Another splendid spring morning, and today is Thursday. The day stands to be full. A lift-off here at Starbucks has been gratifying. I witnessed the entrance of a mom with three pre-school children, two female and one male. The mother appeared to thoroughly enjoy the company of her offspring, and the children definitely discovered…
Lao-tsu said, “He knows his masculine force but prevails in his feminine receptivity, becoming the channel into which all streams flow. He knows his purity but stays at the low level, becoming the valley of the world. Men all prefer to be first; he alone prefers to be last, saying that he will accept…
Therefore Shen Dao cast aside his learningand all concern for himself,Acting only when it was necessary,and strove to be disinterested and purein his relationship with others. He said that the best knowledge is to have no knowledgeand that a little knowledge could be dangerous. Regarding himself as unqualified,he took on no projects, and laughed…
What better overview, critique of the fragmentation, of the lassitude of America than Zhuangzi’s commentary upon ancient iron-age China, and a near identical insight from Friedrich Nietzsche? Disorder prevails in the world –the sages and worthy men no longer bring forth light. The tao and its virtue are no longer regarded as universal. People…
GOVERNMENT is founded on the formulations of laws which define various functions in society, specify social responsibility and ensure the fair investigations of all evidence before a decision is reached. The hundred offices are organized; commerce follows its regular course; the essential needs of clothing and food are prepared for; the cattle are fed…
Regarding BENEVOLENCE as the source of kindness, RIGHTEOUSNESS as the source of the distinction between right and wrong, PROPRIETY as the rule of conduct, MUSIC as the pattern of harmony, and merging SYMPATHY with FAIRNESS —these are the characteristics of the superior man/woman. Zhuangzi trans. by Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong, Book 33 Under…
Not to be severedfrom his/her primal sourceis the characteristic of the heavenly man/woman;not to be severed from his/her true nature,that of the spirit-like man/woman;not to be severed from the truth,that of the perfect man/woman. To regard heaven as the primal source,virtue as the root and the taoas the gate,and recognizing the implications of changeand…
Under the heaven the schools of particular knowledge are numerous. The advocates of each school believe in the effectiveness of their approaches and that nothing can be added to them. Where can we find now what was known as the wisdom of the tao in the past? We must reply, “it is everywhere.” Where…
Reflection upon the lines quoted from Book 32 of the Zhuangzi proved to be a dive into the deep end of a pool of rumination on epistemology. But those who are ignorantrely only on what they seeand take it to be what is common to all men. What do I mean when I write…
The attempt to produce equality with what is not equal will only result in inequality. The attempt to make certain with what is not certain will not go beyond uncertainty. One who relies only on seeing with his eyes will be led only by what he sees. It is spirit that leads to certainty….
