The Father and Son of Taoist Philosophy

[Marblehead]

After the chatter died down Chuang Tzu continued with:

 

 

The Sage’s Wife Died

The Sage’s wife died and one of his disciples went to offer condolence.  The visitor found the Sage squatting on the ground, singing and beating on a basin to keep time.

“Someone has lived with you and raised children for you and now her old body dies.  Is it not enough that you should not weep, but that you should be singing to the music of a basin?  Isn’t it too much?”

“No,” replied the Sage.  “When she died, how could I help but feel very sorry?  But I began to think and I realized that originally she had no life, and not only no life, she had no form, and not only no form, she had no soul. There was even a time when she was not a breath; she was mingled with the nebulousness of Chaos; she was a part of a mass of formlessness.  Then she changed and received Spirit, the Spirit changed, and she was given form, form changed and she was given life, and now she changes once more and goes to her death.  She merely goes through a process resembling the rotation of spring, summer, autumn and winter.  There she lies now peacefully in a big house.  If I should break down and cry aloud, I would behave like one who does not understand destiny.  Therefore, I stopped.”
 

[Marblehead]

And Chuang Tzu further said:

 

 

The Sage Was About to Die

The Sage was about to die, and his disciples wanted to give him a sumptuous funeral.

“I regard the Heaven and Earth as my coffin and outer coffin, the sun and the moon as a pair of jade gifts and the constellations as my burial jewels.  And the whole creation shall come to my funeral.  Will it not be a grand funeral?  What more should I want?”

“We are afraid that vultures will come and eat our master,” said the disciples.

The Sage replied, “Above the ground, I shall be eaten by the vultures, underground, I shall be eaten by the ants.  Why rob the one to give to the other?  Why are you so partial to the ants?”
 

[Marblehead]

With still much more to say Chuang Tzu continued:

 

 

The Master Died

When the Master died, his favorite disciple went to the funeral.  He uttered three yells and departed.

Another disciple asked him, saying, “Were you not our Master’s friend?”

“I was,” replied the first.

“And if so, do you consider that a sufficient expression of grief at his death?” added the other.

“I do,” replied the first.  “I had thought he was a mortal man, but now I know that he was not.  When I went in to mourn, I found old persons weeping as if for their children, young ones wailing as if for their mothers.  In such a situation, certain words naturally escape our mouths and tears naturally escape our eyes.  But to do so, to cry thus at one’s death, is to evade the natural principles of life and death and increase human attachments, forgetting the source from which we receive this life.  He who awaits his time, who submits when his work is done; in his life there is no room for sorrow or for rejoicing.  Here is how the ancients said all this in four words, ‘Tao cuts the thread.’  The Master came at his right time into the world.  When his time was up, he left it again.  We have seen a fire of sticks burn out.  The fire now burns in some other place.  Where?  Who knows?  These brands are burnt out.  The Master came, because it was his time to be born; he went, because it was his time to go away.  Those who accept the natural course and sequence of things and live in obedience to it are beyond joy and sorrow.  The ancients spoke of this as the emancipation from bondage.”
 

[Marblehead]

Chuang Tzu felt to be on a roll so he continued with:

 

 

The Conversation Of Four Friends On Life And Death

Four men were conversing together, saying, “Whoever can make Not-being the head, Life the backbone, and Death the tail, and whoever realizes that death and life and being and non-being are of one body, that man shall be admitted to friendship with us.”  The four looked at each other and smiled, and, completely understanding one another, became friends accordingly.

By and by, the oldest fell ill, and the rest went to see him. “Verily the Creator is great!” said the sick man.  “See how doubled up I am?”  His back was so hunched that his viscera were on top, his chin was hidden in his navel, and his shoulders were higher than his head.  His neck bone pointed up towards the sky.  The whole economy of his organism was deranged, but his mind was calm as ever.  He dragged himself to a well, and said, “Alas, that Tao should have doubled me up like this!”

“Do you dislike it?” asked one.

“No, why should I?” replied the sick man.  “There is a time for putting together and another time for taking apart.  I came to life because it was my time, and I am now parting with it in the natural course of things.  Content with the coming of things in their time and living in accord with Tao, joy and sorrow touch me not.  This is, according to the ancients, to be freed from bondage.  Those who cannot be freed from bondage are so because they are bound by the trammels of material existence.  But man has ever given away before Tao; why, then, should I dislike it?”

By and by, another fell ill and lay gasping for breath, while his family stood weeping around.  The oldest went to see him, and cried to the wife and children, “Go away!  You are impeding his dissolution.”  Then, leaning against the door, he said, “Verily, Tao is great!  I wonder what will be made of you now, and whither you will be sent.”

“A son,” answered the sick one, “must go whithersoever his parents bid him, East, West, North, South.  Yin and Yang are no other than a man’s parents.  If Yin and Yang bid me die quickly, and I demur, then the fault is mine, not theirs.  The Great Universe gives me this form, this toil in manhood, this repose in old age, this rest in death.  Surely that which is such a kind arbiter of my life is the best arbiter of my death.

“Suppose that the boiling metal in a smelting pot were to bubble up and say, ‘Make of me a Moyeh (a famous sword)!’  The master caster would reject that metal as uncanny.  And if simply because I am cast into human form, I were to say, ‘I don’t want to be anything but a man!’ the Creator too would reject me as uncanny.  If I regard the Universe as the smelting pot, and the Creator as the Master Caster, how should I worry wherever I am sent?”  Then he sank into a peaceful sleep and waked up the next morning very much alive.
 

[Marblehead]

And Chuang Tzu continued:

 

 

The Conversation Of Three Friends On Life And Death

Three men were conversing together, saying, “Who can live together as if they did not live together?  Who can help each other as if they did not help each other?  Who can mount to Heaven, and roaming through the clouds, leap about in the Ultimate Infinite, oblivious of existence, for ever and ever without end?”  The three looked at each other and smiled with a perfect understanding and became friends accordingly.

Shortly afterwards, one of the three friends died, whereupon the duke sent an attendee to the mourning.  The attendee found that one of the dead man’s friends was arranging cocoon sheets and the other was playing a string instrument and both were singing together as follows:

“Oh! come back for us,
Oh! come back for us,
Thou hast already returned to thy true state,
While we still remain here as men! Oh!”

The attendee hurried in and said, “How can you sing in the presence of a corpse?  Is this good manners?”

The two men looked at each other and laughed, saying, “What should this man know about the meaning of good manners indeed?”

The attendee went back and told the duke, asking him, “What manner of men are these?  Their object is to cultivate nothingness and let their minds wander beyond their corporeal frames.  They can sit near a corpse and sing, unmoved.  There is no name for such persons.  What manner of men are they?”

“These men,” replied the duke, “roam about beyond the material things; you and I move about within them, consequently, our paths do not meet, and I was stupid to have sent you to mourn. They consider themselves companions of the Creator, and wander about within the One Spirit of the Universe.  They look upon life as a huge goiter or excrescence, and upon death as the breaking of the tumor.  How could such people be concerned about the coming of life and death or their sequence?  They borrow their forms from the different elements, and take temporary adobe in the common forms, unconscious of their internal organs and oblivious of their senses of hearing and vision.  They go through life backwards and forwards as in a circle without beginning or end, strolling forgetfully beyond the dust and dirt of mortality, and playing about with the affairs of inaction.  How should such men bustle about the conventionalities of this world for people to look at?”

“But if such is the case,” said the attendee, “which world, the corporeal or the spiritual, would you deal with?”

“I am one condemned by Tao,” replied the duke.  “Nevertheless, I will share with you what I know.  Fishes should  live their full life in water.  Men should live their full life in Tao.  Those that live their full life in water thrive in ponds.  Those that live their full life in Tao achieve realization of their nature in inaction.  Hence the saying ‘Fish lose themselves in water; man loses himself in Tao.’  Those strange people are strange in the eyes of man, but normal in the eyes of Tao.”
 

Edited July 8, 2015 by Marblehead

[Marblehead]

Chuang Tzu just won't give it up.  He loves talking about these concepts so he continued:

 

 

The Fasting Of The Heart

The goal of fasting is inner unity.  This means hearing, but not with the ear; hearing, but not with the understanding; hearing with the soul, with your whole being.  The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing.  The hearing of the understanding is another.  But the hearing of the soul is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind.  Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties.  And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens.  There is then a direct grasp of what is right there before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind.  Fasting of the heart empties the faculties, frees you from limitation and from preoccupation.  Fasting of the heart begets unity and freedom.

If you can do this, you will be able to go among men in their world without upsetting them.  You will not enter into conflict with their ideal image of themselves.  If they will listen, sing them a song.  If not, keep silent.

Do not try to break down their door.  Do not try out new medicines on them.  Just be there among them, because there is nothing else for you to be but one of them.  Then you may have success!

It is easy to stand still and leave no trace, but it is hard to walk without touching the ground.  If you follow human methods, you can get away with deception.  In the way of Tao, no deception is possible.

You know that one can fly with wings.  You have not yet learned about flying without wings.  You are familiar with the wisdom of those who know, but you have not yet learned the wisdom of those who know not.

Look at this window.  It is nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light.  So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light.  Being full of light it becomes an influence by which others are secretly transformed.
 

[blue eyed snake]

thank you, the last one touches my heart

[Marblehead]

And with still a little breath left in his lungs Chuang Tzu said:

 

 

On The Perfection Of Transcendental Existence

To cry as the common people cry is a manifestation of the mundane material world.  To identify life and death as equal, to forget joy and sorrow, and be able to sing in the presence of a corpse is the perfection of transcendental existence.  Therefore the principles of things have their ultimate, and internal and external reality are to be perceived by means of each other.  
 

[Marblehead]

After that Lao Tzu suggested they go have some wine and Chuang Tzu thought it was a great idea so they did.

[Stosh]

Is that the end?

[Marblehead]

Is that the end?

Only the end of Part I.  There are four parts, the forth being the conversations with Confucius which I may or may not post.

[Stosh]

! Help yourself to some telepathic diced pork chop n eggs.

 

[blue eyed snake]

After that Lao Tzu suggested they go have some wine and Chuang Tzu thought it was a great idea so they did.

 

sadly i'm not allowed to drink wine anymore...else I would have joined these guys   

will you go on with part 2?

I'm getting used to reading it little by little here, nice dosage

[Marblehead]

sadly i'm not allowed to drink wine anymore...else I would have joined these guys   

will you go on with part 2?

I'm getting used to reading it little by little here, nice dosage

Yes, I will be doing Parts 2 and 3.  Part 4 is doubtful but we'll see.

[Marblehead]

Both Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu have passed out from drinking too much wine.

 

Lao Tzu is dreaming of travelling to the Northwestern border, beyond the Great Wall, and into the Altun Shan Mountains.

 

Chuang Tzu is again dreaming he is a butterfly.

[blue eyed snake]

Yes, I will be doing Parts 2 and 3.  Part 4 is doubtful but we'll see.

 

step by step   

thanks,  i'll read along with part 2

[Marblehead]

After resting and sleeping off the wine the two go back outside, walk over to the river bank, have a seat on the ground and watch the fish play.

 

Then Lao Tzu says:

 

 

Tao’s Protective Wall Of Compassion

When Heaven’s about to establish him,
It is as though it surrounds him
With the protective wall of compassion.

 

[Marblehead]

It took a little while for that thought to reach the inner part of Chuang Tzu's mind as he was still being entertained by the fish.

 

But finally he responds with:

 

 

Wholeness

How does the true man of Tao seem to walk through walls without obstruction; stand in fire without being burnt?  Not because of cunning or daring; not because he has learned, but because he has unlearned.  All that is limited by form, semblance, sound and color is called object.  Among them all, man alone is more than an object.  Though, like objects, he has form and semblance, he is not limited to form.  He is more.  He can attain to formlessness.

When he is beyond form and semblance, beyond “this” and “that,” where is the comparison with another object?  What can stand in his way?

He will rest in his eternal place which is no-place.  He will be hidden in his own unfathomable secret.  His nature sinks to its root in the One.  His vitality, his power, hide in the secret of Tao.

When he is all one, there is no flaw in him by which a wedge can enter.  Like when a drunken man, falling out of a wagon, is bruised but not destroyed.  His bones are like the bones of other men, but his fall is different.  His has forgotten his physical being.  He is not aware of getting into a wagon or falling out of one.

Life and death are nothing to the true man.  He knows no alarm, he meets obstacles without thought, without care; takes them without knowing they are there.  The true man is hidden in Tao.  Nothing can touch him.
 

[Marblehead]

Lao Tzu shook his head and thought, "He didn't speak to what I said.  Must still be under the influence of last night's wine."

 

Then Lao Tzu said:

 

 

Nature Is Impartial

Heaven and Earth are impartial;
They treat the Ten Thousand Things
Like sacrificial straw-dogs.

The Sage is impartial;
He treats the common people
Like sacrificial straw-dogs.

(This is the doctrine of naturalism, the Sage reaching the impartiality and often the stolid indifference of Nature.

It should be explained that:

(1) There is a consistent view of a great Tao, the source of all creation, which rises above all individual things and persons.  One of the most important concepts about Tao is that it is entirely impersonal and impartial in its workings.  In this concept of impartiality, Tao resembles the scientist’s concept of an impersonal law, which makes no exceptions for individuals.

(2)  The philosophers of Taoism emphasize that Tao benefits all without conscious kindness.  They constantly attack any doctrine leading to conscious affectation.  In the world of unconscious goodness, the people were “kind”, but they “did not know it was called humanity;” they “did right,” but “did not know it was called justice.”

(3) They emphasize that the true love of mankind exceeds the partial love of one’s relatives.)
 

Edited July 15, 2015 by Marblehead

[Marblehead]

Chuang Tzu shook his head in order to gain some clarity.  He thought for a moment then said:

 

 

The Sage Spreads Blessings Upon All Things

A Sage was describing Tao as his master.  “Ah!  My Master, my Master!  Tao trims down all created things, and does not account it justice.  Tao causes all created things to thrive and does not account it kindness.  Dating back further than the remotest antiquity, it does not account itself old.  Covering Heaven, supporting Earth, and fashioning the various forms of things, it does not account itself skilled.  It is Tao you should seek.”

And so it is that when the Sage wages war, he can destroy a kingdom and yet does not lose the affection of its people; he spreads blessings upon all things, but does not regard it as love of fellowmen.  He who has personal attachments is not humane.

Now perfect Tao cannot be given a name.  A perfect argument does not employ words.  Perfect kindness does not concern itself with individual acts of kindness.  For the Tao which is manifest is not Tao.  Speech which argues falls short of its aim.  Kindness which has fixed objects loses its scope.
 

[Stosh]

Confucious, who was walking by , Saw his comrades chatting , assumed he could interject, and so he asked,"Will neither of you defend the ways of men? That its natural consequence to be most concerned with ones own scope, is obvious. Should a child grow up Not feeling the special love of his or her parents?, For without attention to this ,family loses meaning, Do not children grow apart from it,,apart and away from those that they know best in their scope. To whom then does piety belong to. Why then honor? ,and if not specially loving honoring and respecting each other in their roles ,,What in its place will maintain the nourishing social fabric? Acting as the tao itself , mAy be peaceful to us old men who have no need of special social construct,in a context where others provide the benefit of society,,but if all adults were Sages, untutored youth would become homeless unowned drifters spiritually and physically. Can children fend for themselves in the impartial tao, like baby bugs or trees?

[Marblehead]

And Chuang Tzu responded, "Why are you pushing your ideals?  We will discuss these things in due time.  Afterall, we are now talking of those sages who never had or no longer have familial responsibilities."

 

 

Confucius fell silent into thought then asked, "If I remain silent may I join you and listen to your conversations?"

 

Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu looked at each other, laughed, and Lao Tzu said, "Of course you may."

Edited July 16, 2015 by Marblehead

[Stosh]

Confucious reconsidered , perhaps I am pushing my ideals , I was thinking about the value of family , why they can fall short .but  ,If I have to keep my mouth shut , I would not be participating anyway , so have a nice day without me. And he left not laughing but uncontested.

[Marblehead]

You done good Mr. Confucius.

[Marblehead]

After a short silence Chuang Tzu continued:

 

 

The Love Of The Sage

The prime minister asked the Sage about love.

“Tigers and wolves are loving animals,” said the Sage.

“What do you mean?” asked the prime minister.

“The tiger loves her cub.  Why isn’t she a loving animal?”

“What about perfect kindness?” asked the prime minister.

“Perfect kindness has no regard for particular relations.”

“I have heard it said,” replied the prime minister, “that without relations, one has no love, and without love, one has no filial piety.  How can you say that the perfect kind man has no filial piety?”

“You don’t understand,” said the Sage.  “Perfect kindness is indeed the ideal.  It is so much higher than filial piety. The filial piety that you speak of is not enough; it falls short of true piety.”

To a person who is born beautiful people give a mirror.  But if people did not tell him, he would not know that he was beautiful.  He seems to be aware and yet unaware of it, to have heard and yet not to have heard.  Thus he never loses his beauty and people admire him forever.  To a person who loves his fellowmen, people give a name, ‘humanity’.  But if people did not tell him, he would not know that he was kind.  He seems to be aware and yet unaware of his kindness, to have heard it and yet not to have heard it.  Thus he never loses his kindness, and people are at ease in his presence forever.”