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The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | “Eyes that are blind have no way to tell the loveliness of faces and features; eyes with no pupils have no way to tell the beauty of colored and embroidered silks.” |
Unknown | “Si tu veux trouver la paix, immerge-toi dans la bienveillance, éteins tous les désirs dans ton coeur, retire-toi dans la solitude” |
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | “How do I know that loving life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death I am not like a man who, having left home in his youth, has forgotten the way back? Lady Li was the daughter of the border guard of Ai. When she was first taken captive and brought to the state of Jin, she wept until her tears drenched the collar of her robe. But later, when she went to live in the palace of the ruler, shared his couch with him, and ate the delicious meats of his table, she wondered why she had ever wept. How do I know that the dead do not wonder why they ever longed for life?” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “The fact is that those who do not see themselves but who see others, who fail to get a grasp of themselves but who grasp others, take possession of what others have but fail to possess themselves. They are attracted to what others enjoy but fail to find enjoyment in themselves.” |
Unknown | “Joy and anger, sorrow and happiness, caution and remorse Come upon us by turns, with ever changing mood. They come like music from hollows, like wood when played by the wind, or how mushrooms grow from the damp. Daily and nightly they alternate within but we cannot tell whence they spring. Without these emotions I should not be. Without me, they would have no instrument” |
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | “With all the confusion in the world these days, no matter how often I point the way, what good does it do? And if I know it does no good and still make myself do it, this too is a kind of confusion. So it is best to leave things alone and not force them. If I don't force things, at least I won't cause anyone any worry.” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “To guard yourself against thieves who slash open suitcases, rifle through bags and smash open boxes, one should strap the bags and lock them. The world at large knows that this shows wisdom. However, when a master thief comes, he simply picks up the suitcase, lifts the bag, carries off the box and runs away with them, his only concern being whether the straps and locks will hold! In such an instance, what seemed like wisdom on the part of the owner surely turns out to have been of use only to the master thief!” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “How do I know that the dead don’t regret the way they used to cling to life?” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “Those who count things are not worthy of assisting the people.” |
Unknown | “Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.” |
The Way of Chuang Tzu | “The greatest politeness Is free of all formality. Perfect conduct Is free of concern. Perfect wisdom Is unplanned. Perfect love Is without demonstrations. Perfect sincerity offers No guarantee.” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “The Great Course is unproclaimed. Great demonstration uses no words. (2:34) Great Humanity is not humane. Great rectitude is not fastidious. Great courage is not invasive. For when the Course becomes explicit, it ceases to be the Course. When words demonstrate by debate, they fail to communicate. When Humanity is constantly sustained, it cannot reach its maturity.21 When rectitude is pure, it cannot extend itself to others. When courage is invasive, it cannot succeed.22 These five are originally round, but they are forced toward squareness.” |
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | “A child, obeying his father and mother, goes wherever he is told, east or west, south or north. And the yin and yang - how much more are they to a man than father or mother! Now that they have brought me to the verge of death, if I should refuse to obey them, how perverse I would be! What fault is it of theirs? The Great Clod burdens me with form, labors me with life, eases me in old age, and rests me in death. So if I think well of my life, for the same reason I must think well of my death. When a skilled smith is casting metal, if the metal should leap up and say, 'I insist upon being made into a Moye!' he would surely regard it as very inauspicious metal indeed. Now, having had the audacity to take on human form once, if I should say, 'I don't want to be anything but a man! Nothing but a man!', the Creator would surely regard me as a most inauspicious sort of person. So now I think of heaven and earth as a great furnace, and the Creator as a skilled smith. Where could he send me that would not be all right? I will go off to sleep peacefully, and then with a start I will wake up.” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “When there is both name and reality, We dwell in the realm of things; When there is neither name nor reality, We exist in a vacuity of things. We can speak and can think, But the more we speak, the further off we are. What is not yet born cannot be forbidden, What is already dead cannot be prevented. Death and birth are not distant, It's their principle that cannot be seen.” |
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | “Everything has its "that," everything has its "this." From the point of view of "that" you cannot see it, but through understanding you can know it. So I say, "that" comes out of "this" and "this" depends on "that" - which is to say that "this" and "that" give birth to each other. But where there is birth there must be death; where there is death there must be birth. Where there is acceptability there must be unacceptability; where there is unacceptability there must be acceptability. Where there is recognition of right there must be recognition of wrong; where there is recognition of wrong there must be recognition of right. Therefore the sage does not proceed in such a way, but illuminates all in the light of Heaven. He too recognizes a "this," but a "this" which is also "that," a "that" which is also "this." His "that" has both a right and a wrong in it; his "this" too has both a right and a wrong in it. So, in fact, does he still have a "this" and "that"? Or does he in fact no longer have a "this" and "that"? A state in which "this" and "that" no longer find their opposites is called the hinge of the Way. When the hinge is fitted into the socket, it can respond endlessly. Its right then is a single endlessness and its wrong too is a single endlessness. So, I say, the best thing to use is clarity.” |
Unknown | “Master Dongguo asked Zhuangzi, "This thing called the Way - where does it exist?" Zhuangzi said, "There's no place it doesn't exist." "Come," said Master Dongguo, "you must be more specific!" "It is in the ant." "As low a thing as that?" "It is in the panic grass." "But that's lower still!" "It is in the tiles and shards." "How can it be so low?" "It is in the piss and shit!” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “Eventually there comes the day of reckoning and awakening, and then we shall know that it was all a great dream. Only fools think that they are now awake and that they really know what is going on, playing the prince and then playing the servant. What fools! The Master and you are both living in a dream. When I say a dream, I am also dreaming. This very saying is a deception. If after ten thousand years we could once meet a truly great sage, one who understands, it would seem as if it had only been a morning.” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “Now you, Sir, have a large tree, and you don’t know how to use it, so why not plant it in the middle of nowhere, where you can go to wander or fall asleep under its shade? No axe under Heaven will attack it, nor shorten its days, for something which is useless will never be disturbed.” |
Unknown | “Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?” |
Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters | “Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly. A butterfly fluttering happily around— was he revealing what he himself meant to be? He knew nothing of Zhou. All at once awakening, there suddenly he was — Zhou. But he didn't know if he was Zhou having dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there must surely be some distinction. This is known at the transformation of things.” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “Thus, the Sage uses various rights and wrongs to harmonize with others and yet remains at rest in the middle of Heaven the Potter’s Wheel.” |
Unknown | “Because there is, there is not, and because there is not, there is.” |
Unknown | “It is widely recognized that the courageous spirit of a single man can inspire to victory an army of thousands. If one concerned with ordinary gain can create such an effect, how much more will be produced by one who for greater things cares!” |
Unknown | “You should find the same joy in one condition as in the other and thereby be free of care, that is all. But now, when the things that happened along take their leave, you cease to be joyful. From this point of view, though you have joy, it will always be fated for destruction.” |
Unknown | “Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “And someday there will be a great awakening when we know that this is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, that one herdsman—how dense! Confucius and you both are dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. Words like these will be labeled the Supreme Swindle. Yet after ten thousand generations, a great sage may appear who will know their meaning, and it will still be as though he appeared with astonishing speed.” |
Zhuangzi: Basic Writings | “The whole world could praise Song Rongzi and it wouldn’t make him exert himself; the whole world could condemn him and it wouldn’t make him mope. He drew a clear line between the internal and the external, and recognized the boundaries of true glory and disgrace.” |
Unknown | “A marsh pheasant has to walk ten paces for a bite to eat and a hundred for a sip of water. But still it wouldn't want to be tamed and put into a cage. Even treated like a king, it could never be happy and content.” |
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | “The Spirit Tower has its guardian, but unless it understands who its guardian is, it cannot be guarded.” |
Unknown | “Therefore the Way that is sagely within and kingly without has fallen into darkness and is no longer clearly perceived, has become shrouded and no longer shines forth. The men of the world all follow their own desires and make these their “doctrine.” |
The Way of Chuang Tzu | “The man of spirit, on the other hand, hates to see people gather around him. He avoids the crowd. For where there are many men, there are also many opinions and little agreement. There is nothing to be gained from the support of a lot of half-wits who are doomed to end up in a fight with each other. The man of spirit is neither very intimate with anyone, nor very aloof. He keeps himself interiorly aware, and he maintains his balance so that he is in conflict with nobody. This is your true man! He lets the ants be clever. He lets the mutton reek with activity. For his own part, he imitates the fish that swims unconcerned, surrounded by a friendly element, and minding its own business. The true man sees what the eye sees, and does not add to it something that is not there. He hears what the ears hear, and does not detect imaginary undertones or overtones. He understands things in their obvious interpretation and is not busy with hidden meanings and mysteries. His course is therefore a straight line. Yet he can change his direction whenever circumstances suggest it.” |
Unknown | “When she had just died, I could not help being affected. Soon, however, I examined the matter from the very beginning. At the very beginning, she was not living, having no form, nor even substance. But somehow or other there was then her substance, then her form, and then her life. Now by a further change, she has died. The whole process is like the sequence of the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. While she is thus lying in the great mansion of the universe, for me to go about weeping and wailing would be to proclaim myself ignorant of the natural laws. Therefore I stopped!” |
Unknown | “I obtained life because the time was right. I will lose life because it is time. Those who go quietly with the flow of nature are not worried by either joy or sorrow. People like these were considered in the past as having achieved freedom from bondage. Those who cannot free themselves are constrained by things.” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “The Book of Chuang Tzu is like a travelogue. As such, it meanders between continents, pauses to discuss diet, gives exchange rates, breaks off to speculate, offers a bus timetable, tells an amusing incident, quotes from poetry, relates a story, cites scripture. To try and make it read like a novel or a philosophical handbook is simply to ask it, this travelogue of life, to do something it was never designed to do. And always listen out for the mocking laughter of Chuang Tzu.” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “The Consummate Person uses his mind like a mirror, rejecting nothing, welcoming nothing: responding but not storing. Thus he can handle all things (7:14) without harm.” |
Zhuangzi: Basic Writings | “Why must you comprehend the process of change and form your mind on that basis before you can have a teacher? Even an idiot has his teacher. But to fail to abide by this mind and still insist upon your rights and wrongs—this is like saying that you set off for Yue today and got there yesterday” |
Unknown | “There is a beginning. There is no beginning of that beginning. There is no beginning of that no beginning of beginning. There is something. There is nothing. There is something before the beginning of something and nothing, and something before that. Suddenly there is something and nothing. But between something and nothing, I still don't really know which is something and which is nothing. Now, I've just said something, but I don't really know whether I've said anything or not.” |
Unknown | “I’m going to try speaking some reckless words, and I want you to listen recklessly.” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “To use a finger as a metaphor for the nonfingerness of a finger is not as good as using nonfingerness as a metaphor for the nonfingerness of a finger.” |
Unknown | “Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling along the dam of the Hao River when Zhuangzi said, “See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! That’s what fish really enjoy!” |
Unknown | “If a man, having lashed two hulls together, is crossing a river, and an empty boat happens along and bumps into him, no matter how hot-tempered the man may be, he will not get angry. But if there should be someone in the other boat, then he will shout out to haul this way or veer that. If his first shout is unheeded, he will shout again, and if that is not heard, he will shout a third time, this time with a torrent of curses following. In the first instance, he wasn't angry; now in the second he is. Earlier he faced emptiness, now he faces occupancy. If a man could succeed in making himself empty, and in that way wander through the world, then who could do him harm?” |
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | “Suppose I try saying something. What way do I have of knowing that if I say I know something I don't really not know it? Or what way do I have of knowing that if I say I don't know something I don't really in fact know it?” |
Zhuangzi: Basic Writings | “The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you’ve gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?” |
Unknown | “Olet kuullut ihmisten musiikkia, mutta et maan; tai ehkä olet kuullut maan musiikkia, mutta et taivaan.” |
Unknown | “You will always find an answer in the sound of water.” |
Unknown | “Therefore, in a time of Perfect Virtue, the gait of men is slow and ambling; their gaze is steady and mild. In such an age, mountains have no paths or trails, lakes no boats or bridges. The ten thousand things live species by species, one group settled close to another. Birds and beasts form their flocks and herds; grass and trees grow to fullest height. So it happens that you can tie a cord to the birds and beasts and lead them about or bend down the limb and peer into the nest of the crow and the magpie. In this age of Perfect Virtue, men live the same as birds and beasts, group themselves side by side with the ten thousand things. Who then knows anything about “gentleman” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “A fish-trap is for catching fish; once you've caught the fish, you can forget about the trap. A rabbit-snare is for catching rabbits; once you've caught the rabbit, you can forget about the snare. Words are for catching ideas; once you've caught the idea, you can forget about the words. Where can I find a person who knows how to forget about words so that I can have a few words with them?” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “If right were ultimately right, its differentiation from not-right would require no debate.” |
The Inner Chapters: The Classic Taoist Text | “Ah,” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “Absorb yourself in the realities of the task at hand to the point of forgetting your own existence. Then you will have no leisure to delight in life (4:14) or abhor death. That would make this mission of yours quite doable!” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “Ти схожий на вершника, що ніби й сидить, але ним носить по всіх усюдах. Оберни очі та вуха всередину, а серцем сягни назовні - і станеш прихистком для духів та богів, а для людей і поготів. Так даси лад тьмі-тьмущій сущого.” |
Zhuangzi: Basic Writings | “Little understanding cannot come up to great understanding; the short-lived cannot come up to the long-lived.” |
Zhuangzi | “The way comes about as we walk it.” |
Unknown | “El sonido del agua dice lo que pienso. Su mente está libre de todo pensamiento. Su proceder es sereno y silencioso. Su frente reluce con sencillez. Es frío como el otoño y cálido como la primavera, porque su goce y su ira se suceden tan naturalmente como las cuatro estaciones.” |
Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings | “To use a horse to show that a horse is not a horse is not as good as using a non-horse to show that a horse is not a horse...” |
Zhuangzi | “When once we have received the bodily form complete, its parts do not fail to perform their functions till the end comes. In conflict with things or in harmony with them, they pursue their course to the end, with the speed of a galloping horse which cannot be stopped;--is it not sad? To be constantly toiling all one's lifetime, without seeing the fruit of one's labour, and to be weary and worn out with his labour, without knowing where he is going to:--is it not a deplorable case?” |
The Way of Chuang Tzu | “The friendship of wise men Is tasteless as water. The friendship of fools Is sweet as wine. But the tastelessness of the wise Brings true affection And the savor of fools' company Ends in hatred.” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “To have a human form of a joyful thing. But in the universe of possible forms, there are others just as good.” |
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu | “In all affairs, whether large or small, there are few men who reach a happy conclusion except through the Way. If you do not succeed, you are bound to suffer from the judgment of men. If you do succeed, you are bound to suffer from the yin and yang. To suffer no harm whether or not you succeed - only the man who has virtue can do that.” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “Zhao Wen’s zither playing, Master Kuang’s baton waving, Huizi’s desk slumping—the understanding these three had of their arts flourished richly. This was what they flourished in, and thus they pursued these arts to the end of their days. They delighted in them, and observing that this delight of theirs was not shared, they wanted to make it obvious to others. So they tried to make others understand as obvious what was not obvious to them, and thus some ended their days debating about the obscurities of “hardness” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “Thus, the Radiance of Drift and Doubt is the sage’s only map. He makes no definition of what is right but instead entrusts it to the everyday function of each thing. This is what I call the Illumination of the Obvious.” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “But if we are all one, can there be any words? But since I have already declared that we are “one,” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “But Tian Gen asked the same question again. The nameless man then said, “Let your mind roam in the flavorless, blend your vital energy with the boundless silence, follow the rightness of the way each thing already is without allowing yourself the least bias. Then the world will be in order.” |
Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters | “Tian Kaizhi said, “In Lu there was Shan Bao—he lived among the cliffs, drank only water, and didn’t go after gain like other people. He went along like that for seventy years and still had the complexion of a little child. Unfortunately, he met a hungry tiger who killed him and ate him up. Then there was Zhang Yi—there wasn’t one of the great families and fancy mansions that he didn’t rush off to visit. He went along like that for forty years, and then he developed an internal fever, fell ill, and died. Shan Bao looked after what was on the inside and the tiger ate up his outside. Zhang Yi looked after what was on the outside and the sickness attacked him from the inside. Both these men failed to give a lash to the stragglers.” |
The Way of Chuang Tzu | “I know the joy of fishes In the river Through my own joy, as I go walking Along the same river.” |
Unknown | “What do you want to compare me to, one of those cultivated trees? The hawthorn, the pear, the orange, the rest of those fructiferous trees and shrubs—when their fruit is ripe they get plucked, and that is an insult. Their large branches are bent, their small branches are pruned. Thus do their abilities embitter their lives. That is why they die young, failing to fully live out their Heaven-given lifespans. They batter themselves with the vulgar conventions of the world, as do all the other things of the world. As for me, I’ve been working on being useless for a long time. It almost killed me, but I’ve finally managed it—and it is of great use to me! If I were useful, do you think I could have grown to be so great?” |
The Way of Chuang Tzu | “To know when to stop To know when you can get no further By your own action, This is the right beginning!” |
Unknown | “Heaven, Earth and I live together. All things and I comprise an inseparable Oneness.” |
Unknown | “Täydellinen ihminen on vapautunut itseydestään; henkistynyt ihminen ei välitä ansioiden tavoittelusta; todellinen Viisas ei välitä maineesta.” |
The Complete Works of Zhuangzi | “As to what is beyond the Six Realms,15 the sage admits it exists but does not theorize.” |
The Complete Works of Zhuangzi | “Therefore understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest.” |
The Inner Chapters: The Classic Taoist Text | “The tailor bird builds her nest in deep woods, she uses no more than one branch.The mole drinks off the river, it can only fill one belly.” |
Unknown | “Et kysy sokean mielipidettä kauniista maalauksesta etkä kutsu kuuroa kuuntelemaan musiikkia. Eivätkä sokeus ja kuurous ole vain fyysisiä vikoja. On olemassa myös mielen sokeutta ja mielen kuuroutta, ja sinun sanasi osoittavat, että sinä kärsit niistä.” |
Unknown | “The dao is at the limit of the world of things. Speech and silence are not adequate to represent the idea of it. Neither speech nor silence can be the highest expression of our thinking about it.” |
Unknown | “Ja sinulla on iso puu, etkä tiedä, mitä sillä tekisit! Mikset siirrä sitä tyhjälle kentälle tai asumattomaan metsään? Siellä voisit rauhassa kuljeskella sen ympärillä tai levätä sen siimeksessä. Se olisi turvassa kirveeltä, eikä kukaan vahingoittaisi sitä, sillä ellei siitä olisi hyötyä muille, mikä sitä silloin vahingoittaisi?” |
Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu | “Good fortune is lighter than a feather, But no one knows how to carry it; Misfortune is heavier than the earth, But no one knows how to escape it. (p. 40)” |
The Inner Chapters | “The True Men of old used the eye to look at the eye, the ear to look at the ear, the heart to recover the heart. Such men as that when they were level were true to the carpenter’s line, when they were altering stayed on course.” |
Unknown | “Jos haluaa näyttää oikeaksi sen, minkä ne kieltävät, tai vääräksi sen, minkä ne myöntävät, ei ole parempaa keinoa kuin käyttää järjen valoa.” |
Unknown | “Täydellinen Ihminen on jumalan kaltainen. Vaikka suuret suot palaisivat, ne eivät pystyisi polttamaan häntä; vaikka nopeat salamat iskisivät vuoria halki ja tuuli kuohuttaisi merta, ne eivät säikäyttäisi häntä. Koska hän on sellainen, hän ratsastaa pilvillä ja usvalla, satuloi auuringon ja kuun ja vaeltaa Neljän Meren rajojen ulkopuolelle. Kuolema ja elämä eivät pysty häntä muuttamaan, saati sitten hyödyn ja vahingon ajatukset.” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “It is rank, wealth, prominence, prestige, fame, and advantage that arouse the will. It is appearances, actions, sexual beauty, conceptual coherence, emotional energies, and intentions that entangle the mind. It is dislikes, desires, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness that tie down Virtuosity. It is avoiding, approaching, taking, giving, understanding, and ability that block the Course. When these twenty-four items do not disrupt you, the mind is no longer pulled off center. Centered, it finds stillness. Still, it finds clarity. Once clear, it becomes empty, and once empty, it is able to “do nothing, and yet leave nothing undone.” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “To try to govern the world by doubling the number of sages would merely double the profits of the great robbers. If you create pounds and ounces to measure them with, they’ll steal the pounds and ounces and use them to rob you further. If you make scales and balances to regulate them with, they’ll steal the scales and balances and use them to rob you more. If you create ideals of humankindness and responsible conduct to regulate them with, why, they’ll just steal humankindness and responsible conduct and use them to rob you all the more. How do I know this is so? He who steals a belt buckle is executed, but he who steals a state becomes a feudal lord.” |
Unknown | “Elämä päättyy, mutta tiedolla ei ole loppua. Loputtoman tavoittelu päättyväisellä on vaarallista, ja se, että luulee tiedon saavuttaneensa, on hyvin vaarallista. Kun olet tehnyt hyvää, maine ei seuraa perässäsi, ja kun olet tehnyt pahaa, rangaistus ei kulje kannoillasi. Seuraa luonnon järjestystä, niin saatat suojata ruumiisi, turvata elämäsi, suorittaa velvollisuutesi vanhempiasi kohtaan ja täyttää sinulle sallitut vuodet.” |
Unknown | “[le monde] n’a pas besoin d’être gouverné ; en fait, il ne devrait pas être gouverné” |
Unknown | “What is the fasting of the mind? If you merge all your intentions into a singularity and maintain the unity of your will, you will come to hear with the rational mind rather than with the ears. Further, you will come to hear with the ch’i – the primal spirit, the vital energy – rather than with the rational mind. For the ears are limited to listening, and the rational mind is limited to its preconceptions. But the ch’i is an abiding emptiness that awaits the arising of things. And the Dao alone is what gathers in this formless emptiness. And to merge with the Dao in this emptiness is ‘fasting of the mind’… Before I began my meditation, it was only ‘I’ that was real. But as soon as I came to dwell in stillness, it turned out that ‘myself’ had never even begun to exist! This is what is meant by 'becoming emptiness'.” |
Unknown | “Quand on a compris ce que sont le commencement, la noblesse, l'intelligence, la transformation, l'infiini, la foi et la sérénité, alors on a atteint la connaissance suprême.” |
Unknown | “To try to govern the world by doubling the number of sages would merely double the profits of the great robbers. If you create pounds and ounces to measure them with, they’ll steal the pounds and ounces and use them to rob you further. If you make scales and balances to regulate them with, they’ll steal the scales and balances and use them to rob you more. If you create tallies and seals to enforce their reliability, they’ll steal the tallies and seals and use them to rob you too. If you create ideals of humankindness and responsible conduct to regulate them with, why, they’ll just steal humankindness and responsible conduct and use them to rob you all the more. How do I know this is so? He who steals a belt buckle is executed, but he who steals a state becomes a feudal lord.” |
Unknown | “Kaikkeuden hengitystä sanotaan tuuleksi, vastasi Tsu Ch'i. Se ei aina liiku, mutta kun se liikkuu, kuuluu kymmenistätuhansista onkaloista raivokasta ujellusta. Etkö ole koskaan kuunnellut sitä: liaoo liaoo... Vuoriston metsien kolkissa ja huipuilla on koloja ja onteloita suurissa puissa, joiden ympärysmitta on sata vaaksaa; jokin on kuin sierain, toinen kuin suu tai korva; jokin on suorakulmainen, toinen pyöreä; jokin kuin huhmar, toinen kuin allas tai lätäkön pohja. Kaikista niistä kuuluu ikään kuin kuohuavan veden pauhua tai kohinaa, ne ulvovat ja huokaavat, mylvivät kuin eläimet, ujeltavat, valittavat ja viheltävät. Edellä kulkeva tuuli laulaa jyy ja perässä seuraava säestää jung. Kun tuuli puhaltaa lempeästi, kuulet hiljaisia sointuja, mutta myrskyn synnyttämät soinnut ovat jyhkeitä; ja kun ankara tuuli asettuu, jokainen onkalo vaikenee. Etkö ole koskaan nähnyt, miten kaikki puut huojuvat huojuvat, taipuvat taipuvat?” |
Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings | “Atlar karada yaşar, ot yer ve su içer. Memnun olduklarında boyunlarını birbirine dolayıp birbirlerine sürtünürler. Sinirlendiklerinde dönüp birbirlerini çiftelerler. Bunların hepsi atların içgüdüleridir. Ama atlar boyunduruk altına alınıp süslendiklerinde çıtaları kırmayı, boyunlarını kaldırmayı, vahşi davranmayı, tükürmeyi ve dizginlerini ısırmayı bilirler. Bu nedenle atların insanlara karşı koyacak kadar kurnaz olması Bo Le'nin hatasıdır. Hükümdar Hexu'nun zamanında insanlar ne yapacaklarını ve nereye gideceklerini bilmeden hayatlarını boşa harcardı. Karınları toktu ve mutluydular. İnsanların yapabileceği tek şey buydu. Bilgeler dünyaya gelince, dünyayı düzeltmek için müzik ve törenleri icat ettiler; bilgi ve servet için sonsuz çaba göstermeye başlayan insanların kalbini rahatlatmak için insanlığı ve doğruluğu artırdılar. Bu da bilgelerin hatasıdır.” |
Unknown | “Maan musiikin synnyttävät siis erilaiset onkalot; ihmisten musiikki syntyy bambupillistä, mutta rohkenenko kysyä, mitä on taivaan musiikki? Tuuli puhaltaa kymmenellätuhannella eri tavalla ja jokainen ääni syntyy omalla tavallaan. Tämä tapahtuu luonnostaan, mutta kenen käskystä ne syntyvät?” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “with the answers.” |
Unknown | “Suppose you and I have had an argument. If you have beaten me instead of my beating you, then are you necessarily right and am I necessarily wrong? If I have beaten you instead of your beating me, then am I necessarily right and are you necessarily wrong? Is one of us right and the other wrong? Are both of us right or are both of us wrong? If you and I don't know the answer, then other people are bound to be even more in the dark. Whom shall we get to decide what is right? Shall we get someone who agrees with you to decide? But if he already agrees with you, how can he decide fairly? Shall we get someone who agrees with me, how can he decide? Shall we get someone who disagrees with both of us? But if he already agrees with both of us, how can he decide? Shall we get someone who agrees with both of us? But if he already agrees with both of us, how can he decide? Obviously, then, neither you nor I nor anyone else can know the answer. Shall we wait for still another person?” |
Unknown | “Alas! It saddened me to see someone lose himself like that, and then it saddened me that I was saddened about that person, and then it saddened me that I was saddened that I was saddened about that person. And from there it just keeps going on and on.” |
The Book of Chuang Tzu | “He would have his plans take effect with the speed of fire” |
Unknown | “The breathing of the wise person comes from their heels, while most people breathe only from their throats.” |
Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings | “The sage dwells among things without harming them. Because he doesn’t harm them, they cannot harm him either. Because there is no harm either way, he can both welcome them in and usher them out.” |
Unknown | “The mountain forests, the great open plains! Shall they make me joyful, shall they fill me with happiness? But even before my joy is done, sorrow has come to take its place. When joy and sorrow come I cannot stop them from coming, and when they go I cannot keep them from going. How sad it is! The people of the world these days are nothing more than lodging houses for external things. They know all about what they encounter but not about what is never encountered.” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “When Yan He was appointed tutor to the crown prince of Wei, son of Duke Ling, he went to consult with Qu Boyu. “Here is a man who is just naturally no good. If I find no way to contain him, he will endanger my state, but if I do try to contain him, he will endanger my life. His cleverness allows him to understand the crimes people commit, but not why they were driven to commit these crimes.10 What should I do?” |
Unknown | “What is in charge of spreading all this before us? What nets and tethers all of this together? What remains itself unoccupied by any activity and yet shoves all this around to make it happen? Could it be: there is some mechanism that cannot help itself? What so lavishly puts all this forth? What remains itself unoccupied by any activity and yet in a symphony of lascivious joy goads it all on?” |
Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries | “Everyone knows how useful usefulness is, but no one (4:20) seems to know how useful uselessness is.” |
Unknown | “You cannot even order your own body; what leisure do you have to order the world?” |