know mind: The wonderful phrase of Zen Master Seung Sahn (1927-2004).
CHAPTER 4 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 8 When we exhaust our minds: It’s exhausting to be right all the time.
page 8 A monkey trainer: He’s not only a master of communication, he’s a master of strategy.
page 8 The monkeys were outraged: These monkeys are intelligent enough to understand Chinese, but not enough to understand their own minds. There is always something to be outraged about, from the trivial to the cosmic, from the selfish to the compassionate. The rage is always extra.
page 8 All right, then: A masterstroke.
page 8 The monkeys were delighted: But a good lawyer might have gotten them five in the morning and two in the afternoon.
page 8 Nothing essential had changed: It never does.
page 8 knew how to adapt to reality: The opposite of manipulation. He’s so flexible that he can instantly adjust his position.
page 8 harmonize with both sides: He sees both sides as counterpoint.
page 8 walking on two paths at once: By putting one foot in front of the other.
CHAPTER 5 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 10 The ancient Masters saw deeply: They saw as deeply as they needed to, because they looked past their own thinking.
page 10 This is perfect understanding:
If you don’t live the Tao,
you fall into assertion or denial.
Asserting that the world is real,
you are blind to its deeper reality;
denying that the world is real,
you are blind to the selflessness of all things.
The more you think about these matters,
the farther you are from the truth.
Step aside from all thinking,
and there is nowhere you can’t go.
—Seng-ts’an (? -606), “The Mind of
Absolute Trust” (trans. Stephen Mitchell)
page 10 saw no boundaries between them: Still, I am impressed.
page 10 saw boundaries / but didn’t judge things as good or bad: I don’t have a problem with that.
page 10 understanding was damaged: Not because judgments arose, but because people believed them.
page 10 preferences became ingrained: “The Great Way isn’t difficult,” Seng-ts’an wrote, “for those who are unattached to their preferences.” One scoop of vanilla, please.
COMMENTARY
page 11 The opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth: Niels Bohr (1885-1962).
page 11 “All Cretans are liars,” said the Cretan: The Epimenides paradox, named after the Cretan philosopher Epimenides of Knossos (c. 600 BCe).
page 11 All the world’s a stage: As You Like It,
II.vii.
page 11 there’s nothing left but gratitude and laughter: This is a quotation from my wife, Byron Katie. Other quotations and echoes include: “there is no beginning of time, only a beginning of thought” (10), “there are no mistakes in the universe” (20), “She’s in love with what is, whatever form it may take” (22), “When you argue with reality, you lose” (23), “When the Tao moves, you move” (27), “What happened is always the best thing that could have happened, because it’s the thing that did happen” (30), “every painful feeling is caused by a prior thought” (31), “He knows that he doesn’t know what’s best for the world, or even for himself” (39), “If you don’t suffer, he thinks, it means that you don’t care” (61).
CHAPTER 6 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 12 Everything can be seen as a this : And thus separate from everything else.
page 12 You can’t have right without wrong: The mind that creates right simultaneously creates wrong.
page 12 nothing is absolute: Realizing this is the beginning of humility.
CHAPTER 7 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 14 Nothing in the world is bigger:
There is no here, no there;
infinity is right before your eyes.
The tiny is as large as the vast
when objective boundaries have vanished;
the vast is as small as the tiny
when you don’t have external limits.
—Seng-ts’an
page 14 the tip of an autumn hair: “The strands of animal fur were believed to grow particularly fine in autumn” (Watson’s note).
page 14 Mount Everest: Literally, “Mount T’ai,” in Shantung province, the first of the five sacred mountains of China; its tallest peak is Jade Emperor Peak (5,069 feet).
page 14 is tiny: “If we consider their forms,” wrote Kuo Hsiang (252?-312), the ancient editor of the Chuang-tzu, “Mount T’ai is obviously larger than an autumn hair. But if all things simply are what they are, and fully accept their limitations, then even the largest is not too large, and the smallest is not too small. Being satisfied with how it is, the autumn hair does not see its own smallness as smallness, nor does Mount T’ai see its own largeness as largeness. If being large enough is called large, nothing in the world is larger than the autumn hair. If not being large enough is called small, even Mount T’ai could be small. In truth, there is no absolute largeness, no smallness, no long life, no premature death.”
page 14 Methuselah: Literally, “P’eng-tsu,” the great-grandson of Emperor Chuan Hsu; according to legend, he had ninety wives and was eight hundred years old when he departed for the West.
page 14 The universe came into being / the moment that I was born: Finally, an honest man.
The truth is that everything comes from the I. If there’s no thought, there’s no world. Without the I to project itself, there is neither origin nor end. And the I just appears: it doesn’t come out of anything and it doesn’t return to anything. Actually, even “nothing” is born out of the I, because even it is a concept.
—Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy
page 14 what happens / when we move from being to being? Infinity is what appears when zero looks in the mirror.
page 14 It’s better just to leave things alone: Well, I certainly hope you’ve learned your lesson.
CHAPTER 8 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 16 in the middle of a dream:
The sage (jñ̄n̄) dreams, but he knows it to be a dream, in the same way as he knows the waking state to be a dream. Established in the state of supreme reality, he detachedly witnesses the three other states—waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep—as pictures superimposed onto it. For the sage, all three states are equally unreal. Most people are unable to comprehend this, because for them the standard of reality is the waking state, whereas for the sage the standard is reality itself.
—Ramana Maharshi
COMMENTARY
page 17 they know even as they are known: 1 Corinthians 13:12.
page 17 We are close to waking up when we dream that we are dreaming: Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg, 1772-1801), Blütenstaub, 17.
CHAPTER 9 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 18 Then he woke up: He apparently woke up. This begs the question, of course.
page 18 there he was again: Only if he believed the memory of a past. Actually, there he was for the first time.
page 18 was he Chuang-tzu . . . : Was he a present believing a past, or a past believing a present? This is getting rather complicated.
page 18 There must be some difference: Oh, really?
page 18 This is called “the transformation of things”: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
COMMENTARY
page 19 Feynman diagram: In 1949 Richard Feynman showed that an antiparticle (such as a positron) going forward in time may be viewed as a particle (such as an electron) going backward in time. This symmetry is built into the visual aids called Feynman diagrams that are used by physicists to calculate the rates of various reactions between elementary particles.
CHAPTER 10 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 20 There was a beginning of time: Okay, if you say so.
page 20 There was a time before the beginning / of time: Here we go.
page 20 There was a time / before the time before / the beginning of time: Stop, stop, I’m getting dizzy!
page 20 There is being: What about the ancient Masters, with their perfect understanding that nothing exists? Have we slid down to the next stage so quickly?
page 20 If there is being, there must be / non-being: In for a penny, in for a pound.
page 20 If there is non-being, /there must have been a time when even /non-being didn’t exist: That’s what you get for fooling around with opposites.
page 20 Suddenly there was non-being: Whoa!
page 20 But can non-being really exist, / and can being not-exist?: Yes. Next question.
page 20 I just said something: Who said you just said something? Must you always live in the past?
CHAPTER 11 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 22 doesn’t avoid failure: What other people might call failure. But because failure is just a judgment superimposed onto reality, he has no reason to avoid any experience. When you don’t aim for “success,” how can you fail?
page 22 doesn’t act with a motive: As if there were rules for the genuine.
page 22 and remains pure / amid the world’s dust and grime: What dust and grime? Since her own mind is pure—that is, free of its own thoughts—she can only project purity onto the world.
page 22 She lets the confused stay confused: Everything in its own time.
page 22 and is always available / to those with a passion for the truth: They ask, she answers. They answer, she asks.
page 22 she is content with not-knowing: More than content: She is delighted.
COMMENTARY
page 23 When I attained unexcelled perfect enlightenment: The Diamond Sutra. (The Buddha of this scripture is a character invented by the Mahayana imagination.)
CHAPTER 12 (Chung Yung, 26)
page 24 transcends all things: It isn’t a thing.
page 24 at the heart of all things: It isn’t separate.
page 24 creates without doing: This is the miracle. The least bit of doing, and it’s gone.
page 24 fulfills without an intention: An intention would be a limit.
COMMENTARY
page 25 Who doesn’t think that light is beautiful: “Yes, light. But what does it shine on? It is beautiful even when it shines on nothing. And when it shines on evil? Even then it is beautiful; even when it shines on what is hideous.”—Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)
page 25 Whatever the self describes, describes the self: Jakob Boehme (1575-1624).
CHAPTER 13 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 26 Things are the way they are / because we think they’re that way: Nothing can exist, as it is perceived, without the perceiving mind. There’s no objective “out-there”; each of us creates the world in his own image.
page 26 all things are good and acceptable:
If the mind is happy, not only the body but the whole world will be happy. So you must find out how to become happy yourself. Wanting to reform the world without discovering your true self is like trying to cover the whole world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.
—Ramana Maharshi
page 26 the person of true vision: The person who sees, beyond thought, that everything is perfect just the way it is. “Perfection,” Spinoza said, “is another name for reality” (Ethics, IV, preface). He also said, “Anyone who is free can form no concept of good and evil” (Ethics, IV, Prop. LXVIII).
COMMENTARY
page 27 “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”: Hamlet II.ii. If Hamlet had understood his own words, he would have lived happily ever after. (This would have been a major problem for Shakespeare.)
page 27 a hundred ways: Lao-tzu, for example:
When people see some things as good, other things become bad.
—Tao Te Ching, 2
page 27 on the evening of the sixth day: “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). This state of mind is known as Sabbath.
CHAPTER 14 (Chuang-tzu, 3)
page 28 Prince Wen-hui: Possibly King Hui of Wei (370-319 BCE). The historical character was a grandson of Marquis Wen of Wei, the founder of the state, and helped the economic growth of his country by moving the capital from Anyi to Daliang.
page 28 the dance of the Mulberry Grove: A rain dance said to date from the time of T’ang, who founded the Shang dynasty in 1766 BCe.
page 28 the chords of the Lynx Head music: A composition said to date from the time of Yao (2358-2258 BCE), another legendary king.
page 28 “Well done!” said the prince: Is this the first time he has seen his cook at work? Or is he paying attention for the first time?
page 28 Putting down his knife, Ting said: Ting not only knows how to do not-doing, he knows how to speak about doing not-doing.
page 28 I follow the Tao: There’s no distance between the follower and the followed.
page 28 [all I could see was] the ox: A large hunk of dead matter.
page 28 I had learned to look beyond the ox: It was no longer an ox; it was the whole universe.
page 28 Nowadays I see with my whole being: His eyes have become telescopes, microscopes.
page 28 I slow down: It slows down; it focuses my attention.
page 28 and let the joy of the work fill me: How generous of him!
page 28 Then I wipe the blade clean and put it away: The joy is just the next-to-last step.
page 28 “Bravo!” cried the prince: He can’t help crying out in admiration, dazzled as if before a great work of art, like Rilke contemplating the archaic torso of Apollo: “here there is no place / that does not see you. You must change your life.”
COMMENTARY
page 29 the Buddha proscribed trafficking in meat: Anguttara Nikaya 5:177.
page 29 How can we know the dancer from the dance?: Yeats, “Among School Children.”
page 29 chiliocosms: In Buddhist cosmology, the world system that we can perceive is a small world; a thousand small worlds form a small chiliocosm, a thousand small chiliocosms form a medium chiliocosm, and a thousand medium chiliocosms form a great chiliocosm, which thus consists of a billion small worlds like ours. There is an infinite number of great chiliocosms in the universe.
page 29 When the student is ready, the teacher appears: This has been called “old adage,” “old Indian saying,” “Buddhist proverb,” “Chinese proverb,” “old Zen saying,” etc., but no one has identified the source.
CHAPTER 15 (Chuang-tzu, 6)
page 30 The ancient Masters / slept without dreaming: They didn’t bother to dream. This made things simpler for their students. No banquets. No butterflies.
page 30 woke up without concerns: Just like the lilies of the field.
page 30 didn’t hold on to life: They could take it or leave it. They treasured life to the utmost, but they weren’t attached to it.
page 30 emerging without desire, / going back without resistance: Nothing ventured. Nothing gained.
CHAPTER 16 (Chuang-tzu, 4)
page 32 but can you fly without wings?: Not until you’ve overcome the gravity of habitual thinking.
page 32 the knowledge that doesn’t know:
All bodhisattvas should develop a pure, lucid mind that doesn’t depend upon sight, sound, touch, flavor, smell, or any thought that arises in it. A bodhisattva should develop a mind that alights nowhere.
—The Diamond Sutra
page 32 free of its own thoughts: This doesn’t mean that stressful thoughts don’t appear. It’s just that you no longer believe them. Thus they have no power.
CHAPTER 17 (Chuang-tzu, 5)
page 34 they vanish into each other: They define each other, support each other, depend on each other, follow each other, become each other.
page 34 He lets things go through their changes: They go through their changes whether or not he lets them. When Margaret Fuller announced to Thomas Carlyle, “I have accepted the universe,” Carlyle said, “Egad, Madam, you’d better!”
COMMENTARY
page 35 curious what will come next:
Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,
Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle,
unitary,
Looks down, is erect, bends an arm on an impalpable
certain rest,
Looks with its sidecurved head curious what will come
next,
Both in and out of the game, and watching and
wondering at it.
—Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”
CHAPTER 18 (Chuang-tzu, 6)
page 36 the original brightness:
In its true state, mind is naked, immaculate, transparent, empty, timeless, uncreated, unimpeded; not realizable as a separate thing, but as the unity of all things, yet not composed of them; undifferentiated, self-radiant, indivisible, and without qualities. Your own mind is not separate from other minds; it shines forth, unobscured, for all living beings....Without beginning or ending, your original wisdom has been shining forever, like the sun. To know whether or not this is true, look inside your own mind.
—The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation (8th century Ce)
page 36 you are alone / in the vast universe: That is, you are completely at home in the vast universe.
page 36 the place / where there is neither being nor non-being:
A monk asked Zen Master Tung-shan, “When heat and cold come, how can we escape from them?”
Tung-shan said, “Why don’t you go to the place where there is neither heat nor cold?”
The monk said, “What place is that?”
Tung-shan said, “When it is hot, you die of heat. When it is cold, you die of cold.”
page 36 There is nothing that can disturb her: Epictetus (c. 55-c. 135) wrote, “We are disturbed not by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens.” Nothing on the apparent outside can disturb us. When thoughts are comfortable, mind has to be comfortable, because mind is thoughts; it doesn’t exist without them. (When it doesn’t exist, it’s even more comfortable.)
CHAPTER 19 (Chuang-tzu, 1)
page 38 Hui-tzu (Master Hui, a.k.a. Hui Shih; c. 380-305 BCE). The foremost logician of the time. He also appears in chapters 31, 38, and 61 here.
page 38 no carpenter bothers to look at it: It would be a total failure as a tree if trees grew to suit carpenters.
page 38 That’s why everyone ignores it: As well they should. It’s a way of life. If they think it’s a teaching, they’re in big trouble.
page 38 Have you ever seen a wildcat stalking its prey? Huh? How did we get on to wildcats?
page 38 gets caught in a trap and dies: Wait a minute! Are you saying that the wildcat gets caught because it has a purpose? Does it necessarily get caught? Does every wildcat end up in a trap, bleeding to death? Are there no wildcats who die old and full of days, surrounded by their cubs and grandcubs?
page 38 Or what about a yak: Ah, now we’re in Tibet. I’m cutting you some slack here, Chuang, trying to zig where you zig. But you’re zagging.
page 38 It’s as huge as a thundercloud, but it can’t catch mice: No, that would be a wildcat. At least the yak doesn’t get caught in a trap and die.
page 38 why don’t you plant it in the village of Nothingness: Yes, I can do that. And before the tree has grown tall, I can stretch out in the shade of a yak.
CHAPTER 20 (Chuang-tzu, 6)
page 40 didn’t worry about the future / and didn’t regret the past: They knew the difference between what is and what isn’t.
page 40 They scaled the heights, never dizzy: They never looked down.
page 40 plumbed the depths, unafraid: They realized that the deeper they went, the less fear there could be.
CHAPTER 21 (Chuang-tzu, 5)
page 42 The Master treads lightly on the earth: Because he takes himself lightly. He no longer believes any thoughts about what should be, so he is perfectly comfortable with what is. And because he realizes that what is is already gone, there’s nothing to hold him in place. Realization: the antigravity machine.
page 42 Life is not serious for him:
The face of the wise man is not somber or austere, contracted by anxiety and sorrow, but precisely the opposite: radiant and serene, and filled with a vast delight, which makes him the most playful of men.... If someone has experienced the wisdom that can only be heard from oneself, learned from oneself, and created from oneself, he does not merely participate in laughter: he becomes laughter itself.
—Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE-C. 50 CE)
page 42 it would not disturb him:
He who correctly realizes that all things follow from the necessity of the divine nature, and come to pass in accordance with the eternal laws and rules of nature, will not find anything worthy of hatred, derision, or contempt, nor will he bestow pity on anything, but to the utmost extent of human virtue he will try to do well and to rejoice.
—Baruch de Spinoza, Ethics, IV, Prop. L, Note
CHAPTER 22 (Chuang-tzu, 6)
page 44 an opportunity for rejoicing:
When a man feels that he exists in the world as in a great, worthy, and beautiful whole, when this harmonious ease affords him a pure delight, then the universe, if it could experience itself, would shout for joy at having attained its goal, and admire the pinnacle of its own essence.... For what end is served by all the expenditure of suns and planets and moons, of stars and milky ways, of comets and nebula, of worlds evolving and passing away, if at last a happy man does not involuntarily rejoice in his own existence?
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
page 44 No experience can happen / that she would exclude or reject: “To men, some things are good and some are bad. But to God, all things are good and beautiful and just.”—Heraclitus (c. 535- c. 475 BCE) (Diels-Kranz 102).
COMMENTARY
page 45 All things flow; the sun is new every day; it is in change that we [lit., things ] find rest: Heraclitus (Plato, Cratylus 402a; Diels-Kranz, 6, 84A).
page 45 The way in and the way out are one and the same: “The way up and the way down are one and the same.”—Heraclitus (Diels-Kranz 60).
CHAPTER 23 (Chuang-tzu, 6)
page 46 Master Ssu, Master Yu, Master Li, and Master Lai were talking: It was a short conversation. They got right to the point.
page 46 looked at one another and smiled: What a delight when someone else knows that ultimately nothing matters. I don’t matter? Brilliant! Now we can really meet.
page 46 the Creator: That’s one way of putting it. Let’s project a personal god, an intention, to see if even a trace of resentment can be found.
page 46 Why should I be?: The only way he could be discouraged is if he believed a thought like “This shouldn’t be happening.”
page 46 everything happens at exactly the right time: To suppose anything else is insane.
COMMENTARY
page 47 the men whom Yeats saw: W. B. Yeats, “Lapis Lazuli.”
CHAPTER 24 (Chung Yung, 13)
page 48 there is nowhere you need to search: “This thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.”—Abu Yazid al-Bistami (?-C. 874).
page 48 If it is not inside you, / it is not the Tao: How simple can this get?
page 48 The Book of Songs: Each one could be subtitled “Song of Myself.”
page 48 Don’t do to others / what you wouldn’t want done to you: The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.
COMMENTARY
page 49 Can your eyes see themselves?: An old Hindu and Buddhist saying.
CHAPTER 25 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 50 When speaking to people: Zen Master Lin-chi (? -866) said, “I have no teaching to give people. All I do is untie knots.”
page 50 point to non-being / through being: Being arises from non-being as matter arises from the vast universe of dark matter. Or is that just one more story?
page 50 describe the whole: “The whole” is a name for a separate part.
page 50 they’ll see / that a finger isn’t a finger: Ceci n’est pas une pipe.
page 50 Heaven and earth are one finger: Which points back to you.
COMMENTARY
page 51 Not this, not that: “The description of Brahman [the Godhead, or Absolute Reality] is: ‘Not this, not that.’ There is no more appropriate description.”—Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (8th-7th century BCE)
page 51 An ancient Chinese logician: Kung-sun Lung (c. 320-250 BCE), whose most famous work is Treatise on the White Horse. In it, he observes that “we don’t use the term ‘horse’ to identify horses on the basis of color—that is why it is possible to include black or yellow horses in the term ‘horse’; but we use the expression ‘white horse’ to identify horses on the basis of color—that is why it is not possible to include black or yellow horses in the term ‘white horse.’ Since ‘white horse’ distinguishes what ‘horse’ does not, a ‘white horse’ is not a ‘horse.’”
CHAPTER 26 (Chuang-tzu, 7)
page 52 he never does a thing: He doesn’t have to.
page 52 His example penetrates the whole world: Whether or not the world knows it.
page 52 People don’t see him as a leader:
When his work is done, the people say, “Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves! ”
—Tao Te Ching, 17
p. 52 He stands upon what is fathomless: As we all do.
COMMENTARY
page 53 a Zen Master: Yün-men (?-949).
CHAPTER 27 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 54 All I have to do is follow: That’s all anyone ever does, all anyone can do. It’s just that Shadow is aware of it.
page 54 I might as well trust it: Trust is the default condition. You can’t distrust it unless you’re believing an untrue thought about it.
CHAPTER 28 (Chuang-tzu, 7)
page 56 The Master’s mind is like a mirror:
QUESTION: What does mind resemble?
ANSWER: Mind has no color, is neither long nor short, doesn’t appear or disappear; it is free from both purity and impurity; it was never born and can never die; it is utterly serene. This is the form of our original mind, which is also our original body.
QUESTION: How does this body or mind perceive? Can it perceive with eyes, ears, nose, touch, and consciousness?
ANSWER: No, it doesn’t use means of perception like that.
QUESTION: Then what sort of perception is involved, since it isn’t like any of the ones already mentioned?
ANSWER: It is perception by means of your own nature. What does this mean? Because your own nature is pure and utterly serene, its immaterial and motionless essence is capable of this perception.
QUESTION: But since that pure essence can’t be found, where does this perception come from?
ANSWER: We may compare it to a mirror which, though it doesn’t contain any forms, can nevertheless reflect all forms. Why? Because it is free from mental activity. If your mind were clear, it wouldn’t give rise to delusions, and its attachments to subject and object would vanish. Then purity would arise by itself, and you would be capable of such perception. As the Dharmapada Sutra says, “To establish ourselves amid perfect emptiness in a single flash is the essence of wisdom.”
—Zen Master Hui-hai (8th century CE),
On Sudden Awakening, trans. John Blofeld
CHAPTER 29 (Chuang-tzu, 2)
page 58 nothing can be seen as other:
In the world of things as they are,
there is no self, no non-self.
If you want to describe its essence,
the best you can say is “Not-two.”
In this “Not-two” nothing is separate,
and nothing in the world is excluded.
—Seng-ts’an
page 58 I don’t know what it is: What a relief!
page 58 keeps the whole universe in order:
The scientist’s religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, in comparison with it, the highest intelligence of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.
—Albert Einstein
page 58 and seems to get along / perfectly well without me: So far, so good.
COMMENTARY
page 59 It’s easy to keep things at a distance; it’s hard to be naturally beyond them: Zen Master Bunan (1603-1675).
CHAPTER 30 (Chung Yung, 14)
page 60 accepts his situation: This isn’t something you can decide to do. You can try to think positively till you’re blue in the face, but underneath the thoughts you want to believe, what thoughts are you actually believing?
page 60 If he finds himself rich and honored: His favorite situation.
page 60 if he is poor and neglected: His favorite situation.
page 60 in difficulty: Now this is getting really interesting.
page 60 He takes responsibility for himself: Ah, that’s the point!
page 60 and seeks nothing from other people:
A monk asked Zen Master Tao-wu, “How can I keep a clear mind?”
Tao-wu said, “If a thousand people call you and you don’t turn your head, you can say you have achieved something.”
page 60 walks on the edge of danger: On the edge of apparent danger, never realizing that he is perfectly safe.
page 60 one step ahead of his fate: As if he can outrun his own shadow.
COMMENTARY
page 61 the best thing that could have happened:
When you have what you want—when you are what you want—there’s no impulse to seek anything outside yourself. Seeking is the movement away from the awareness that your life is already complete, just as it is. Even at moments of apparent pain, there’s never anything wrong or lacking. Reality is always kind; what happens is the best thing that could happen. It can’t be anything else, and you’ll realize that very clearly if you inquire.
—Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy
CHAPTER 31 (Chuang-tzu 5)
page 62 Hui-tzu: Him again! I hope he has let go of that thing about uselessness.
page 62 were playing checkers: Each sentence is a move. Though Chuang-tzu invariably wins, Hui-tzu isn’t a sore loser; he keeps coming back for more: a testimonial to the strength of their friendship.
page 62 Can it exist outside the mind?:
I sometimes say that you move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer. When you believe that any suffering is legitimate, you become the champion of suffering, the perpetuator of it in yourself. It’s insane to believe that suffering is caused by anything outside the mind. A clear mind doesn’t suffer. That’s not possible.
—Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy
page 62 it’s unnatural to be happy all the time: “What is now proved was once only imagined.”—William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
page 62 Anger and sadness are a part of life: An unexamined assumption.
CHAPTER 32 (Chuang-tzu, 6)
page 64 thrusts us into the thick / of life: Where else can we begin to undo ourselves?
page 64 eases us with old age: We are eased when the life force weakens: a kind experience for those who value clarity.
page 64 and with death returns us to peace: To the state before being and non-being.
CHAPTER 33 (Chuang-tzu, 6)
page 66 it has no form or substance: Like a law of physics.
page 66 embodied but not achieved: Everything you do reflects it, yet it’s nothing you can do.
page 66 It existed before existence: Well, okay. Still, he can’t get very far walking around with his foot in his mouth.
COMMENTARY
page 67 the love that moves the sun and the other stars: “l’amor che move il sol e l’altre stelle.”—Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, XXXIII, 145; the last line of The Divine Comedy.
page 67 the vital, immanent, subtle, radiant X: “The vital, arrogant, fatal, dominant X.”—Wallace Stevens, “The Motive for Metaphor.”
CHAPTER 34 (Chung Yung, 2)
page 68 The Master lives in the center: The center of the universe is the place where you don’t believe your own thoughts. From there you can go anywhere.
page 68 unsatisfied, always / reaching for what is not: How can they be satisfied if they imagine that there’s something lacking? What can possibly fill up that imaginary hole?
page 68 The Master lives in harmony: He refuses to join any club that would accept him as a member.
CHAPTER 35 (Chuang-tzu, 13)
page 70 Huan: Ruler of the feudal state of Ch’i (r. 685-643 BCE) and the first of five hegemons to dominate China during the Spring and Autumn period (722-481 BCE). He also appears in sections 5, 19, 24, and 29 of the Chuang-tzu. According to the last of these, “In ancient times, Hsiao-po, Duke Huan of Ch’i, murdered his elder brother and married his sister-in-law.”
page 70 was reading a book: Maybe a precursor of the Tao Te Ching. Maybe, unlike his Danish counterpart, King Claudius, the duke has discovered that murder is self-destructive, and he’s genuinely looking for a better way.
page 70 walked over and said: He has entered the lion’s den. He must really love the duke, since he is willing to risk everything for his enlightenment.
page 70 The words of the sages:
Zen Master Kuei-shan asked his student Yang-shan, “In the forty volumes of the holy Nirvana Sutra, how many words come from the Buddha and how many from demons?”
Yang-shan said, “They are all demons’ words.”
Kuei-shan said, “From now on, no one will be able to pull the wool over your eyes! ”
page 70 they’re long dead: This shows how shallow the duke’s reading is. Pien is quick to jump all over it.
page 70 just the dregs they left behind: Not only has Pien twisted the lion’s tail; he has punched the lion in the nose.
page 70 How dare you make such a comment: A predictable response. Not understanding cause and effect, the duke is the slave of his own emotions.
page 70 Explain yourself, or you die: In his earlier, hotheaded days, he might not have been so indulgent.
page 70 Certainly, Your Grace: Cool as a Chinese cucumber.
page 70 this place of perfect balance: What the teaching of the sages is all about.
page 70 No one taught it to me: No one can teach it, but they can point the way.
page 70 they took their understanding with them: Very kind of them, after all.
CHAPTER 36 (Chuang-tzu, 23)
page 72 Can you stop looking to others: What others? They’re all you. Zen Master Lin-chi said, “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.”
page 72 Can you return to the beginning of the world: It’s always now.
COMMENTARY
If you want to realize the truth,
don’t be for or against.
The struggle between good and evil
is the primal disease of the mind.
—Seng-ts’an
page 73 as Jesus implied: “Unless you turn around and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
page 73 staring . . . wreath:
And the branching of European thought—
he endured it, like someone who could:
Rachel stared into the mirror of phenomena,
and Leah sang and plaited a wreath.
—Osip Mandelstam, poem 293
CHAPTER 37 (Chuang-tzu, 13)
page 74 her not-doing is the opposite of inaction: It’s the source of intelligent, effortless action.
page 74 each task does itself, in its own time: Amazing how those e-mails pile up!
page 74 as they are, without distortion: Without the overlay of comparisons or judgments.
CHAPTER 38 (Chuang-tzu, 17)
page 76 the river Hao: A small tributary of the Yangtze in Anhui province.
page 76 Look at the minnows: Chuang-tzu might have kept his mouth shut. But his comment is just between friends.
page 76 swimming and leaping: One can’t help but notice.
page 76 That’s what makes fish happy: If he can’t press his friend’s buttons, who can?
page 76 You’re not a fish: A major assumption. But let’s not get caught up in details.
page 76 how do you know: Now we’re getting sidetracked.
page 76 how do you know that I don’t know: Hmm.
page 76 True, I’m not you: Awfully flat-footed. It’s not much fun to tweak this fellow.
page 76 you knew that I knew it: How sophistical can you get? Come on, Hui-tzu: show some spunk! Say something. Anything.
COMMENTARY
page 77 fire, hail, snow, and frost . . . reptiles, insects, and birds: Psalm 148:8-10.
page 77 joy to the world . . . you and me: “Joy to the World,” lyrics by Hoyt Axton, performed by Three Dog Night.
CHAPTER 39 (Chuang-tzu, 12)
page 78 The Master lets go of desire: Not quite accurate. He desires what is.
page 78 even the beggars in the street / will benefit from your example: They won’t believe that they shouldn’t be beggars in the street, for now. This will save them a lot of grief and guilt.
page 78 He perfects the whole world in his heart: He realizes that his heart contains the whole world.
page 78 are strung on a single thread: We can call that thread “mind.”
CHAPTER 40 (Chuang-tzu, 14)
page 80 What, without any effort, / makes everything happen: It just happens. Amazing.
page 80 Do things just happen to turn out / exactly the way they do?: Yes—luckily for us.
page 80 stirs up this unfathomable joy?:
To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull senses can grasp only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling, is the essence of true religiousness. My religion consists in a humble awe before the higher reality that reveals itself in the smallest details that we are able to perceive with our weak, fragile minds. The deep conviction that there is a superior intelligence, whose power reveals itself in the immeasurable universe, forms my idea of God.
—Albert Einstein
COMMENTARY
page 81 the motivators for right action:
I’ve heard people say that they cling to their painful thoughts because they’re afraid that without them they wouldn’t be activists for peace. “If I felt completely peaceful,” they say, “why would I bother taking action at all?” My answer is “Because that’s what love does.” To think that we need sadness or outrage to motivate us to do what’s right is insane. As if the clearer and happier you get, the less kind you become. As if when someone finds freedom, she just sits around all day with drool running down her chin. My experience is the opposite. Love is action. It’s clear, it’s kind, it’s effortless, and it’s irresistible.
—Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy
CHAPTER 41 (Chuang-tzu, 12, 25)
page 82 All things return to it: That’s how it seems. But they never left. They were never “they.”
page 82 The Tao is beyond words:
Where can I find someone
who has penetrated beyond words?
That’s whom I’d like to have a word with.
—Chuang-tzu, 26
page 82 Only when you are truly / unattached to words or to silence: Only when you realize that every word out of your mouth is a lie.
page 82 can you express the truth: And not even then.
CHAPTER 42 (Chuang-tzu, 17)
page 84 the river P’u: It flows from the northern end of Shantung province into Shanghai.
page 84 arrived: They had asked in town. Everyone knew where to find him.
page 84 Ch’u: A kingdom in southern China during the Spring and Autumn (722-481 BCe) and Warring States (481-212 BCE) periods. At the height of its power, the Ch’u empire occupied the present-day provinces of Hunan, Hupei, Ch’ung-ch’ing, Honan, Shanghai, and parts of Kiangsu.
page 84 The king requests: Most kings would have said, “I demand . . .” If this king means what he says, he is a truly courteous man.
page 84 there is a sacred tortoise: More accurately, there was a tortoise. There is just his shell. Too slow to escape the trappers, he obviously wasn’t an ancestor of the tortoise who outran Achilles.
page 84 wrapped in silk and encased in a golden box: Just like the king himself.
page 84 if you were this tortoise: There can be only one answer (unless you’re a politician).
page 84 The latter, certainly: These officials are honest men.
page 84 Give my compliments to His Majesty: “I can’t truthfully say that this is a great honor, but I mean no offense.”
page 84 I am happy right here, crawling around in the mud: “This small life is enough for me. And maybe there will be grilled trout for dinner.”
CHAPTER 43 (Chuang-tzu, 20)
page 86 Give up wanting to be important: That tree I planted a while back in the village of Nothingness—it must be huge by now.
page 86 let your footsteps leave no trace: Even if you let them leave a trace, they don’t.
page 86 the land of the great silence: Ahhh.
page 86 Realize that all boats are empty: Once you take total responsibility for your life, you understand that no one is the doer.
page 86 and nothing can possibly offend you: There’s no you left to be offended.
COMMENTARY
page 87 If you’re offended: “If you’re not offended, you’re not paying attention.” (Bumper sticker noticed in Santa Monica.) A clearer statement (you’d need a wider bumper or a smaller font) would be: “If you don’t notice that greed, hatred, and ignorance cause great suffering in the world, and if you’re not moved to end the suffering, you’re not paying attention.”
CHAPTER 44 (Chuang-tzu, 14)
page 88 trying to be benevolent: It’s the trying that is the problem, not the benevolence.
page 88 you must move with the freedom of the wind: Without a goal or purpose.
COMMENTARY
Throw away holiness and wisdom,
and people will be a hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
—Tao Te Ching, 19
page 89 till the right action arises by itself:
Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?
—Tao Te Ching, 15
CHAPTER 45 (Chuang-tzu, 17)
page 90 You can’t reach for the positive: Reaching for it means that you think it’s somewhere else.
page 90 The Master stands beyond opposites: By including them. There is no quality, good or bad, that she can’t easily find in herself.
COMMENTARY
page 91 The tree that moves some: William Blake, Letter to Rev. Dr. Trusler, August 23, 1799.
page 91 Archimedes (287-212 BCE): Quoted by Pappus of Alexandria in Synagoge, Book VIII, c. 340 Ce.
CHAPTER 46 (Chuang-tzu, 19)
page 92 Ch’ing: The Tso chuan, China’s oldest narrative history, mentions him under the fourth year of Duke Hsiang (569 BCE). (Watson’s note.)
page 92 Lu: Confucius’ home province, which covered the central and southwest regions of modern Shantung province. It was annexed by the state of Ch’u in 256 BCE.
page 92 How did your art achieve something of such unearthly beauty?: A more effusive version of Prince Wen-hui’s question to his cook in chapter 14.
page 92 I don’t know anything about art: It’s not what I do; it’s who I am.
page 92 I harmonize inner and outer: With no distractions, I become fully myself.
CHAPTER 47 (Chuang-tzu, 17)
page 94 You can’t talk about the Tao / with a person who thinks he knows something: You also can’t talk about it with a person who knows he knows nothing.
page 94 beyond the limits of yourself: Beyond what you think is true.
CHAPTER 48 (Chuang-tzu, 33)
page 96 as though you didn’t exist: As though you were a cheerful revenant in your own life.
page 96 there is nothing to oppose: In a sweet reverse megalomania, you realize that because there’s no you, everything in the universe exists for your sake alone.
COMMENTARY
page 97 Why do the wicked prosper?: Jeremiah 12:1.
CHAPTER 49 (Chuang-tzu, 19)
page 98 Chi Hsing-tzu was training a gamecock: His job may be difficult, but compared to a monkey trainer’s it’s a piece of cake.
page 98 for the king: We are told neither the king’s name nor his country. He has become His Generic Majesty, a mere prop in the story, a fragment of his own impatience.
page 98 the king asked: As a student of animal (and thus human) nature? Or is he merely interested in having the best gamecock in the neighborhood?
page 98 always ready to pick a fight: Fighting is not what he’s being trained for.
page 98 He still becomes excited when a rival bird appears: It’s always yourself you face. The thought of an other is a distraction.
page 98 He still gets an angry glint in his eye: What a meticulous eye Chi must have!
page 98 he doesn’t react: He no longer has a sense of competition. There’s no interest in being the alpha male.
page 98 His focus is inside: He has learned not to rely on his own strength. You could say that this is total self-confidence, but actually it’s confidence in what is beyond the self.
page 98 Other birds will take one look at him and run: The aggressive ones, that is. The ones who don’t have anything to prove will simply go about their business.
COMMENTARY
page 99 discretion: “The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.” Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, V.iv.
CHAPTER 50 (Chung Yung, 14)
page 100 he turns around: After all, it’s not the bow’s fault.
page 100 and seeks / the reason for his failure in himself: It’s fascinating to be your own student. As Shunryu Suzuki Rōshi (1904-1971) used to say, “Everything’s perfect, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.”
CHAPTER 51 (Chuang-tzu, 20)
page 102 Unchain yourself from achievement: Question all thoughts of achievement, which chain you to an identity.
page 102 unhindered, / unnoticed, unnamed: Just doing what you do, without needing anyone’s approval.
COMMENTARY
page 103 are but as yesterday: “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past.”—Psalm 90:4 (King James Version).
page 103 Eternity laughs: “Eternity is in love with the productions of time.”—William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
page 103 the lone and level sands:
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias”
page 103 Everyday mind is the Tao:
Chao-chou asked Zen Master Nan-ch’üan, “What is the Tao?”
Nan-ch’üan said, “Everyday mind is the Tao.”
Chao-chou said, “How can I approach it?”
Nan-ch’üan said, “If you try to approach it, you’ll miss it.”
“But if I don’t approach it, how can I understand it?”
Nan-ch’üan said, “It’s not a question of understanding or not understanding. Understanding is delusion; not understanding is indifference. But when you reach the unattainable Tao, it is like pure space, limitless and serene. Where is there room in it for yes or no?”
CHAPTER 52 (Chuang-tzu, 8)
page 104 Do you think that you know what’s best?: “I know” is the song of the sirens. If your ears aren’t stopped, lash yourself to the mast.
page 104 should conform to your way of thinking: This kind of benevolence is one of the subtle disguises of the ego. It’s compassion’s beady-eyed twin.
COMMENTARY
page 105 In order to make an omelet, you [have] to crack a few eggs: This statement is said to have originated with Maximilien de Robespierre (1758-1794).
CHAPTER 53 (Chuang-tzu, 18)
page 106 Lieh-tzu (Master Lieh, a.k.a. Lieh Yü-k’ou; c. 450-c. 375 BCE): Traditionally known as the third Taoist sage, after Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. The (very dull) Book of Lieh-tzu, ascribed to him, actually dates from around 300 Ce. He appears as a character in sections 1, 7, 18, 19, 21, 28, and 32 of the Chuang-tzu.
page 106 saw an old skull: Nothing himself, like Wallace Stevens’ Snow Man, Lieh-tzu beholds “nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.”
page 106 no such thing as death:
Zen Master Tao-wu paid a visit to his brother-monk Zen Master Yün-yen, who was very sick. “Where can I meet you again,” he said, “if you die and leave only your corpse here?”
Yün-yen said, “I’ll meet you in the place where nothing is born and nothing dies.”
Tao-wu said, “That answer is okay. But what you should have said is that there’s no place where nothing is born and nothing dies, and that we don’t need to meet each other again.”
CHAPTER 54 (Chung Yung, 12)
page 108 the Tao begins in the relation:
Once we begin to question our thoughts, our partners, alive, dead, or divorced, are always our greatest teachers. There’s no mistake about the person you’re with; he or she is the perfect teacher for you, whether or not the relationship works out, and once you enter inquiry, you come to see that clearly. There’s never a mistake in the universe. So if your partner is angry, good. If there are things about him that you consider flaws, good, because these flaws are your own, you’re projecting them, and you can write them down, inquire, and set yourself free. People go to India to find a guru, but you don’t have to: You’re living with one. Your partner will give you everything you need for your own freedom.
—Byron Katie, I Need Your Love—Is That True?
page 108 between man and woman: It may also begin in the relation between man and man, and between woman and woman.
CHAPTER 55 (Chuang-tzu, 22)
page 110 Who can understand / how the two are related?:
It is strange that people don’t want to know about the present, whose existence nobody can doubt, but are always eager to know about the past or the future, both of which are unknown. What is birth and what is death? Why go to birth and death to understand what you experience every day in sleeping and waking? When you sleep, this body and the world do not exist for you, and these questions do not worry you, and yet you exist, the same you that exists now while waking. It is only when you wake up that you have a body and see the world. If you understand waking and sleep properly, you will understand life and death. But waking and sleeping happen every day, so people don’t notice the wonder of it, but only want to know about birth and death.
—Ramana Maharshi
page 110 to understand the one breath: The exhalation is not opposed to the inhalation.
CHAPTER 56 (Chuang-tzu, 21)
page 112 looked ordinary:
Zen Master Hsueh-feng asked a monk where he came from. The monk said, “From the Monastery of Spiritual Light.”
Hsueh-feng said, “In the daytime, sunlight; in the evening, lamplight. What is spiritual light?”
The monk couldn’t answer.
Hsueh-feng answered for him: “Sunlight. Lamplight.”
page 112 The more they gave to others:
The supreme perfection of giving consists in the threefold purity. What is the threefold purity? When a bodhisattva gives a gift, he doesn’t perceive a self who gives, or a self who receives, or a gift, nor does he perceive a reward for his giving. He surrenders that gift to all beings, but he perceives neither beings nor self. He dedicates that gift to enlightenment, but he doesn’t perceive any such thing as enlightenment.
—The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in 25,000 Lines
(c. 2nd-4th century Ce)
CHAPTER 57 (Chuang-tzu, 18)
page 114 the Marquis of Lu: Because such a blockhead couldn’t have asked the delicate question in chapter 46, I presume that this marquis was an ancestor or descendant of the other one.
page 114 his ancestral temple: Where the prejudices and superstitions of a hundred generations were enshrined. Undoubtedly, there was a sacred tortoise as well, wrapped in silk and encased in a golden box.
page 114 the bird became dazed: At the extent of human selfishness and stupidity.
page 114 In three days it was dead: A sensible exit strategy. Requiescat in pace.
page 114 as the marquis would have liked to be treated: The point of Jesus’ statement is empathy (“Whatever you want others to do to you, do to them. This is the essence of the Law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12). But when the mind is confused, doing to others what you would want done to you can be deadly. The Chung Yung’s so-called negative form of the Golden Rule (“Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you”; see chapter 24) may be more useful. It was stated as early as Confucius’ Analects (c. 500 BCE), and five centuries later by Hillel the Elder (c. 40 BCE- 10 Ce). When a Gentile asked him to summarize the Law, Hillel said, “What you yourself hate, don’t do to your neighbor. This is the whole Law; the rest is commentary. Go now and learn.”
page 114 feed on mudfish and minnows: Those happy minnows wouldn’t even know what hit them. Their death would be instantaneous and carefree, like their life.
COMMENTARY
page 115 the golden fool:
He has observed the golden rule
Till he’s become the golden fool.
—William Blake
page 115 with his glittering eye:
He holds him with his glittering eye—
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years’ child:
The Mariner hath his will.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
page 115 Love your neighbor as yourself: Leviticus 19:18.
CHAPTER 58 (Chuang-tzu, 19)
page 116 the way he falls is different: He’s not tensed up, bracing himself against a future.
COMMENTARY
page 117 the road of excess: “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”—William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. This can be true as well.
CHAPTER 59 (Chuang-tzu, 22)
page 118 you will realize how simple life is: Life is mind projected. If it’s simple here, it’s simple there.
page 118 looking for impossible answers: The answers are impossible to find outside you.
COMMENTARY
page 119 Simplify, simplify: Henry David Thoreau, Walden.
page 119 a word to the wise is sufficient: From the Latin proverb verbum sat sapienti.
CHAPTER 60 (Chuang-tzu, 24)
page 120 it doesn’t seek perfection: How would it even know what perfection is?
page 120 You return to yourself: To the source.
COMMENTARY
page 121 This is perfect . . . the remainder is perfect: The invocation to the Isha Upanishad, in The Ten Principal Upanishads, trans. W. B. Yeats and Shree Purohit Swami.
page 121 The unattainable—how close it is!: Osip Mandelstam, poem 278.
CHAPTER 61 (Chuang-tzu, 18)
page 122 came to offer his condolences: He still doesn’t get it.
page 122 pounding on a tub: Singing the Taoist version of “O Sole Mio,” which is in a major key.
page 122 don’t you owe her a few tears: Tears would be disrespectful.
page 122 that’s a bit much, don’t you think?: It’s just enough.
page 122 I mourned as anyone else would: Love will go to any length for the sake of a friend. Zen Master Yang-shan (814-890) once said, “In my shop I handle all kinds of merchandise. If someone comes looking for rat shit, I’ll sell him rat shit. If someone comes looking for gold, I’ll sell him pure gold.”
page 122 before she had a soul: Any form of separate identity.
page 122 lying at peace in her vast room: Having everything I could ever want for her.
page 122 So I stopped: End of little morality tale. Exit. Polite applause.
CHAPTER 62 (Chuang-tzu, 12)
page 124 or pays special attention / to the lovely, the virtuous, or the wise: Do fish pay special attention to water? When you’re in harmony with the way things are, you see that all of us are beautiful in our own way, all of us are innately wise, and as virtuous as we can possibly be, given the thoughts we’re believing.
page 124 They keep no records of their good deeds: There are poets, artists, and musicians, but no biographers or historians.
page 124 all their actions / have vanished, without a trace: Like everything else. But the effects of their actions keep filling their descendants with gratitude.
COMMENTARY
page 125 Dr. Johnson: Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson, LLD, April 13, 1778.
page 125 Yeats: In his poem “The Tower.” The girl’s name was Mary Hynes. Actually, it was because her beauty had been praised by the poet Raftery that the farmers jostled to see her, “so great a glory did the song confer.”
CHAPTER 63 (Chung Yung, 33)
page 126 Though the fish sinks to the bottom: Those bottom-feeding thoughts—they’re the craftiest.
page 126 before it can do any harm: If there’s discord, it’s already doing harm.
COMMENTARY
page 127 When a pickpocket sees a saint, he sees only his pockets: This saying has been attributed to Ramakrishna (1836-1886).
CHAPTER 64 (Chung Yung, 20, 25)
page 128 we become truly human: That is to say, free.
page 128 when we fulfill all beings: We can’t help fulfilling them, because their nature is exactly the same as ours.
page 128 everything we do is right:
There’s no mistake, and there’s nothing lacking. We’re always going to get what we need, not what we think we need. Then we come to see that what we need is not only what we have, it’s what we want. Then we come to want only what is. That way we always succeed, whatever happens.
—Byron Katie, A Thousand Names for Joy