Chuang Tsu

CHUANG TZU (369 B.C. - 286B.C.) Originally Zhuangzi, and later Romanized to Chuang Tzu for ease in translation and pronunciation, Chuang Tzu was an early commentator and interpreter of Taoism. His definitive work, "Chuang Tzu", was more comprehensive than Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching". Chuang Tzu's personal name was Chou, but by surpassing the first patriarch of Taoism by developing a more complete guide to "the Way" he put down any rumors that he was just an ordinary Chou.

http://cs1.presby.edu/~gramsey/ChuangTzu1.html

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.

Sometimes we are hesitant, sometimes underhanded,

and sometimes secretive.

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 own point of view,

as though everything depended on it.

And yet our opinions have no permanence:

like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.

We are caught in the current and cannot return.

We are tied up in knots like an old clogged drain;

we are getting closer to death

with no way to regain our youth.

Joy and anger, sorrow and happiness, hope and fear,

indecision and strength, humility and willfulness,

enthusiasm and insolence,

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?

CT1-01

Suppose you and I argue.
If you win and I lose,
   are you indeed right and I wrong?
And if I win and you lose,
   am I right and you wrong?
Are we both partly right and partly wrong?
Are we both all right or both all wrong?
If you and I cannot see the truth,
   other people will find it even harder.

Then whom shall I ask to be the judge?
Shall I ask someone who agrees with you?
If he already agrees with you,
   how can he be a fair judge?
Shall I ask someone who agrees with me?
If he already agrees with me,
   how can he be a fair judge?
Shall I ask someone who agrees with both of us?
If he already agrees with both of us,
   how can he be a fair judge?
Then if you and I and others cannot decide,
   shall we wait for another?
Waiting for changing opinions
   is like waiting for nothing.
Seeing everything in relation to the heavenly cosmos
   and leaving the different viewpoints as they are,
   we may be able to live out our years.

What do I mean be seeing things
   in relation to the heavenly cosmos?
Consider right and wrong,
   being and non-being.
If right is indeed right,
   there need be no argument
   about how it is different from wrong.
If being is really being,
   there need be no argument
   about how it is different from non-being.
Forget time,
   forget distinction.
Enjoy the infinite;
   rest in it.
                                                 CT1-02

CT1 - CHUANG TSU - Inner Chapters

Gia-fu Feng and Jane English, trans.

Vintage Books, Division of Random House, NY

- 01 p. 22

   - 02  p.  46