‘A frog in a well cannot be talked with about the sea; – he is confined to the limits of his hole.

   An insect of the summer cannot be talked with about ice; – it knows nothing beyond its own season.

   A scholar of limited views cannot be talked with about the Tao; – he is bound by the teaching (which he has received).

   Now you have come forth from between your banks, and beheld the great sea. You have come to know your own ignorance and inferiority, and are in the way of being fitted to be talked with about great principles. Of all the waters under heaven there are none so great as the sea.

   A myriad streams flow into it without ceasing, and yet it is not filled; and afterwards it discharges them (also) without ceasing, and yet it is not emptied. In spring and in autumn it undergoes no change; it takes no notice of floods or of drought.

   Its superiority over such streams even as the Kiang and the Ho cannot be told by measures or numbers; and that I have never, notwithstanding this, made much of myself, is because I compare my own bodily form with (the greatness of) heaven and earth, and (remember that) I have received my breath from the Yin and Yang.

   Between heaven and earth I am but as a small stone or a small tree on a great hill.

   So long as I see myself to be thus small, how should I make much of myself?

-Zhuangzi, The Floods of Autumn, by Zhuang Zhou, trans. James Legge

When I read a Taoist text I am delighted by the quaint story-telling utilized to make a point.  This instructional method is suited to a philosophy that is learned by practice, by doing.  Ultimately the way of living has a religious quality, a formation of self-awareness by appreciating the links between the infinite diversity of our world.

The quoted segment is another conversation between two fictional beings, a river-spirit and a spirit of a great sea.  The river spirit being enthused with its greatness at Autumn flood stage is humbled by turning its attention to the great sea.  These are the words of the Spirit-lord of the Northern Sea, admonishing the Spirit-earl of the great river.

The nexus of the issue is one of scale.  As vast, incomparable as is an ocean, the spirit of the great sea recognizes it diminutive size in relation to heaven and earth.  The sea confesses a sense of its being as a small stone or a small tree on a great hill. 

For you and I our sense of self is the axis upon which our life turns.  Am I an open soul, valuing, noticing, learning the relationship between the infinitude of individuals, the landscapes populated with vegetation and insects and mammals that surround me?  Travel is unnecessary since endless points of being are presented day to day within my circle of activities.

Ego distortion creates the limits of my hole according to the Zhuangzi.

I need not make so much of myself.