Lao Tzu showed no emotion and made no reply. The next day Shih Cheng Chi came to see him again and said, ‘Yesterday I was rude to you, Sir. Today I have no heart for it. Why is this?’
Lao Tzu said, ‘I think I have freed myself from knowledge, from the spiritual and from being a sage. If you had called me an ox yesterday, Sir, then I would have said I was an ox. If you had called me a horse, I would have said I was a horse. If people name a reality, but someone won’t have it, then he just makes life more problematic. I am always like this, I don’t just put it on for certain occasions.’
Shih Cheng Chi shrank back so as not to be even near Lao Tzu’s shadow, then he came forward once more in a humble way and asked how he could cultivate himself. Lao Tzu said, ‘Your face is unpleasant; your eyes glare; your forehead is broad; your mouth hangs open; your style is pompous; you are like a tethered horse waiting to bolt, ready to go like an arrow from a crossbow; you examine everything in too much detail; you are cunning in your use of knowledge, yet you lounge around. All this makes me distrust you. Out on the frontier someone like you would be called a bandit.’
The Master said,
‘The Tao does not hesitate before that which is vast, nor does it abandon the small.
Thus it is that all life is enlivened by it.
So immense, so immense there is nothing which is not held by it;
so deep, so unfathomable beyond any reckoning.
The form of its Virtue is in benevolence and righteousness, though this is a minor aspect of its spirit.
Who but the perfect man could comprehend all this?
The perfect man has charge of this age, a somewhat daunting task!
However, this does not fool him or trap him.
He holds the reins of power over the whole world but it is of little consequence to him.
His discernment unearths all falsehood
but he gives no thought to personal gain.
He gets to the heart of issues and knows how to protect the foundation of truth.
Thus Heaven and Earth are outside him, he ignores all life and his spirit is never wearied.
He travels with the Tao,
is in agreement with Virtue,
bids farewell to benevolence and righteousness
and ignores ritual and music,
because the perfect man has set his heart upon what is right.’
This generation believes that the value of the Tao is to be found in books. But books are nothing more than words, and words have value but only in terms of their meaning. Meaning is constantly seeking to express what cannot be said in words and thus passed on. This generation values words and puts them into books, yet what it values is perhaps mistaken, because what it values is not really all that valuable. So we look at things and see things, but it is only an outward form and colour, and what can be heard is just the name and sound. How sad that this generation imagines that the form, colour, name and sound are enough to capture the essence of something! The form, colour, name and sound are in no way sufficient to capture or convey the truth, which is why it is said that the knowledgeable do not speak and those who speak are not knowledgeable. But how can this generation understand this?
Duke Huan was sitting up in his hall reading a book. The wheelwright Pien was down below in the courtyard making a wheel. He put down his chisel and hammer, went up to the hall and asked Duke Huan, ‘May I ask you, Sir, what words you are reading?’
Duke Huan replied, ‘The words of the sages.’
‘Are these sages still living?’
‘They are long dead,’ said Duke Huan.
‘Then, Sir, what you are reading is nothing but rubbish left over from these ancient men!’
‘How dare you, a wheelwright, comment on what I read! If you can explain this, fine, if not you shall die!’ thundered Duke Huan.
The wheelwright Pien replied, ‘Your Lordship’s servant looks at it from the perspective of his own work. When I work on a wheel, if I hit too softly, pleasant as this is, it doesn’t make for a good wheel. If I hit furiously, I get tired and the thing doesn’t work! So, not too soft, not too vigorous, I grasp it in my hand and hold it in my heart. I cannot express this by word of mouth, I just know it. I cannot teach this to my son, nor can my son learn it from me. So for seventy years I have gone along this path and here I am still making wheels. The ancient ones, when they died, took their words with them. Which is why I can state that what Your Lordship is reading is nothing more than rubbish left over from these ancient ones!’
CHAPTER 14
Does Heaven Move?
Does Heaven move?
Does the Earth stand still?
Do the sun and moon argue about where to go?
Who is lord over all this?
Who binds and controls it?
Who, doing nothing, makes all of this be?
Is there some hidden cause that makes things as they are, whether they wish or not?
Or is it just that everything moves and turns because it has no choice?
Do the clouds come before the rain, or does the rain cause the clouds?
What causes them to be?
Who, doing nothing, brings all this joyful excess into being?
The winds come from the north,
going first to west then to east,
swirling up on high,
