| Jul. 16th, 2008 @ 10:22 am I find this story of Confucious and Lao-Tzu fascinating |
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Confucius visited Lao-Tzu and lectured him regarding the virtues of charity and duty to one’s neighbors. Lao-Tzu listened patiently, but then had this to say:
“The chaff kicked up from winnowing grain will blind a person’s eyes so that he cannot see whether he is coming or going, much less the points of the compass. Mosquitoes will keep a person awake all night long with their incessant biting. And just in the same way all this talk of charity and duty to one’s neighbors drives me insane! Please sir! Let’s try to keep the world’s affairs in their original state of simplicity. Let us try to maintain our natural modesty. Just like the wind blowing where it will, let virtue establish itself. Why do you feel the need to force these issues so? It’s like you’re trying to hunt down an escaped convict while all the while beating a loud drum.
“The snow-goose is white without having to bleach itself. The raven is black without having to apply any dye. The original simplicity of black and white are not something you can argue about. The fabricated worlds of fame and reputation are not worthy of expansion. When the pool in your courtyard dries up, and the fishes you have supposedly cared for so lovingly are left on dry ground, moistening them with your spitty kisses will provide pitifully little consolation to them. Better that you had left them in their native waters in the first place.”
When Confucius left Lao-Tzu that day he would not speak for another three. He returned to his disciples and they grew concerned: “Master, so how did it go? Did you set that old codger Lao-Tzu straight?”
“I saw a rainbow-colored creature,” replied Confucius, “soaring amid the clouds as naturally as he lingered upon the meadows and threaded through the trees. Wavering hues danced upon his hide as he lead us to a sparkling stream, both lit by the same dance of sunlight. He fed on earth and sky, the formed, and the unformed, the visible, and the invisible. How could my mouth not fall agape? I struggled to close it. How then would you suggest that I should set Lao-Tzu straight?”
from alterati |
