From an Anthology of Chinese Literature
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Among those who live by the seashore there was once a man who loved seagulls. Every morning by the shore he would roam around with the gulls, and the gulls that would come to him were never less than hundreds.
His father said, "I've heard tell that the gulls always go roaming with you. Bring some to you so that I can enjoy it."
The next day the man went down to the seashore, but the gulls danced above him and would not come down.
Thus they say that the perfection of language is getting rid of language and the perfection of action is action's absence. What is known to average cunning is shallow indeed.....
from the Lie-zi (? - AD 300)
His father said, "I've heard tell that the gulls always go roaming with you. Bring some to you so that I can enjoy it."
The next day the man went down to the seashore, but the gulls danced above him and would not come down.
Thus they say that the perfection of language is getting rid of language and the perfection of action is action's absence. What is known to average cunning is shallow indeed.....
from the Lie-zi (? - AD 300)
....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
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There's the new assignment!
I especially like this:
Thus they say that the perfection of language is getting rid of language and the perfection of action is action's absence. What is known to average cunning is shallow indeed.....
So powerful.
Finsbury......could you be more specific with your instructions for the assignment....
now for another excerpt from the Anthology.....
'In the following anectode, the Daoist principles of the relativity of values and the alterations of fortune reemerge in something that seems like folk wisdom.....
from the Huai-nan-Zi (2nd Century BC)....
There was a man who lived near the frontier who was well versed in the workings of fate. For no reason his horse ran away into the land of the nomads. Everyone else commiserated with him, but his father said, "How do you know this won't unexpectedly turn out to be good luck?"
After several months his horse returned with fine nomad horses. Everyone else congratulated him, but his father said, "How do you know this won't unexpectedly turn out to be bad luck?" The family was rich in fine horses, and the man's son liked to ride. He fell and broke his hipbone; and everyone commiserated with him; but his father said, "How do you know this won't unexpectedly turn out to be good luck?"
After a year, the nomads made a great raid into the border. The young men in their prime took their bows and went to do battle. Of those who lived near the frontier, nine out of ten died. But this father kept his son only because he was lame.
Thus good fortune turning into misfortune and misfortune turning into good fortune is a transformation without end, and the depths of it cannot be penetrated.....'
ISBN 0 393 03823 8
(thanks - I'll try to think of a modern or new parable)
Mencius II A, 2.xi, xvii
'Gong-Sun Chou: What, sir, are your strongest points?
Mencius: I understand language, and have mastered the fostering of that boundless and surging vital force.
....
Gong-Sun Chou: What do you mean by "understanding language"?
Mencius: When someone's words are one-sided, I understand how his mind is clouded. When someone's words are loose and extravagant, I understand the pitfalls into which that person has fallen. When someone's words are warped, I understand wherein the person has strayed. When someone's words are evasive, I understand how the person has been pushed to his limits.'
The two people walked side by side to the café; a patient and a nurse. The patient asked the nurse about the fat woman with motley clothes and shopping bags who fed the pigeons? Why wasn't she in a home; why was she left to roam the streets? The nurse answered that sometimes she was taken into the hospital for checks, but that she was harmless. She often went into restaurants to get hot water for her tea, and if there was a new waitress who didn't know her, she would shout a lot, but nothing more.
Three weeks later, the patient was at the same café, when the fat, scarved homeless woman came in for her hot water. It must have been a bad day for her, because she screamed something at the waitress and on the way out threw her pot of boiling water in the face of a customer, scalding and severely burning her.
Thus it occurred to the patient that when obvious warnings of danger are ignored, it always guarantees a catastrophe.
(Qi-wu lun)
Great knowing is slow and capacious,
small knowing is sly and capricious.
Great words blaze with distinction,
small words amaze making distinctions.
In their sleeping, souls cross; in their waking outer forms come apart.
When we touch another, we set to contrive,
every day minds struggle and strive.
This piece is rich with observational detail and human interest, offering an insight into the self discovery and social awareness of the patient in seeing the vulnerability of others. I think this works well as a parable of our times. Thanks.
'....the following 'joke', with its play on value and illusion, is directly in teh (heheheh) tradition of Daoist parables....
A man of Chu was carrying a mountain stork when a traveller on the road asked him, "What bird is that?" The man carrying the bird fooled him and said, "It's a pheonix!" The traveler said, "I've long heard of the existence of pheonixes, and now I can see a real one. Will you sell it?"
"Of course."
Then he offered a thousand taels of silver, but the man wouldn't accept it. He doubled the price, and the man gave him the bird. He was going to present the bird to the King of Chu, but during the course of the night the bird died. The traveler didn't give a thought to the loss of his silver, but only regretted not being able to present the bird to the king.
When people in the kingdom told the story, they all thought that it had been a real pheonix and valuable, thus appropriate to present to the king. The king, moved by how the man had wanted to present the bird to him, called him to court and rewarded him richly, ten times what it had cost him to buy the 'pheonix'.'
....A thing is sometimes added to when being reduced....
Or is reduced when being added to...
So I teach what I am taught:
'The violent will not come to a good end'....
This I will take as the first lesson when I teach.....