Thanks! What originally attracted me to this passage was the business about all the different and contrasting feelings that pop up in us being like random notes on a flute (as though we were being played by the wind) or like mushrooms that come and go quickly in the fecund shit, but what was funny was that as I compared translations to see which one I preferred (so I could post it here), I finally noticed the business at the end about the True Governor, which sounded too much like God and kind of bugged me. One thing I like about Chuang Tzu is that, like Buddhism, the concept of the Tao doesn't require a deity and sees the world evolving naturally on its own without guidance or purpose. But the concept of the True Governor (translated as True Master and True Ruler by the other two) is typically paradoxical.
Here are some nice variations from the translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English:
Great knowledge is all-encompassing; small knowledge is limited. Great words are inspiring; small words are chatter. When we are asleep, we are in touch with our souls. When we are awake, our senses open. We get involved with our activities and our minds are distracted.
Little fears cause anxiety, and great fears cause panic. Our words fly off like arrows, as though we knew what was right and wrong. We cling to our point of view, as though everything depended on it. And yet our opinions have no permanence: like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
... like music sounding from an empty reed or mushrooms rising from the warm dark earth, continually appear before us day and night. No one knows whence they come. Don't worry about it! Let them be! How can we understand it all in one day?
There must be some primal force, but we cannot discover any proof. I believe it acts, but I cannot see it. I can feel it, but it has no form.
A fine mash-up. Chuang Tzu rocks -- in all senses of the word! Reading this reawakens my desire to go back to the remainder bookstore here in Lincoln City and buy that copy of Chuang Tzu I saw there last night, by yet another translator whose name now eludes me. But maybe I'll just pretend I did, and call it real.
Meanwhile, there's this, from Brian Walker's translation of Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu:
Each moment is fragile and fleeting. The moment of the past cannot be kept, however beautiful. The moment of the present cannot be held, however enjoyable. The moment of the future cannot be caught, however desirable.
But the mind is desperate to fix the river in place: possessed by ideas of the past, preoccupied with images of the future, it overlooks the plain truth of the moment.
The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet, and clarity at hand.
But seriously, this particular edition gives little information on Hua Hu Ching. I've seen one other edition that contains both Tao te Ching and Hua Hu Ching, and I've seen it in Thomas Cleary's multi-volume collection of Taoist Writings published by Shambhala, but have yet to read a summary of its provenance. Based on how it reads, I'd guess it's another writer under the influence of Lao Tzu and Ch'an Buddhism. But there's some thought-provoking stuff in it. (It's in 81 verses, like Tao te Ching.)
Comments 9
Reply
Reply
Great knowledge is all-encompassing; small knowledge is limited. Great words are inspiring; small words are chatter. When we are asleep, we are in touch with our souls. When we are awake, our senses open. We get involved with our activities and our minds are distracted.
Little fears cause anxiety, and great fears cause panic. Our words fly off like arrows, as though we knew what was right and wrong. We cling to our point of view, as though everything depended on it. And yet our opinions have no permanence: like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
... like music sounding from an empty reed or mushrooms rising from the warm dark earth, continually appear before us day and night. No one knows whence they come. Don't worry about it! Let them be! How can we understand it all in one day?
There must be some primal force, but we cannot discover any proof. I believe it acts, but I cannot see it. I can feel it, but it has no form.
Reply
Meanwhile, there's this, from Brian Walker's translation of Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu:
Each moment is fragile and fleeting.
The moment of the past cannot be kept, however beautiful.
The moment of the present cannot be held, however enjoyable.
The moment of the future cannot be caught, however desirable.
But the mind is desperate to fix the river in place:
possessed by ideas of the past,
preoccupied with images of the future,
it overlooks the plain truth of the moment.
The one who can dissolve her mind
will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet,
and clarity at hand.
Reply
Reply
Exactly!
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment