What the world valuesare riches, honor, long life, and recognition.What it finds pleasurable is repose for the body,rich flavors, fine clothes, beautiful colors and good music. What it dislikes are poverty, low status, short life,and dishonor. The rich are burdened with accumulating possessions,piling up more than they can use.Those who pursue honordeliberate about their…
Zhuangzi was once fishingin the Po river when the ruler of Chusent two ministers with a message,“I wish to trouble youwith the charge of all territories.’ Zhuangzi continued to hold to hold the rodand without looking around said,“I have heard that in Chuthere is a sacred tortoisewhich died three thousand years ago.The ruler keeps…
…what is noble and what is base is determined by what the time requires –there is no absolute rule. A battering ram can be used to storm a city wall but it cannot be used to fill a small hole. –the uses of the implements are different. “therefore the saying, ‘Shall we not follow…
I participated in a discussion of Fascism yesterday. We reflected upon an 1932 essay written by Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism. Fascism is a political religion. Elements are: an underclass of citizens with a grievance about unjust social arrangements they believe causes them unsatisfactory lives, an autocratic politician with a savior delusion, and…
Well then,may I consider heaven and earth as greatand the tip of a hair as small? “No,”replied the Ruo of the North Sea. “The capacities of things cannot be defined,time never stops,all is in constant flux,and the ends and the beginnings of thingsare never the…
I’ll say it again, to write again something that cannot be said enough… We ought not to pride ourselves in possessing carriages and coronets or because of difficulties and poverty resort to crude means. Who among us doesn’t feel a flush of pride to own a new vehicle, especially one which is widely admired…
Those who are called“recluse scholars” by the ancientsdid not conceal themselvesto shun the world.They did not declineto speak their wordsor conceal their knowledge. It was the times that were out of joint… Highest happiness is the fulfillment of aspiration.Fulfillment of aspiration for the ancientsdid not mean carriages and coronets,but that nothing more was needed…
The ancients who tended to the taoabided in calmto nourish their wisdom,butthey did not dependon their wisdom in their actions.It can be said that they preserved their calmwith wisdom.When wisdom and calmfoster one another from innate nature,harmony and order emerge. Virtue is harmonyand tao is order. Zhuangzi trans by Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong,…
To be simple, pure, clear, still, level, and constant; to be impartial without action and in action to be aligned with heaven— this is the way to sustain the spirit. The swords made at Wu and Yue are kept in a box and rarely used since they are valuable. But the subtle spirit moves…
Saturday and it is bitter-cold today. It is colder in Minneapolis, 11 degrees F. A quiet question comes over and over. Would I be willing to stand alongside friends and others who live around me to oppose the roundup and extradition of immigrants from their homes and places of work? Would I oppose the…
