Zhuang Zhou Quotes

Whoever focuses on externals will be clumsy inside. (p. 177)

He who steals a belt buckle is executed, but he who steals a state becomes a feudal lord.

Alas! It saddened me to see someone lose himself like that, and then it saddened me that I was saddened about that person, and then it saddened me that I was saddened that I was saddened about that person. And from there it just keeps going on and on.

The mountain tree plunders itself. The candle fat scorches itself. The cinnamon tree is edible, and thus it gets chopped down. The lacquer tree is useful, and thus it is cut down. Everyone knows how useful usefulness is, but no one seems to know how useful uselessness is.

For whatever we may define as a beam as opposed to a pillar, as a leper as opposed to the great beauty Xishi, or whatever might be from some perspective strange, grotesque, uncanny, or deceptive, there is a course that opens them into one another, connecting them to form a oneness. Their divisions are formations, their formations are destructions.

The mountain forests, the great open plains! Shall they make me joyful, shall they fill me with happiness? But even before my joy is done, sorrow has come to take its place. When joy and sorrow come I cannot stop them from coming, and when they go I cannot keep them from going. How sad it is! The people of the world these days are nothing more than lodging houses for external things. They know all about what they encounter but not about what is never encountered.

Such people detect neither the wretched grief nor the pleasant ease that course through their own bodies; they notice neither the horrified fears nor the delighted joys that course through their own hearts and minds. They know to act in service of their purposes, but not the reasons for these purposes. This is why even someone with the highest title — Emperor — and the greatest wealth — possessing the entire empire — is never able to free himself of worries.

What is in charge of spreading all this before us? What nets and tethers all of this together? What remains itself unoccupied by any activity and yet shoves all this around to make it happen?
Could it be: there is some mechanism that cannot help itself?
What so lavishly puts all this forth?
What remains itself unoccupied by any activity and yet in a symphony of lascivious joy goads it all on?

What is the fasting of the mind? If you merge all your intentions into a singularity and maintain the unity of your will, you will come to hear with the rational mind rather than with the ears. Further, you will come to hear with the ch’i – the primal spirit, the vital energy – rather than with the rational mind. For the ears are limited to listening, and the rational mind is limited to its preconceptions. But the ch’i is an abiding emptiness that awaits the arising of things. And the Dao alone is what gathers in this formless emptiness. And to merge with the Dao in this emptiness is ‘fasting of the mind’… Before I began my meditation, it was only ‘I’ that was real. But as soon as I came to dwell in stillness, it turned out that ‘myself’ had never even begun to exist! This is what is meant by 'becoming emptiness'.

Colui che non riesce a trovare spazio per gli altri manca di comprensione, e a chi manca di comprensione tutti risultano estranei.

Якось Джванові Джову наснилося, що він метелик - жвавий метелик, що літає де хоче і знати не знає ніякого Джвана. Коли прокинувся - аж він таки Джван. Але він не розумів, чи це Джванові наснилося, що він метелик, чи це метелику досі сниться, що він Джван Джов? Але ж мусять вони якось відрізнятися! Ось що таке переміни сущого.

What is this Three in the Morning? A monkey trainer was distributing chestnuts. He said, “I’ll give you three in the morning and four in the evening.” The monkeys were furious. “Well then,” he said, “I’ll give you four in the morning and three in the evening.” The monkeys were delighted. This change of description and arrangement caused no loss, but in one case it brought anger and in another delight. He just went by the rightness of their present “this.” Thus, the Sage uses various rights and wrongs to harmonize with others and yet remains at rest in the middle of Heaven the Potter’s Wheel.16 This is called (2:24) “Walking Two Roads.

The tailor bird builds her nest in deep woods, she uses no more than one branch.The mole drinks off the river, it can only fill one belly.

If we follow whatever has so far taken shape, fully formed,7 in our minds, making that our teacher, who could ever be without a teacher? The mind (2:12) comes to be what it is by taking possession of whatever it selects out of the process of alternation — but does that mean it has to truly understand that process? The fool takes something up from it too. But to claim that there are (2:13) any such things as “right” and “wrong” before they come to be fully formed in someone’s mind in this way — that is like saying you left for Yue today and arrived there yesterday.8 This is to regard the nonexistent as existent. The existence of the nonexistent is beyond the understanding of even the divine sage-king Yu — so what possible sense could it make to someone like me?

Jos haluaa näyttää oikeaksi sen, minkä ne kieltävät, tai vääräksi sen, minkä ne myöntävät, ei ole parempaa keinoa kuin käyttää järjen valoa.