Zhuang Zhou Quotes

Kaikkeuden hengitystä sanotaan tuuleksi, vastasi Tsu Ch'i. Se ei aina liiku, mutta kun se liikkuu, kuuluu kymmenistätuhansista onkaloista raivokasta ujellusta. Etkö ole koskaan kuunnellut sitä: liaoo liaoo... Vuoriston metsien kolkissa ja huipuilla on koloja ja onteloita suurissa puissa, joiden ympärysmitta on sata vaaksaa; jokin on kuin sierain, toinen kuin suu tai korva; jokin on suorakulmainen, toinen pyöreä; jokin kuin huhmar, toinen kuin allas tai lätäkön pohja. Kaikista niistä kuuluu ikään kuin kuohuavan veden pauhua tai kohinaa, ne ulvovat ja huokaavat, mylvivät kuin eläimet, ujeltavat, valittavat ja viheltävät. Edellä kulkeva tuuli laulaa jyy ja perässä seuraava säestää jung. Kun tuuli puhaltaa lempeästi, kuulet hiljaisia sointuja, mutta myrskyn synnyttämät soinnut ovat jyhkeitä; ja kun ankara tuuli asettuu, jokainen onkalo vaikenee. Etkö ole koskaan nähnyt, miten kaikki puut huojuvat huojuvat, taipuvat taipuvat?

It is rank, wealth, prominence, prestige, fame, and advantage that arouse the will. It is appearances, actions, sexual beauty, conceptual coherence, emotional energies, and intentions that entangle the mind. It is dislikes, desires, joy, anger, sorrow, and
happiness that tie down Virtuosity. It is avoiding, approaching, taking, giving,
understanding, and ability that block the Course. When these twenty-four items do not disrupt you, the mind is no longer pulled off center. Centered, it finds stillness. Still, it finds clarity. Once clear, it becomes empty, and once empty, it is able to “do nothing, and yet leave nothing undone.

Zhuangzi said, “Affirming some things as right and negating others as wrong are what I call the characteristic inclinations. What I call being free of them means not allowing likes and dislikes to damage you internally, instead making it your constant practice to follow along with the way each thing is of itself, going by (5:23) whatever it affirms as right, without trying to add anything to the process of life.

Good fortune is lighter than a feather,
But no one knows how to carry it;
Misfortune is heavier than the earth,
But no one knows how to escape it.
(p. 40)

Suppose you and I have had an argument. If you have beaten me instead of my beating you, then
are you necessarily right and am I necessarily wrong? If I have beaten you instead of your beating me, then
am I necessarily right and are you necessarily wrong? Is one of us right and the other wrong? Are both of us
right or are both of us wrong? If you and I don't know the answer, then other people are bound to be even
more in the dark. Whom shall we get to decide what is right? Shall we get someone who agrees with you to
decide? But if he already agrees with you, how can he decide fairly? Shall we get someone who agrees with
me, how can he decide? Shall we get someone who disagrees with both of us? But if he already agrees with
both of us, how can he decide? Shall we get someone who agrees with both of us? But if he already agrees
with both of us, how can he decide? Obviously, then, neither you nor I nor anyone else can know the answer.
Shall we wait for still another person?

To try to govern the world by doubling the number of sages would merely double the profits of the great robbers. If you create pounds and ounces to measure them with, they’ll steal the pounds and ounces and use them to rob you further. If you make scales and balances to regulate them with, they’ll steal the scales and balances and use them to rob you more. If you create ideals of humankindness and responsible conduct to regulate them with, why, they’ll just steal humankindness and responsible conduct and use them to rob you all the more. How do I know this is so? He who steals a belt buckle is executed, but he who steals a state becomes a feudal lord.

Elämä päättyy, mutta tiedolla ei ole loppua. Loputtoman tavoittelu päättyväisellä on vaarallista, ja se, että luulee tiedon saavuttaneensa, on hyvin vaarallista. Kun olet tehnyt hyvää, maine ei seuraa perässäsi, ja kun olet tehnyt pahaa, rangaistus ei kulje kannoillasi. Seuraa luonnon järjestystä, niin saatat suojata ruumiisi, turvata elämäsi, suorittaa velvollisuutesi vanhempiasi kohtaan ja täyttää sinulle sallitut vuodet.

Such is what is called a person of kingly virtuosity. He peers into the darkest dark, he listens where there is no sound. Within the darkest dark alone he sees daybreak. Within the soundless alone he hears harmony. Thus even in the depths below the deep, he can discern a something definitely present, and even in the more imponderable than the imponderable, he can discern a certain subtle quintessence.

Everyone knows how useful usefulness is, but no one (4:20) seems to know how useful uselessness is.

The straight tree is the first to be chopped down; the well of sweet water is the first to run dry. Sir, your intention is to display your knowledge in order to astonish the ignorant, and by developing your self, to cast a light upon the crudeness of others. You shine, you positively glow, as if you carried with you the sun and moon. All this is why you cannot avoid disasters.

I have heard the great fulfillment man say, “The boastful have done nothing worthwhile, those who do something worthwhile will see it fade, fame soon disappears.” There are few who can forget success and fame and just return to being ordinary citizens again! The Tao moves all, but the perfect man does not stand in its light, his Virtue moves all, but he does not seek fame. He is empty and plain, and seems crazy. Anonymous, abdicating power, he has no interest in work or fame. So he doesn’t criticize others and they don’t criticize him. The perfect man is never heard, so why, Sir, do you so want to be?

Whenever the Creator of Things rewards a person, it is not the person but the Heavenly in the person that is rewarded.

If one is actually a certain way and yet refuses to acknowledge it when called by that name, one is harmed not once but twice.

He set forth his intractable ideas but was never partisan or restricted to his own subjective stance. He moved alone with the spirit of heaven and earth, and did not exalt himself above all things. He did not dispute right and wrong, but sought to live peacefully with the prevalent views.

The breathing of the wise person comes from their heels, while most people breathe only from their throats.

As to what is beyond the Six Realms,15 the sage admits it exists but does not theorize.