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Chuang_Tzu_-_Poems

The_Book_of_Chuang_Tzu

IN CHAPTERS TITLE

1.lb_-_Chuang_Tzu_And_The_Butterfly

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

1.ct_-_Creation_and_Destruction

1.ct_-_Distinguishing_Ego_from_Self

1.ct_-_Goods_and_Possessions

1.ct_-_Letting_go_of_thoughts

1.ct_-_One_Legged_Man

1.ct_-_Surrendering

IN CHAPTERS TEXT

1.01_-_THAT_ARE_THOU

1.03_-_The_Sephiros

1.04_-_GOD_IN_THE_WORLD

1.05_-_CHARITY

1.06_-_MORTIFICATION,_NON-ATTACHMENT,_RIGHT_LIVELIHOOD

1.07_-_TRUTH

1.09_-_SELF-KNOWLEDGE

1.10_-_GRACE_AND_FREE_WILL

1.15_-_SILENCE

1.20_-_TANTUM_RELIGIO_POTUIT_SUADERE_MALORUM

1.27_-_CONTEMPLATION,_ACTION_AND_SOCIAL_UTILITY

1.ct_-_Creation_and_Destruction

1.ct_-_Distinguishing_Ego_from_Self

1.ct_-_Goods_and_Possessions

1.ct_-_Letting_go_of_thoughts

1.ct_-_One_Legged_Man

1.ct_-_Surrendering

1.lb_-_Chuang_Tzu_And_The_Butterfly

2.00_-_BIBLIOGRAPHY

Avatars_of_the_Tortoise

Book_of_Imaginary_Beings_(text)

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SIMILAR TITLES

Chuang Tzu

Chuang Tzu - Poems

The Book of Chuang Tzu

TERMS STARTING WITH

Chuang Tzu (Chinese) Chinese philosopher (late 4th century b.c.) who, with Lao Tzu and Kuan Tzu, is regarded as one of the patriarchs of Taoism. He wrote a work under his name which treats of the tao and its relation to the universe and man, and gives directions for the conduct of human life.

Chuang Tzu: (Chuang Chou, Chuing Chi-yuan, between 399 and 295 B.C.) The second greatest Taoist, was once a petty officer in his native state, Meng (in present Honan), in the revolutionary and romantic south. A little-travelled scholar, he declined a premiership in favor of freedom and peace. His love of nature, his vivid imagination and subtle logic make his works masterpieces of an exquisite style. Only the first seven and a few other chapters of Chuang Tzu (English transl. by H. (Giles and by Feng Yu-lan) are authentic. -- W.T.C.


TERMS ANYWHERE

Chuang Tzu (Chinese) Chinese philosopher (late 4th century b.c.) who, with Lao Tzu and Kuan Tzu, is regarded as one of the patriarchs of Taoism. He wrote a work under his name which treats of the tao and its relation to the universe and man, and gives directions for the conduct of human life.

Chuang Tzu: (Chuang Chou, Chuing Chi-yuan, between 399 and 295 B.C.) The second greatest Taoist, was once a petty officer in his native state, Meng (in present Honan), in the revolutionary and romantic south. A little-travelled scholar, he declined a premiership in favor of freedom and peace. His love of nature, his vivid imagination and subtle logic make his works masterpieces of an exquisite style. Only the first seven and a few other chapters of Chuang Tzu (English transl. by H. (Giles and by Feng Yu-lan) are authentic. -- W.T.C.

Chen jen: "The true man", the supreme man, the pure man, the man of supreme inward power, not in the moral sense but in the sense of "pure gold", has limitless inward resources. One who has transcended the self and the non-self, and life and death, and has reached a state of mystical union with the universe. (Chuang Tzu between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- H.H.

Chen ts'a: The true Lord who directs the operation of the universe, to whose existence there is no clue. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- W.T.C.

Chih jen: "The perfect man", one who has reached a state of mystical union with the universe, or "one who has not separated from the true." (Chuang Tzu between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- H.H.

Chinese Philosophy: Confucianism and Taoism have been the dual basis of Chinese thought, with Buddhism presenting a strong challenge in medieval times. The former two, the priority of either of which is still controversial, rivaled each other from the very beginning to the present day. Taoism (tao chia) opposed nature to man, glorifying Tao or the Way, spontaneity (tzu jan), "inaction" (wu wei) in the sense of non-artificiality or following nature, simplicity (p'u), "emptiness," tranquillity and enlightenment, all dedicated to the search for "long life and lasting vision" (in the case of Lao Tzu, 570 B.C.?), for "preserving life and keeping the essence of our being intact" (in the case of Yang Chu, c. 440-360 B.C.), and for "companionship with nature" (in the case of Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). The notes of the "equality of things and opinions" (ch'i wu) and the "spontaneous and unceasing transformation of things" (tzu hua) were particularly stressed in Chuang Tzu.

Chi: The moving power; the subtle beginning of motion; the great Scheme (or germs ?) from which all things came and to which all things return (Chuang Tzu, d. c 295 B.C.); a mechanical arrangement according to which heavenly and earthly bodies revolve (Taoist mechanism, especially Lieh Tzu, third century A.D.); man's pure nature (as in Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- W.T.C.

Ch'i wu: The equality of things and opinions, the identity of contraries. "Viewed from the standpoint of Tao, a beam and a pillar are identical. So are ugliness and beauty, greatness, wickedness, perverseness, and strangeness. Separation is the same as construction; construction is the same as destruction." Therefore the sages harmonize the systems of right and wrong, and rest in the equilibrium of nature (t'ien chun). "This is called following two courses at the same time." (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- W.T.C.

Connected with the meditation there was practiced by certain individuals some form of breath control, as expressed by Chuang Tzu: the breathing of the sage is not like ordinary men, “he breathes with every part of him right down to the heels” (6:2). However, this author condemned physical exercises analogous to the yoga asanas (postures).

Hsiao yao yu: The happy excursion, that is, roaming outside of the realm of matter, following nature, and drifting in the Infinite, resulting in transcendental bliss. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- W.T.C.

Hsin chai: Chinese for fasting of the mind. A state of pure experience in which one has no intellectual knowledge, in which there is immediate presentation; the attainment of the mystical state of unity. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.)

Hsin chai: "Fasting of the mind" is a state of pure experience in which one has no intellectual knowledge, in which there is immediate presentation; the attainment of the mystical state of unity. (Chuang Tzu between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- H.H.

Hsuan chieh: Emancipation, to let nature take its course, to be at home with pleasant situations and at ease with misfortune, and not to be affected by sorrow and joy. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- W.T.C.

Jen: Man. Goodness; virtue in general; the moral principle; the moral ideal of the superior man (chun. tzu); the fundamental as well as the sum total of virtues, just as the Prime (yuan) is the origin and the vital force of all things --jen consisting of "man" and "two" and yuan consisting of "two" and "man". (Confucianism.) True manhood; man's character; human-heartedness; moral character; being man-like; "that by which a man is to be a man;" "realization of one's true self and the restoration of the moral order." (Confucius and Mencius.) "The active (yang) and passive (yin) principles are the way of Heaven; the principles of strength and weakness are the way of Earth; and true manhood and righteousness (i) are the way of Man." "True manhood is man's mind and righteousness is man's path." It is one of the three Universally Recognized Moral Qualities of man (ta te), the four Fundamentals of the Moral Life (ssu tuan), and the five Constant Virtues (wu ch'ang). True manhood and righteousness are the basic principles of Confucian ethics and politics. (Confucianism.) The golden rule; "Being true to the principles of one's nature (chung) and the benevolent exercise of them in relation to others (shu)." "The true man, having established his own character, seeks to establish the character of others; and having succeeded, seeks to make others succeed." (Confucius.) Love; benevolence; kindness; charity; compassion; "the character of the heart and the principle of love;" "love towards all men and benefit towards things." (Confucianism.) "Universal love without the element of self," (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) "Universal Love." (Han Yu, 767-824.) The moral principle with regard to others. "True manhood is the cardinal virtue by which others are pacified, whereas righteousness is the cardinal principle by which the self is rectified." It means "to love others and not the self." (Tung Chung-shu, 177-104 B.C.) Love of all men and things and impartiality and justice towards all men and things, this virtue being the cardinal virtue not only of man but also of the universe. "Love means to devote oneself to the benefit of other people and things." "Love implies justice, that is, as a man, treating others as men." "The true man regards the universe and all things as a unity. They are all essential to himself. As he realizes the true self, there is no limit to his love." (Ch'eng Ming-tao, 1032-1068.) "Love is the source of all laws, the foundation of all phenomena." "What is received from Heaven at the beginning is simply love, and is therefore the complete substance of the mind." "Love is the love of creating in the mind of Heaven and Earth, and men and other creatures receive it as their mind." (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200.)

Kuan Tzu (Chinese) The most voluminous Taoist work that has come down to our day. It treats of the ethical and political philosophy of tao with regard to the universe and man. Its authorship is assigned to Kuan tzu (also Kaun Chung or Kwan-twu, Kwan-tsze, Kwan-tse, etc.) of the 7th century BC. He is regarded as one of the three patriarchs of Tao — the other two being Lao tzu and Chuang Tzu. The work bears evidence of having been added to by other and later authors.

Kuo Hsiang: (Kuo Tzu-hsuan, c. 312 A.D.) The outstanding Taoist in medieval China, wrote the standard commentary on Chuang Tzu based on the notes of his senior contemporary Hsiang Hsiu. -- W.T.C.

Ming chia: Sophists or Dialecticians, also called hsing-ming chia, including Teng Hsi Tzu (545-501 B.C.?), Hui Shih (390-305 B.C.?), and Kung-sun Lung (between 400 and 250 B.C.), at first insisted on the correspondence between name and reality. The school later became a school of pure sophistry which Chuang Tzu and the Neo-Mohists strongly attacked. See Chien pai. -- W.T.C Ming (dynasty) philosophy: See Li hsueh and Chinese philosophy. Ming te: (a) Illustrious virtue; perfect virtue. (Early Confucianism.) (b) Man's clear character; the virtuous nature which man derives from Heaven. (Neo-Confucianism.) -- W.T.C.

Profound Virtue and Mysterious Power, through the cultivation of one's original nature and the returning to the character of Tao. Thus one "becomes identified with the Beginning, attains emptiness and vastness, and enters into mystic union with the Universe." (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- W.T.C

"Silent and therefore formless, changing and therefore impermanent, now dead, now living, equal with Heaven and Earth, moving with the spiritual and the intelligent, disappearing -- where? Suddenly -- whither? . . . -- These were some aspects of the system of Tao of the ancients. Chuang Chow (Chuang Tzu) heard of them and was delighted . . . He had personal communion with the spirit of Heaven and Earth but no sense of pride in his superiority to all things. He did not condemn either right or wrong, so he was at ease with the world . . . Above he roams with the Creator; below he makes friends of those who transcend beginning and end and make no distinctions between life and death . . ." -- W.T.C.

Su p'u: "Unadorned simplicity", being the state of original nature, is a state of desirelessness, of total absence of knowledge distinctions, of pure instinctivity. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) -- H.H.

T'ai ch'u: At the 'great beginning' there was non-being, which had neither being nor name. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). The great origin, or the beginning of the vital force (ch'i). (Lieh Tzu, third century A.D.). -- H.H.

T'ai i: The Great Unit, the Prime Force before the appearance of Heaven and Earth. Also called ta i. (Ancient Confucianism). Ultimate Oneness, which involves both Being (yu) and Non-Being (wu) (as in Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.), or "which pervades Heaven and Earth, indeterminate but simple, existing but uncreated," (As in Huai-nan Tzu, d. 122 B.C.). The Lord of Heaven (Huai-nan Tzu).

Tan: The opposite of 'grossness'; remaining detached from all outside things, the climax of fineness. It is to have in oneself no contraries; the climax of purity, in the sense of 'un-mixedness'. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- H.H.

Tantric: Adjective to Tantra (q.v.) Tao: The Way, principle, cosmic order, nature. "The Tao that can be expressed in words is not the eternal Tao." It is "vague and eluding," "deep and obscure," but "there is in it the form" and "the essence." "In it is reality." It "produced the One, the One produced the two, the two produced the three, and the three produced all things." Its "standard is the Natural." (Lao Tzu).   "Tao has reality and evidence but no action nor form. It may be transmitted, but cannot be received. It may be attained, but cannot be seen. It is its own essence, and its own root." "Tao operates, and results follow." "Tao has no limit." "It is in the ant," "a tare," "a potsherd," "ordure." (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). The Confucian "Way;" the teachings of the sage; the moral order, the moral life, truth, the moral law; the moral principle. This means "the fulfillment of the law of our human nature." It is the path of man's moral life. "True manhood (jen) is that by which a man is to be a man. Generally speaking, it is the moral law" (Mencius, 371-289 B.C.). "To proceed according to benevolence and righteousness is called the Way." (Han Yu, 767-824). The Way, which means following the Reason of things, and also the Reason which is in everything and which everything obeys. (Neo-Confucianism). The Way or Moral Law in the cosmic sense, signifying "what is above the realm of corporeality," and the "successive movement of the active (yang) and the passive principles (yin)." In the latter sense as understood both in ancient Confucianism and in Neo-Confucianism, it is interchangeable with the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi). Shao K'ang-chieh (1011-1077) said that "The Moral Law is the Great Ultimate." Chang Heng-ch'u (1022-1077) identified it with the Grand Harmony (Ta Ho) and said that "from the operation of the vital force (ch'i) there is the Way." This means that the Way is the principle of being as well as the sum total of the substance and functions of things. To Ch'eng I-ch'uan (1033-1107) "There is no Way independent of the active (yang) principle and the passive (yin) principle. Yet it is precisely the Way that determines the active and passive principles. These principles are the constituents of the vital force (ch'i), which is corporeal. On the other hand, the Way transcends corporeality." To Chu Hsi (1130-1200), the Way is "the Reason why things are as they are." Tai Tung-yuan (1723-1777) understood it to mean "the incessant transformation of the universe," and "the operation of things in the world, involving the constant flow of the vital force (ch'i) and change, and unceasing production and reproduction."

Tao chia: The Taoist school, the followers of Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu, etc., who "urged men to unity of spirit, teaching that all activities should be in harmony with the unseen (Tao), with abundant liberality toward all things in nature. As to method, they accept the orderly sequence of nature from the Yin Yang school, select the good points of Confucianists and Mohists, and combine with these the important points of the Logicians and Legalists. In accordance with the changes of the seasons, they respond to the development of natural objects."

Taoism: See Tao chia and Chinese philosophy. Tao shu: The essence of Tao, or the axis of Tao at the center of which all Infinities converge and all distinctions disappear. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- W.T.C.

"The true mm of old did not know what it was to love life or to have death. He did not rejoice in birth nor resist death. Spontaneously he went, spontaneously he came that was all. He did not forget whence he came, nor did he seek whence he would end. He accepted things gladly, and returned them to nature without reminiscence. This is called not to hurt Tao with the human heart, nor to assist heaven with man." (Chuang Tzu, between 399-295 B.C.)

T’ien (Chinese) Heaven, the abode of the ancestors; when applied to the human being, spirit: “Wander to where the ten thousand things [the cosmos] both begin and end, unify your nature, foster your life-breath, concentrate your ‘power’ till it is one with the force that created all things after their kind — do this, and your t’ien (heaven) shall maintain its integrity” (Chuang Tzu, 19:2).

T'ien chu: The 'evolution of nature' is the change things undergo from one form to another, the beginning and end of whose changes are like a circle, in which no part is any more the beginning than another part (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). The mind is the 'natural ruler'. (Hsun Tzu, c335-c288 B.C.). -- H.H.

T'ien i:The evolution of nature is the 'boundary of nature'. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- H.H.

To the Confucians this is "the eternal law of the universe." See chung yung. To Chuang Tzu (between 399 and 295 B.C.) "the common and the ordinary are the natural function of all things, which expresses the common nature of the whole. Following the common nature of the whole, they are at ease. Being at ease, they are near perfection. This is letting nature take its course, without being conscious of the fact. This is Tao." -- W.T.C.

Tso-ch’an (Chinese) Sitting dhyana or contemplation, practicing dhyana; equivalent to the Taoist tso-wang (sitting with blank mind), defined as “Slackening limbs and frame, blotting out the senses of hearing and sight, getting clear of outward forms, dismissing knowledge and being absorbed into That which Pervades Everything” (Chuang Tzu 6:10).

Tso wang: 'Sitting in forgetfulness'; that state of absolute freedom, in which the distinctions between others and self is forgotten, in which life and death are equated, in which all things have become one. A state of pure experience, in which one becomes at one with the infinite. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- H.H.

Wu hua: The transformation of things, that is, the conception that entities should be. and could be, so transfomed, spiritually speaking, that absolute identity may exist between them, especially between the self and the non-self, and between man and things. (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). -- W.T.C.

KEYS (10k)

   13 Chuang Tzu
   1 Tom Butler-Bowdon
   1 Thomas merton. The Way Of Chuang Tzu
   1 Thomas Merton. "The Way Of Chuang Tzu
   1 Chuang Tzu. "The empty boat" parable
   1 Chuang Tzu. "The complete works of Chuang Tzu"
   1 Chuang-tzu
   1 Chuang Tzu.

NEW FULL DB (2.4M)

   12 Chuang Tzu
   7 Osho
   5 Alan W Watts
   4 Thomas Merton
   3 Zhuangzi
   2 Li Bai
   2 Italo Calvino
   2 David Eagleman
   2 Colin Wilson

1:Let all things take their course. ~ Chuang-tzu,

2:Walk into the void. ~ Chuang Tzu,

3:Wander where there is no path. ~ Chuang Tzu,

4:The sound of water says what I think. ~ Chuang Tzu,

5:Where there is no longer word or silence Tao is apprehended. ~ Chuang Tzu. ,

6:And the need to win, drains his power. ~ Thomas Merton. "The Way Of Chuang Tzu,

7:Beyond infinite, there is more infinite. ~ Chuang Tzu,

8:We are born from a quiet sleep and we die to a calm awakening. ~ Chuang Tzu,

9:When the heart is at peace, "for" and "against" are forgotten. ~ Chuang Tzu,

10:Heaven and earth do nothing. Yet there is nothing they do not do. ~ Chuang Tzu,

11:Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. ~ Chuang Tzu, 370BC-287BC,

12:Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him? ~ Chuang Tzu,

13:If you want to enter the knowledge of the Tao, the entrance is called 'not knowing'. ~ Chuang Tzu, 370BC-287BC,

14:Every man knows how useful it is to be useful. No one seems to know How useful it is to be useless. ~ Thomas merton. The Way Of Chuang Tzu,

15:If you can empty your boat, Crossing the river of the world, No one will oppose you, No one will seek to harm you. ~ Chuang Tzu. "The empty boat" parable,

16:The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It refuses nothing. It receives, but does not keep. ~ Chuang Tzu,

17:The man of Tao remains unknown. Perfect virtue produces nothing. No self is True self. And the greatest man is nobody. ~ Chuang Tzu,

18:Mysteriously, wonderfully, I bid farewell to what goes. I greet what comes; For what comes cannot be denied, and what goes cannot be detained. ~ Chuang Tzu. "The complete works of Chuang Tzu",

19:The limit of the unlimited is called 'fullness'. The limitlessness of the limited is called 'emptiness'. Tao is the source of both. But is is itself neither fullness nor emptiness. ~ Chuang Tzu,

20:reading :::    50 Spiritual Classics: List of Books Covered:    Muhammad Asad - The Road To Mecca (1954)    St Augustine - Confessions (400)    Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)    Black Elk Black - Elk Speaks (1932)    Richard Maurice Bucke - Cosmic Consciousness (1901)    Fritjof Capra - The Tao of Physics (1976)    Carlos Castaneda - Journey to Ixtlan (1972)    GK Chesterton - St Francis of Assisi (1922)    Pema Chodron - The Places That Scare You (2001)    Chuang Tzu - The Book of Chuang Tzu (4th century BCE)    Ram Dass - Be Here Now (1971)    Epictetus - Enchiridion (1st century)    Mohandas Gandhi - An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth (1927)    Al-Ghazzali - The Alchemy of Happiness (1097)    Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet (1923)    GI Gurdjieff - Meetings With Remarkable Men (1960)    Dag Hammarskjold - Markings (1963)    Abraham Joshua Heschel - The Sabbath (1951)    Hermann Hesse - Siddartha (1922)    Aldous Huxley - The Doors of Perception (1954)    William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)    Carl Gustav Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1955)    Margery Kempe - The Book of Margery Kempe (1436)    J Krishnamurti - Think On These Things (1964)    CS Lewis - The Screwtape Letters (1942)    Malcolm X - The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964)    Daniel C Matt - The Essential Kabbalah (1994)    Dan Millman - The Way of the Peaceful Warrior (1989)    W Somerset Maugham - The Razor's Edge (1944)    Thich Nhat Hanh - The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975)    Michael Newton - Journey of Souls (1994)    John O'Donohue - Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom (1998)    Robert M Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)    James Redfield - The Celestine Prophecy (1994)    Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements (1997)    Helen Schucman & William Thetford - A Course in Miracles (1976)    Idries Shah - The Way of the Sufi (1968)    Starhawk - The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (1979)    Shunryu Suzuki - Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970)    Emanuel Swedenborg - Heaven and Hell (1758)    Teresa of Avila - Interior Castle (1570)    Mother Teresa - A Simple Path (1994)    Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now (1998)    Chogyam Trungpa - Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973)    Neale Donald Walsch - Conversations With God (1998)    Rick Warren - The Purpose-Driven Life (2002)    Simone Weil - Waiting For God (1979)    Ken Wilber - A Theory of Everything (2000)    Paramahansa Yogananda - Autobiography of a Yogi (1974)    Gary Zukav - The Seat of the Soul (1990)    ~ Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Spirital Classics (2017 Edition),

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

1:Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, and now I no longer know whether I am Chuang Tzu, who dreamed I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang Tzu. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove

2:Paraphrased: When Chuang Tzu was about to die, his disciples began planning a splendid funeral. However some disciples expressed concern that given a particular arrangement, birds and kites would eat his remains. Chuang Tzu replied, "Well, above ground I shall be eaten by crows and kites, below it by ants and worms. What do you have against birds? ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove

3:TRY: During the day, see if you can detect the bloom of the present moment in every moment, the ordinary ones, the in-between ones, even the hard ones. Work at allowing more things to unfold in your life without forcing them to happen and without rejecting the ones that don’t fit your idea of what should be happening. See if you can sense the spaces through which you might move with no effort in the spirit of Chuang Tzu’s cook. Notice how if you can make some time early in the day for being, with no agenda, it can change the quality of the rest of your day. By affirming first what is primary in your own being, see if you don’t get a mindful jump on the whole day and wind up more capable of sensing, appreciating, and responding to the bloom of each moment. ~ jon-kabat-zinn, @wisdomtrove

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

1:Wander where there is no path. ~ Chuang Tzu,

2:“To a mind that is still, the entire universe surrenders.” ~ Chuang Tzu,

3:Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?” ~ Chuang Tzu,

4:...he didn't know if he was Chuang Tzu who dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Tzu. ~ Inio Asano,

5:Men honor what lies within the sphere of knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it. ~ Chuang Tzu,

6:Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate. ~ Chuang Tzu,

7:Chuang-tzu: ‘‘The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror; it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives, but does not keep. ~ Alan W Watts,

8:Master Chuang Tzu says the spring insect knows nothing of the winter! We can also say suspicion knows nothing of the peace of mind! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan,

9:Let us forget the lapse of time; let us forget the conflict of opinions. Let us make our appeal to the infinite, and take up our positions there. Chuang Tzu ~ Jed McKenna,

10:The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when then fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. ~ Chuang Tzu,

11:The old Chinese sage Chuang-tzu, for example, said: Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, and now I no longer know whether I am Chuang-tzu, who dreamed I was a butterfly, or whether I am a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang-tzu. ~ Jostein Gaarder,

12:Two thousand three hundred years ago, the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu dreamt he was a butterfly. Upon waking, he considered this question: how would I know if I was Chuang Tzu dreaming I’m a butterfly – or instead, if right now I’m a butterfly dreaming I’m a man named Chuang Tzu? ~ David Eagleman,

13:The birth of a man is the birth of his sorrow. The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute. What bitterness! He lives for what is always out of reach! His thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present. CHUANG TZU ~ Sogyal Rinpoche,

14:As Chuang-tzu says, “It may be attained but not seen,” or, in other words, felt but not conceived, intuited but not categorized, divined but not explained. In a similar way, air and water cannot be cut or clutched, and their flow ceases when they are enclosed. There is no way of putting a stream in a bucket or the wind in a bag. Verbal ~ Alan W Watts,

15:Kung Wen Hsien saw Yo Shi and exclaimed: What kind of person is this? How come only one foot? Is this ordained by Heaven, Or caused by Man? He then said to himself: It is Heaven, not Man. Heavens destiny let him be crippled. The image of Man is given by Heaven. Therefore we know this is the work of Heaven, not Man. -Chuang Tzu, The True Tao ~ Chuang Tzu, One Legged Man ,

16:Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt that i was a butterfly. flitting around and enjoying myself. I had no idea I was Chuang Tzu. Then suddenly I woke up and was Chuang Tzu again. But I could not tell, had I been Chuang Tzu dreaming I was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming I was now Chuang Tzu? However, there must be some sort of difference between Chuang Tzu and a butterfly! We call this the transformation of things. ~ Zhuangzi,

17:Cierto día, Chuang Tzu se quedó dormido y soñó que era una mariposa, revoloteando muy contento por ahí. Y la mariposa no sabía que era Chuang Tzu soñando. Luego despertó y volvió a ser el de siempre, pero ahora no sabía si era un hombre soñando que era una mariposa o una mariposa soñando que era un hombre. Las enseñanzas de Chuang Tzu Si hubiera llevado un diario del dolor, la única anotación habría sido una palabra: yo. ~ Philip Roth,

18:Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly, I awoke, and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming that I am a man.” The ~ David Eagleman,

19:If you persist in trying to attain what is never attained (It is Taos gift), If you persist in making effort to obtain what effort cannot get, If you persist in reasoning about what cannot be understood, You will be destroyed by the very thing you seek. To know when to stop, To know when you can get no further by your own action, This is the right beginning! Chuang Tzu, Trans. T.Merton ~ Chuang Tzu, Surrendering ,

20:One of the previous possessors of the stone was Chuang Tzu. He had a disciple who spent seven years studying universal energy and then demonstrated his wisdom by walking across the surface of a river and back again, and Chuang Tzu broke into tears. ‘Oh, my boy!’ he sobbed. ‘My poor, poor, boy! You spent seven years of your life learning to do that, and all the while old Meng has been running a ferry not two miles from here, and he only charges two copper coins. ~ Barry Hughart,

21: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,

22:Among Chuang-tzu's many skills, he was an expert draftsman. The king asked him to draw a crab. Chuang-tzu replied that he needed five years, a country house, and twelve servants. Five years later the drawing was still not begun. "I need another five years," said Chuang-tzu. The king granted them. At the end of these ten years, Chuang-tzu took up his brush and, in an instant, with a single stroke, he drew a crab, the most perfect crab ever seen. [Calvino retells this Chinese story] ~ Italo Calvino,

23:Entre sus muchas virtudes, Chuang Tzu tenía la de ser diestro en el dibujo. El rey le pidió que dibujara un cangrejo. Chuang Tzu respondió que necesitaba cinco años y una casa con doce servidores. Pasaron cinco años y el dibujo aún no estaba empezado. «Necesito otros cinco años», dijo Chuang Tzu. El rey se los concedió. Transcurridos los diez años, Chuang Tzu tomó el pincel y en un instante, con un solo gesto, dibujó un cangrejo, el cangrejo más perfecto que jamás se hubiera visto. ~ Italo Calvino,

24:Entre las muchas virtudes de Chuang-Tzu estaba la habilidad en el dibujo. El rey le pidió que dibujase un cangrejo. Chuang-Tzu dijo que necesitaba cinco años de tiempo y un palacio de doce sirvientes. A los cinco años aún no había empezado el dibujo. «Necesito otros cinco años», dijo Chuang-Tzu. El rey se los concedió. Transcurridos diez años, Chuang-Tzu cogió el pincel y en un momento, de un solo gesto, pintó un cangrejo, el cangrejo más perfecto jamás visto. Italo Calvino, Lezioni americane. ~ Anonymous,

25:The mind remains undetermined in the great Void. Here the highest knowledge is unbounded. That which gives things their thusness cannot be delimited by things. So when we speak of limits, we remain confined to limited things. The limit of the unlimited is called fullness. The limitlessness of the limited is called emptiness. Tao is the source of both. But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness. -Chuang Tzu, trans by T.Merton ~ Chuang Tzu, Letting go of thoughts ,

26:Chuang Tzu in dream became a butterfly, And the butterfly became Chuang Tzu at waking. Which was the real - the butterfly or the man ? Who can tell the end of the endless changes of things? The water that flows into the depth of the distant sea Returns in time to the shallows of a transparent stream. The man, raising melons outside the green gate of the city, Was once the Prince of the East Hill. So must rank and riches vanish. You know it, still you toil and toil - what for? ~ Li Bai,

27:Goods and possessions are no gain in his eyes. He stays far from wealth and honor. Long life is no ground for joy, nor early death for sorrow. Success is not for him to be pround of, failure is no shame. Had he all the worlds power he would not hold it as his own. If he conquered everything he would not take it to himself. His glory is in knowing that all things come together in One and life and death are equal. Chuang Tzu, Trans. T.Merton ~ Chuang Tzu, Goods and Possessions ,

28:Nature is lost once you make an effort to improve upon it. That means you are trying to improve upon God. Chuang Tzu is not in favor of that. He says nature is ultimate, and that ultimate nature he calls the Tao. Tao means that nature is ultimate and cannot be improved upon. If you try to improve upon it, you will cripple it. That is how we cripple every child. Every child is born in the Tao, then we cripple him with society, civilization, culture, morality, religion. We cripple him from every side. Then he LIVES but is not ALIVE. ~ Osho,

29:I don't know! Nobody has ever known. Why would Jesus have remained unmarried if he had known the secret? He knew the secret of the kingdom of God, but he did not know the secret of remaining happy in marriage. He remained unmarried. Mahavira, Lao Tzu Chuang Tzu, they all remained unmarried for the simple reason that there is no secret; otherwise these people would have discovered it. They could discover the ultimate - marriage is not such a big thing, it is very shallow - they even fathomed God, but they could not fathom marriage. ~ Rajneesh,

30:The Chinese philosopher Chuang-Tzu stated that true empathy requires listening with the 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 spirit 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. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg,

31:That’s why I insist again and again that Jesus is from the East; that’s why he could not be understood in the West. The West has misunderstood him. The East could have understood him because the East knows Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Buddha, and Jesus belongs to them. He says: “Those who are last will be the first in my kingdom of God.” The humblest, the meekest, will possess the kingdom of God. Poor in spirit is the goal. Who is poor in spirit? The empty boat, he who is not at all – no claim on anything, no possession of anything, no self. He lives as an absence. ~ Osho,

32:In the Chinese metaphysical tradition this is termed wu-hsin or 'idealness', signifying a state of consciousness in which one simply accepts experiences as they come without interfering with them on the one hand or identifying oneself with them on the other. One does not judge them, form theories about them, try to control them, or attempt to change their nature in any way; one lets them be free to be just exactly what they are. 'The perfect man', said Chuang-tzu, 'employs his mind as a mirror; it grasps nothing, it refuses nothing, it receives but does not keep. ~ Alan W Watts,

33:Chuang Tzu in dream became a butterfly, And the butterfly became Chuang Tzu at waking. Which was the realthe butterfly or the man ? Who can tell the end of the endless changes of things? The water that flows into the depth of the distant sea Returns anon to the shallows of a transparent stream. The man, raising melons outside the green gate of the city, Was once the Prince of the East Hill. So must rank and riches vanish. You know it, still you toil and toil,what for? by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes ~ Li Bai, Chuang Tzu And The Butterfly ,

34:And this is to be done during your whole life. Don’t fight with anything, and don’t try to escape from anything. Let things take their own course. You simply close your eyes and move inside to the center where no sun’s ray has ever penetrated. There is no shadow—and really, that is the meaning of the myth that gods have no shadows. Not that there are gods somewhere who have no shadows, but the god that is within you has no shadow because no outside penetrates there. It cannot penetrate; it is always in the shade. Chuang Tzu calls that shade Tao, your innermost nature—utterly innermost, absolutely innermost. ~ Osho,

35:When you break something up, you create things. When you create something, you destroy things. Material things have no creation or destruction. Ultimately these concepts connect as one. Only the enlightened know that they connect as one, So instead of debating this with your preconceptions, Approach it in an ordinary way. Those with this ordinary approach, simply apply the idea. Those who apply it, connect with it. Those who connect with it, attain it. This easily attained understanding is not far off. Chuang Tzu, From: The True Tao ~ Chuang Tzu, Creation and Destruction ,

36:Chuang Tzu says: There is no God. There is no Devil: only life exists. Priests create God and priests create the Devil because priests create the distinction between right and wrong. And once this distinction enters your mind, you will never be right. Nature is right. Once the distinction enters your mind that this is wrong and that is right, you will never be right, you will never be at ease, you will never feel relaxed; you will alway be tense. And whatsoever you do will be wrong because the distinction creates confusion. The whole of life is so silent and meditative. Why is so much effort needed for you? It is because there is distinction. ~ Osho,

37:For Chuang Tzu, the truly great man is therefore not the man who has, by a lifetime of study and practice, accumulated a great fund of virtue and merit, but the man in whom “Tao acts without impediment,” the “man of Tao.” Several of the texts in this present book describe the “man of Tao.” Others tell us what he is not. One of the most instructive, in this respect, is the long and delightful story of the anxiety-ridden, perfectionistic disciple of Keng Sang Chu, who is sent to Lao Tzu to learn the “elements.” He is told that “if you persist in trying to attain what is never attained … in reasoning about what cannot be understood, you will be destroyed. ~ Thomas Merton,

38:Hui Tzu said to Chuang Tzu: “All your teaching is centered on what has no use.” Chuang replied: “If you have no appreciation for what has no use You cannot begin to talk about what can be used. The earth, for example, is broad and vast But of all this expanse a man uses only a few inches Upon which he happens to be standing. Now suppose you suddenly take away All that he is not actually using So that, all around his feet a gulf Yawns, and he stands in the Void, With nowhere solid except right under each foot: How long will he be able to use what he is using?” Hui Tzu said: “It would cease to serve any purpose.” Chuang Tzu concluded: “This shows The absolute necessity Of what has ‘no use. ~ Thomas Merton,

39:All that is limited by form, semblance, sound, 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? Where is the conflict? 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 secret Tao. Chuang Tzu, trans. T.Merton ~ Chuang Tzu, Distinguishing Ego from Self ,

40:They found security in letting go rather than in holding on and, in so doing, developed an attitude toward life that might be called psychophysical judo. Nearly twenty-five centuries ago, the Chinese sages Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu had called it wu-wei, which is perhaps best translated as “action without forcing.” It is sailing in the stream of the Tao, or course of nature, and navigating the currents of li (organic pattern)—a word that originally signified the natural markings in jade or the grain in wood. As this attitude spread and prevailed in the wake of Vibration Training, people became more and more indulgent about eccentricity in life-style, tolerant of racial and religious differences, and adventurous in exploring unusual ways of loving. ~ Alan W Watts,

41:TRY: During the day, see if you can detect the bloom of the present moment in every moment, the ordinary ones, the “in-between” ones, even the hard ones. Work at allowing more things to unfold in your life without forcing them to happen and without rejecting the ones that don’t fit your idea of what “should” be happening. See if you can sense the “spaces” through which you might move with no effort in the spirit of Chuang Tzu’s cook. Notice how if you can make some time early in the day for being, with no agenda, it can change the quality of the rest of your day. By affirming first what is primary in your own being, see if you don’t get a mindful jump on the whole day and wind up more capable of sensing, appreciating, and responding to the bloom of each moment. ~ Jon Kabat Zinn,

42:Useless Hui Tzu said to Chuang Tzu: “All your teaching is centred on what has no use.” Chuang Tzu replied: “If you have no appreciation for what has no use, You cannot begin to talk about what can be used. The earth for example, is broad and vast, But of all this expanse a man uses only a few inches Upon which he happens to be standing. Now suppose you suddenly take away All that he actually is not using, So that all around his feet a gulf Yawns, and he stands in the Void With nowhere solid except under each foot. How long will he be able to use what he is using? Hui Tzu said: “It would cease to serve any purpose.” Chuang Tzu concluded: “This showsThe absolute necessity Of what has ' no use. ~ Thomas Merton,

43:Socrates would ask penetrating questions, analyzing everything, and everybody in Athens became angry. This man was trying to prove that everybody is a fool. They killed him. Had he met Chuang Tzu – and at that time Chuang Tzu was alive in China, they were contemporaries – then Chuang Tzu would have told him the secret: “Don’t try to prove that anybody is foolish because fools don’t like this. Don’t try to prove to a madman that he is mad, because no madman likes it. He will get angry, arrogant, aggressive. He will kill you if you prove too much. If you come to the point where it can be proved, he will take revenge.” Chuang Tzu would have said, “It is better to be foolish yourself, then people enjoy you, and then by a very subtle methodology you can help them change. Then they are not against you.” That’s ~ Osho,

44:The Inquisition believed that there was such a thing as truth, and that it was important; well, likewise Richard Feynman. But the Inquisitors were not Truth-Seekers. They were Truth-Guardians. I once read an argument (I can’t find the source) that a key component of a zeitgeist is whether it locates its ideals in its future or its past. Nearly all cultures before the Enlightenment believed in a Fall from Grace—that things had once been perfect in the distant past, but then catastrophe had struck, and everything had slowly run downhill since then: In the age when life on Earth was full . . . They loved each other and did not know that this was “love of neighbor.” They deceived no one yet they did not know that they were “men to be trusted.” They were reliable and did not know that this was “good faith.” They lived freely together giving and taking, and did not know that they were generous. For this reason their deeds have not been narrated. They made no history. —The Way of Chuang Tzu, trans. Thomas Merton1 ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky,

45:Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Bodhidharma, Sosan – they are the Masters of this law of reverse effect. And this is the difference between Yoga and Zen. Yoga makes every effort and Zen makes no effort, and Zen is truer than any Yoga. But Yoga appeals, because as far as you are concerned doing is easy – howsoever hard, but doing is easy. Non-doing is difficult. If someone says, ”Don’t do anything,” you are at a loss. You again ask, ”What to do?” If someone says, ”Don’t do anything,” that is the most difficult thing for you. It should not be so if you understand. Non-doing does not require any qualification. Doing may require qualification, doing may require practice. Non-doing requires no practice. That’s why Zen says enlightenment can happen in a single moment – because it is not a question of how to bring it, it is a question of how to allow it. It is just like sleep: you relax and it is there, you relax and it pops up. It is struggling within your heart to come up. You are not allowing it because you have too much activity on the surface. ~ Osho,

46:speaking of them, it is necessary to remember that what they left recorded on paper was the least important part of their lives. It is the lesson that is expressed in the Chuang Tzu book in the story of the Duke of Ch’i and his wheelwright. It tells how the wheelwright saw the Duke reading, and called to ask him what the book was about. The words of sages,’ the Duke explained. The lees and scum of bygone men,’ the wheelwright said; and when the irritated Duke asked him what the devil he meant by this, the wheelwright told him: There is an art in wheel-making that I cannot explain even to my son. It cannot be put into words. That is why I cannot let him take over my work, and I am still making wheels myself at seventy. It must have been the same with the sages: all that was worth handing on died with them. The rest they put into their books. That is why I said you are reading the lees and scum of dead men.’ This lesson should be especially taken to heart in reading the works of the visionaries dealt with in the following chapters. The essentials of what they saw died with them. Their value for us does not lie in the ‘visions’ their words can conjure up for us, but in the instructions they left for anyone who should want to see the same things that they saw. It lies, in other words, in the discipline they recommend ~ Colin Wilson,

47:in the light of Hesse’s contribution, the implications of the Outsiders of the first two chapters are altogether clearer. Their problem is the unreality of their lives. They become acutely conscious of it when it begins to pain them, but they are not sure of the source of the pain. The ordinary world loses its values, as it does for a man who has been ill for a very long time. Life takes on the quality of a nightmare, or a cinema sheet when the screen goes blank. These men who had been projecting their hopes and desires into what was passing on the screen suddenly realize they are in a cinema. They ask: Who are we? What are we doing here? With the delusion of the screen identity gone, the causality of its events suddenly broken, they are confronted with a terrifying freedom. In Sartre’s phrase, they are ‘condemned to be free’. Completely new bearings are demanded; a new analysis of this real world of the cinema has to be undertaken. In the shadow world on the screen, every problem had an answer; this may not be true of the world in the cinema. The fact that the screen world has proved to be a delusion arouses the disturbing possibility that the cinema world may be unreal too. ‘When we dream that we dream, we are beginning to wake up,’ Novalis says. Chuang Tzu had once said that he had dreamed he was a butterfly, and now wasn’t sure if he was a man who dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was a man. ~ Colin Wilson,

48:Prince Wen Hui’s cook Was cutting up an ox. Out went a hand, Down went a shoulder, He planted a foot, He pressed with a knee, The ox fell apart With a whisper, The bright cleaver murmured Like a gentle wind. Rhythm! Timing! Like a sacred dance, Like “The Mulberry Grove,” Like ancient harmonies! “Good work!” the Prince exclaimed, “Your method is faultless!” “Method?” said the cook Laying aside his cleaver, “What I follow is Tao Beyond all methods!” “When I first began To cut up an oxen I would see before me The whole ox All in one mass. “After three years I no longer saw this mass. I saw the distinctions. “But now, I see nothing With the eye. My whole being Apprehends. My senses are idle. The spirit Free to work without plan Follows its own instinct Guided by natural line, By the secret opening, the hidden space, My cleaver finds its own way. I cut through no joint, chop no bone. A good cook needs a new chopper Once a year–he cuts. A poor cook needs a new one Every month–he hacks! “I have used this same cleaver Nineteen years. It has cut up A thousand oxen. Its edge is as keen As if newly sharpened. “There are spaces in the joints; The blade is thin and keen: When this thinness Finds that space There is all the room you need! It goes like a breeze! Hence I have this cleaver nineteen years As if newly sharpened! “True, there are sometimes Tough joints. I feel them coming, I slow down, I watch closely, Hold back, barely move the blade, And whump! the part falls away Landing like a clod of earth. “Then I withdraw the blade, I stand still And let the joy of the work Sink in. I clean the blade And put it away.” Prince Wan Hui said, “This is it! My cook has shown me How I ought to live My own life!” Chuang Tzu, The Way of Chuang Tzu, translated by Thomas Merton ~ Thomas Merton,

49:ALMOST EVERY FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF LIFE can be expressed in two opposite ways. There are those who say that to attain the highest wisdom we must be still and calm, immovable in the midst of turmoil. And there are those who say that we must move on as life moves, never stopping for a moment either in fear of what is to come or to turn a regretful glance at what has gone. The former are as those who listen to music, letting the flow of notes pass through their minds without trying either to arrest them or to speed them on. Like Chuang-tzu’s perfect man, they employ their minds as a mirror: it grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives, but does not keep. The latter are as those who dance to music, keeping pace with its movement and letting their limbs flow with it as unceasingly and as unhesitatingly as clouds respond to the breath of wind. The one seems to reflect events as they pass, and the other to move forward with them. Both points of view, however, are true, for to attain that highest wisdom we must at once walk on and remain still. Consider life as a revolving wheel set upright with man walking on its tire. As he walks, the wheel is revolving toward him beneath his feet, and if he is not to be carried backward by it and flung to the ground he must walk at the same speed as the wheel turns. If he exceeds that speed, he will topple forward and slip off the wheel onto his face. For at every moment we stand, as it were, on the top of a wheel; immediately we try to cling to that moment, to that particular point of the wheel, it is no longer at the top and we are off our balance. Thus by not trying to seize the moment, we keep it, for the second we fail to walk on we cease to remain still. Yet within this there is a still deeper truth. From the standpoint of eternity we never can and never do leave the top of the wheel, for if a circle is set in infinite space it has neither top nor bottom. Wherever you stand is the top, and it revolves only because you are pushing it round with your own feet. ~ Alan W Watts,

50:Hay un pequeño diálogo encantador entre los dichos y parábolas del sabio taoísta Chuang-tzu, que vivió alrededor de 300 a.C. Se titula La alegría del pez: Un día, Chuang-tzu se paseaba con su amigo Hui-tzu por el puente sobre el río Hao. Chuang-tzu dijo: - Cuán alegremente saltan y juegan los ágiles peces! Esta es la alegría del pez. Hui-tzu comentó: - No eres un pez, así que ¿cómo puedes saber acerca de la alegría del pez? Hui-tzu contestó: - No soy tú, por lo que no puedo conocerte del todo. Pero sigue siendo cierto que no eres un pez; por tanto, está perfectamente claro que no puedes saber acerca de la alegría del pez. Chuang-tzu dijo: - Volvamos al punto de partida, por favor. Tú dijiste "¿Cómo puedes saber acerca de la alegría del pez?" Pero tú ya lo sabías y aún así preguntaste. Conozco la alegría del pez por mi propia alegría al contemplarlos desde el puente. La conversación debe de haber sido proverbial en China, pues unos mil años más tarde, el gran poeta Po Chü-i (772-846) escribió dos breves estrofas de un comentario escéptico titulado Reflexiones junto al estanque: En vano Chuan y Hui discutieron en el puente sobre el Hao: Las mentes humanas no conocen necesariamente las mentes de otras criaturas Una nutria viene atrapando peces, el pez salta: ¡Esto no es placer de peces, es sobresalto de peces! El agua es poco profunda, los peces escasos, la garceta blanca está hambrienta: Concentrada, los ojos muy abiertos, espera a los peces. Desde fuera parece tranquila, pero por dentro está tensa: Las cosas no son lo que parece, pero ¿quién lo sabría? Lo que dice el poeta es que si él hubiera estado en el puente, habría advertido al sabio que no se fiase demasiado de su intuición. La fuerza de las convicciones subjetivas no es un salvavidas contra los errores. nunca sabemos realmente si tenemos razón, pero a veces sabemos que estábamos equivocados. Extraído de: E. H. GOMBRICH. Temas de nuestro tiempo. Propuestas del siglo XX. Acerca del saber y del Arte. Debate, 1997. p. 56 - 57 (Topics of our Time) ~ E H Gombrich,

51:reading :::    50 Spiritual Classics: List of Books Covered:    Muhammad Asad - The Road To Mecca (1954)    St Augustine - Confessions (400)    Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)    Black Elk Black - Elk Speaks (1932)    Richard Maurice Bucke - Cosmic Consciousness (1901)    Fritjof Capra - The Tao of Physics (1976)    Carlos Castaneda - Journey to Ixtlan (1972)    GK Chesterton - St Francis of Assisi (1922)    Pema Chodron - The Places That Scare You (2001)    Chuang Tzu - The Book of Chuang Tzu (4th century BCE)    Ram Dass - Be Here Now (1971)    Epictetus - Enchiridion (1st century)    Mohandas Gandhi - An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth (1927)    Al-Ghazzali - The Alchemy of Happiness (1097)    Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet (1923)    GI Gurdjieff - Meetings With Remarkable Men (1960)    Dag Hammarskjold - Markings (1963)    Abraham Joshua Heschel - The Sabbath (1951)    Hermann Hesse - Siddartha (1922)    Aldous Huxley - The Doors of Perception (1954)    William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)    Carl Gustav Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1955)    Margery Kempe - The Book of Margery Kempe (1436)    J Krishnamurti - Think On These Things (1964)    CS Lewis - The Screwtape Letters (1942)    Malcolm X - The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964)    Daniel C Matt - The Essential Kabbalah (1994)    Dan Millman - The Way of the Peaceful Warrior (1989)    W Somerset Maugham - The Razor's Edge (1944)    Thich Nhat Hanh - The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975)    Michael Newton - Journey of Souls (1994)    John O'Donohue - Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom (1998)    Robert M Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)    James Redfield - The Celestine Prophecy (1994)    Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements (1997)    Helen Schucman & William Thetford - A Course in Miracles (1976)    Idries Shah - The Way of the Sufi (1968)    Starhawk - The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (1979)    Shunryu Suzuki - Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1970)    Emanuel Swedenborg - Heaven and Hell (1758)    Teresa of Avila - Interior Castle (1570)    Mother Teresa - A Simple Path (1994)    Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now (1998)    Chogyam Trungpa - Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973)    Neale Donald Walsch - Conversations With God (1998)    Rick Warren - The Purpose-Driven Life (2002)    Simone Weil - Waiting For God (1979)    Ken Wilber - A Theory of Everything (2000)    Paramahansa Yogananda - Autobiography of a Yogi (1974)    Gary Zukav - The Seat of the Soul (1990)    ~ Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Spirital Classics (2017 Edition),

   7 Philosophy
   3 Poetry
   2 Taoism


   7 Aldous Huxley
   2 Chuang Tzu


   7 The Perennial Philosophy
   2 Chuang Tzu - Poems

1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy   In the Taoist formulations of the Perennial Philosophy there is an insistence, no less forcible than in the Upanishads, the Gita and the writings of Shankara, upon the universal immanence of the transcendent spiritual Ground of all existence. What follows is an extract from one of the great classics of Taoist literature, the Book of Chuang Tzu, most of which seems to have been written around the turn of the fourth and third centuries B. C.   Do not ask whether the Principle is in this or in that; it is in all beings. It is on this account that we apply to it the epithets of supreme, universal, total. It has ordained that all things should be limited, but is Itself unlimited, infinite. As to what pertains to manifestation, the Principle causes the succession of its phases, but is not this succession. It is the author of causes and effects, but is not the causes and effects. It is the author of condensations and dissipations (birth and death, changes of state), but is not itself condensations and dissipations. All proceeds from It and is under its influence. It is in all things, but is not identical with beings, for it is neither differentiated nor limited.

1.03 - The Sephiros, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism   Father ; it is beyond all other conceptions, higher than the highest In one of the meditations of Chuang Tzu, we find that " Tao cannot be existent. If it were existent, it could not be non-existent. . . . Tao is something beyond material existences. It cannot be conveyed, either by words or by silence. In that state which is neither speech nor silence, its transcendental nature may be appre- hended." To this Qabalistic conception or principle of   Zero would be allocated Baruch Spinoza's definition of God or Substance : " That which requires for its conception, the conception of no other thing ".

1.04 - GOD IN THE WORLD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy   In this delicately comic parable Chaos is Nature in the state of wu-weinon-assertion or equilibrium. Shu and Hu are the living images of those busy persons who thought they would improve on Nature by turning dry prairies into wheat fields, and produced deserts; who proudly proclaimed the Conquest of the Air, and then discovered that they had defeated civilization; who chopped down vast forests to provide the newsprint demanded by that universal literacy which was to make the world safe for intelligence and democracy, and got wholesale erosion, pulp magazines and the organs of Fascist, Communist, capitalist and nationalist propaganda. In brief, Shu and Hu are devotees of the apocalyptic religion of Inevitable Progress, and their creed is that the Kingdom of Heaven is outside you, and in the future. Chuang Tzu, on the other hand, like all good Taoists, has no desire to bully Nature into subserving ill-considered temporal ends, at variance with the final end of men as formulated in the Perennial Philosophy. His wish is to work with Nature, so as to produce material and social conditions in which individuals may realize Tao on every level from the physiological up to the spiritual.   Compared with that of the Taoists and Far Eastern Buddhists, the Christian attitude towards Nature has been curiously insensitive and often downright domineering and violent. Taking their cue from an unfortunate remark in Genesis, Catholic moralists have regarded animals as mere things which men do right to exploit for their own ends. Like landscape painting, the humanitarian movement in Europe was an almost completely secular affair. In the Far East both were essentially religious.

1.07 - TRUTH, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy   Between the horns of Chuang Tzus dilemma there is no way but that of love, peace and joy. Only those who manifest their possession, in however small a measure, of the fruits of the Spirit can persuade others that the life of the spirit is worth living. Argument and controversy are almost useless; in many cases, indeed, they are positively harmful. But this, of course, is a thing that clever men with a gift for syllogisms and sarcasm, find it peculiarly hard to admit. Milton, no doubt, genuinely believed that he was working for truth, righteousness and the glory of God by exploding in torrents of learned scurrility against the enemies of his favourite dictator and his favourite brand of nonconformity. In actual fact, of course, he and the other controversialists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did nothing but harm to the cause of true religion, for which, on one side or the other, they fought with an equal learning and ingenuity and with the same foulmou thed intemperance of language. The successive controversies went on, with occasional lucid intervals, for about two hundred yearsPapists arguing with anti-Papists, Protestants with other Protestants, Jesuits with Quietists and Jansenists. When the noise finally died down, Christianity (which, like any other religion, can survive only if it manifests the fruits of the Spirit) was all but dead; the real religion of most educated Europeans was now nationalistic idolatry. During the eighteenth century this change to idolatry seemed (after the atrocities committed in the name of Christianity by Wallenstein and Tilly) to be a change for the better. This was because the ruling classes were determined that the horrors of the wars of religion should not be repeated and therefore deliberately tempered power politics with gentlemanliness. Symptoms of gentlemanliness can still be observed in the Napoleonic and Crimean wars. But the national Molochs were steadily devouring the eighteenth-century ideal. During the first and second World Wars we have witnessed the total elimination of the old checks and self-restraints. The consequences of political idolatry now display themselves without the smallest mitigation either of humanistic honour and etiquette or of transcendental religion. By its internecine quarrels over words, forms of organization, money and power, historic Christianity consummated the work of self-destruction, to which its excessive preoccupation with things in time had from the first so tragically committed it.   Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment;

1.10 - GRACE AND FREE WILL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy   The artists inspiration may be either a human or a spiritual grace, or a mixture of both. High artistic achievement is impossible without at least those forms of intellectual, emotional and physical mortification appropriate to the kind of art which is being practised. Over and above this course of what may be called professional mortification, some artists have practised the kind of self-naughting which is the indispensable pre-condition of the unitive knowledge of the divine Ground. Fra Angelico, for example, prepared himself for his work by means of prayer and meditation; and from the foregoing extract from Chuang Tzu we see how essentially religious (and not merely professional) was the Taoist craftsmans approach to his art.   Here we may remark in passing that mechanization is incompatible with inspiration. The artisan could do and often did do a thoroughly bad job. But if, like Ching, the chief carpenter, he cared for his art and were ready to do what was necessary to make himself docile to inspiration, he could and sometimes did do a job so good that it seemed as though of supernatural execution. Among the many and enormous advantages of efficient automatic machinery is this: it is completely fool-proof. But every gain has to be paid for. The automatic machine is fool-proof; but just because it is fool-proof it is also grace-proof. The man who tends such a machine is impervious to every form of aesthetic inspiration, whether of human or of genuinely spiritual origin. Industry without art is brutality. But actually Ruskin maligns the brutes. The industrious bird or insect is inspired, when it works, by the infallible animal grace of instinctby Tao as it manifests itself on the level immediately above the physiological. The industrial worker at his fool-proof and grace-proof machine does his job in a man-made universe of punctual automataa universe that lies entirely beyond the pale of Tao on any level, brutal, human or spiritual.

1.20 - TANTUM RELIGIO POTUIT SUADERE MALORUM, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy   Anyone who sacrifices anything but his own person or his own interests is on exactly the same level as Chuang Tzus pigs. The pigs seek their own advantage inasmuch as they prefer life and bran to honour and the shambles; the sacrificers seek their own advantage inasmuch as they prefer the magical, God-constraining death of pigs to the death of their own passions and self-will. And what applies to sacrifice, applies equally to incantations, rituals and vain repetitions, when these are used (as they all too frequently are, even in the higher religions) as a form of compulsive magic. Rites and vain repetitions have a legitimate place in religion as aids to recollectedness, reminders of truth momentarily forgotten in the turmoil of worldly distractions. When spoken or performed as a kind of magic, their use is either completely pointless; or else (and this is worse) it may have ego-enhancing results, which do not in any way contri bute to the attainment of mans final end.   The vestments of Isis are variegated to represent the cosmos; that of Osiris is white, symbolizing the Intelligible Light beyond the cosmos.

1.27 - CONTEMPLATION, ACTION AND SOCIAL UTILITY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy   Action, says Aquinas, should be something added to the life of prayer, not something taken away from it. One of the reasons for this recommendation is strictly utilitarian; action that is taken away from the life of prayer is action unenlightened by contact with Reality, uninspired and unguided; consequently it is apt to be ineffective and even harmful. The sages of old, says Chuang Tzu, first got Tao for themselves, then got it for others. There can be no taking of motes out of other peoples eyes so long as the beam in our own eye prevents us from seeing the divine Sun and working by its light. Speaking of those who prefer immediate action to acquiring, through contemplation, the power to act well, St. John of the Cross asks, What do they accomplish? And he answers, Poco mas que nada, y a veces nada, y aun a veces dano (Little more than nothing, and sometimes nothing at all, and sometimes even harm). Income must balance expenditure. This is necessary not merely on the economic level, but also on the physiological, the intellectual, the ethical and the spiritual. We cannot put forth physical energy unless we stoke our body with fuel in the form of food. We cannot hope to utter anything worth saying, unless we read and inwardly digest the utterances of our betters. We cannot act rightly and effectively unless we are in the habit of laying ourselves open to leadings of the divine Nature of Things. We must draw in the goods of eternity in order to be able to give out the goods of time. But the goods of eternity cannot be had except by giving up at least a little of our time to silently waiting for them. This means that the life, in which ethical expenditure is balanced by spiritual income, must be a life in which action alternates with repose, speech with alertly passive silence. Otium sanctum quaerit caritas veritatis; negotium justum suscipit necessitas caritatis (The love of Truth seeks holy leisure; the necessity of love undertakes righteous action). The bodies of men and animals are reciprocating engines, in which tension is always succeeded by relaxation. Even the unsleeping heart rests between beat and beat. There is nothing in living Nature that even distantly resembles mans greatest technical invention, the continuously revolving wheel. (It is this fact, no doubt, which accounts for the boredom, weariness and apathy of those who, in modern factories, are forced to adapt their bodily and mental movements to circular motions of mechanically uniform velocity.) What a man takes in by contemplation, says Eckhart, that he pours out in love. The well-meaning humanist and the merely muscular Christian, who imagines that he can obey the second of the great commandments without taking time even to think how best he may love God with all his heart, soul and mind, are people engaged in the impossible task of pouring unceasingly from a container that is never replenished.   Daughters of Charity ought to love prayer as the body loves the soul. And just as the body cannot live without the soul, so the soul cannot live without prayer. And in so far as a daughter prays as she ought to pray, she will do well. She will not walk, she will run in the ways of the Lord, and will be raised to a high degree of the love of God.

1.ct - Goods and Possessions, #Chuang Tzu - Poems, #unset, #Integral Yoga    Chuang Tzu, Trans. T.Merton

1.ct - Surrendering, #Chuang Tzu - Poems, #unset, #Integral Yoga    Chuang Tzu, Trans. T.Merton

1.lb - Chuang Tzu And The Butterfly, #Li Bai - Poems, #Li Bai, #Poetry   object:1.lb - Chuang Tzu And The Butterfly   author class:Li Bai   --   And the butterfly became Chuang Tzu at waking.   Which was the realthe butterfly or the man ?

2.00 - BIBLIOGRAPHY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy   CHUANC TZU. Chuang Tzu, Mystic, Moralist and Social Reformer. Translated by Herbert Giles (Shanghai, 1936).   . Musings of a Chinese Mystic (London, 1920).

Avatars of the Tortoise, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various   is interminable (H. A. Giles: Chuang Tzu, 1889, page 453).   194a + b + c + d + e = f. . .   --   exists; but since being and two are different, trinity exists, etc. Chuang Tzu (Waley:   Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China, page 25) resorts to the same interminable

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