Mair 17:1-1

[Marblehead]

When the time of the autumn floods arrived, the hundred tributaries poured into the Yellow River.  Its onrushing current was so huge that one could not discern an ox or a horse on the opposite side or on the banks of its islets.  Thereupon the Earl of the River {{The god of the Yellow River.}} delightedly congratulated himself at having complete and sole possession of all excellences under heaven.  Following along with the current, he went east until he reached the Northern Sea.  There he looked eastward but could not see the water's end, whereupon he crestfallenly gazed across the surface of the sea and said with a sigh to its overlord, "There is a proverb that says, 'He who has heard the Way a hundred times believes no one may be compared with himself!'  This applies to me.  Furthermore, when I first heard those who belittle the learning of Confucius and disparage the righteousness of Poyi, I did not believe them.  But now that I behold your boundlessness, I realize that, had I not come to your gate, I would have been in danger, and would have been ridiculed forever by the practitioners of the great method."

 

The Overlord of the Northern Sea {{His name was Jo.}} said, "You can't tell a frog at the bottom of a well about the sea because he's stuck in his little space.  You can't tell a summer insect about ice because it is confined by its season.  You can't tell a scholar of distorted views about the Way because he is bound by his doctrine.  Now you have ventured forth from your banks to observe the great sea and have recognized your own insignificance, so that you can be told of the great principle.

 

"Of all the waters under heaven, none is greater than the sea.  The myriad rivers return to it ceaselessly but it never fills up; the drain at its bottom endlessly discharges but it never empties.  Spring and autumn it never varies, and it knows nothing of flood and drought.  Its superiority to such streams as the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers cannot be measured in numbers.  Yet the reason I have never made much of myself on this account is because I compare my own form to that of heaven and earth and recall that I received my vital breath from yin and yang.  Amid heaven and earth, I am as a little pebble or tiny tree on a big mountain.  Since I perceive of myself as small, how then can I make much of myself?  May we not reckon that the four seas in the midst of heaven and earth resemble the cavity in a pile of stones lying in a huge marsh?  May we not reckon that the Middle Kingdom {{Still China's name for itself to this day.  It originally signified a monarchical political entity located within a group of fortified passes in the present-day province of Shensi at the confluence of the Wei and Yellow rivers around modern Sian, i.e., "kingdom of the central plains."  Later, however, the concept took on a more cultural coloring with China seeing itself as a uniquely civilized country surrounded by hordes of "barbarians."  Places outside of the "central," or "middle" kingdom were considered to be cultural backwaters.  During Chuang Tzu's time, that included everything south of the Yangtze River.}} in the midst of the sea is like a mustard seed in a huge granary?  When we designate the number of things there are in existence, we refer to them in terms of myriads, but man occupies only one place among them.  The masses of men occupy the nine regions, but wherever grain grows and wherever boats and carriages reach, the individual occupies only one place among them.  In comparison with the myriad things, would he not resemble the tip of a downy hair on a horse's body?  The succession of the five emperors, the contention of the three kings, the worries of humane men, the labors of the committed scholars, all amount to no more than this.  Poyi declined it for the sake of fame.  Confucius lectured on it for the sake of his erudition.  This is because they made much of themselves.  Is this not like you just now making much of yourself because of your flooding waters?"

 

 

[Taoist Texts]

2 hours ago, Marblehead said:

Thereupon the Earl of the River {{The god of the Yellow River.}}

This is two water gods conversing. ZZ must have believed in them

[Marblehead]

1 hour ago, Taoist Texts said:

This is two water gods conversing. ZZ must have believed in them

Yes, I suppose we have to suggest that he did believe in them as well as spirits but then it may be that he just used them as vehicles because the common people believed in them.  We speak in terms our listeners will understand.

 

 

[wandelaar]

The idea seems to be that we as individuals are all relatively unimportant in the greater scheme of things, what could be used as a foundational insight for the humble, non-assuming, non-aggressive, "don't overdo things"-approach characterizing the Taoist way of life.  

[Marblehead]

Yeah, most of us have an ego we play with.

 

But eventually the screen goes blank and then appears:

 

GAME OVER