Mair 12:15

[Marblehead]

A century-old tree is broken up and made into a sacrificial vessel decorated with green and yellow, while the shavings are thrown into a ditch.  If we compare the sacrificial vessel with the shavings in the ditch, there may be a difference in their esthetic appeal, but they are alike in having lost their original nature.  Though there may be a difference in the exercise of righteousness by the tyrant Chieh and Robber Footpad on the one hand, and Tseng Shen and Shih Ch'iu on the other, they are alike in having lost their original nature.

Furthermore, there are five things that may lead to the loss of one's original nature.

First are the five colors which confuse the eye
And make it less keen.
Second are the five sounds which confuse the ear
And make it less sharp.
Third are the five odors
{{Rank, fragrant, aromatic, fishy, rotten.}}
Which becloud the nose and assail the sinuses.
Fourth are the five flavors which dull the mouth
And make it insensitive.
Fifth are preferences and aversions which unsettle the mind
And make one's nature flighty.

These five things are all injurious to life.  Yet Yang Chu and Mo Ti swagger about self-complacently, thinking they have hit on the answer, but it's not what I would call the answer.  When the answer they have hit on constrains them, can it be the answer?  If so, then the dove or the owl in a cage may also be said to have hit on the answer.  Furthermore, preferences and aversions, sounds and colors are like so much firewood piled up within; leather caps and hats with kingfisher feathers, and official tablets inserted in long sashes restrain them from without.  Inside, they are stuffed full with barricades of firewood and outside they are bound with layers of rope.  Looking around from inside their ropes with a gleam in their eye, they think they have hit on the answer.  If that be so, then criminals with their arms tied together and their fingers in a press, and the tiger and the leopard in their sacks or cages may also be said to have hit on the answer.

[nestentrie]

Hmm. What answer do these people think they have hit upon? I'm afraid I don't follow this part.

[Marblehead]

15 hours ago, nestentrie said:

Hmm. What answer do these people think they have hit upon? I'm afraid I don't follow this part.

The first part of this section speaks to the concept of our original nature and how it can be influenced and altered by the five if partaken of in excess.

 

Then are listed the five.

 

Then are presented some examples of the effects.  The result (last sentence) is that they realized too late the effects of being influenced by distracting matters.

[Stosh]

On 12/25/2017 at 8:18 PM, nestentrie said:

Hmm. What answer do these people think they have hit upon? I'm afraid I don't follow this part.

My answer as an alternative plausible interp , hinges on the idea that the outlined physical sensory phenomena result in one being entrapped somehow,,

How, You might ask ?

And I would say that instead of being free from 'carrots and sticks'

we can get dragged around trying to indulge and avoid stuff ,,  like the rich dudes mentioned.

They think that they can successfully wallow in the riches they attained,, (and maybe one CAN pat themselves on the back with the idea that they have it all , you'd have to decide) 

But there's downsides to attaining the objects of their desires because they are material - they run out of bang for the buck Besides, Potential friends and spouses now want a piece of the action,

and they have to maintain this supply of dopamine , 

get dragged into situations they don't want to be in , and so forth.

Instead of foremost being concerned with attaining spiritual satisfactions, ease, freedom, friends and the like, They amass stuff or ride a roller coaster , keep up with the Joneses  , run the rat race. 

The normal attitude is that more is always better , some daoists disagreed and felt one would have more satisfactions if they allowed themselves to appreciate simple pleasures.

As one guy put it  "lower the bar, and score more". 

[Taoist Texts]

this bit is clearer in Legge

 

These five things are all injurious to the life; and now Yang and Mo begin to stretch forward from their different standpoints, each thinking that he has hit on (the proper course for men).
But the courses they have hit on are not what I call the proper course. What they have hit on (only) leads to distress - can they have hit on what is the right thing?

[dawei]

On 12/26/2017 at 11:34 AM, Marblehead said:

The first part of this section speaks to the concept of our original nature and how it can be influenced and altered by the five if partaken of in excess.

 

Then are listed the five.

 

Then are presented some examples of the effects.  The result (last sentence) is that they realized too late the effects of being influenced by distracting matters.

 

Not as excess... just normal life stuff... that's the subtle subterfuge of life.