Readings from Taoism: An Overview

The point of a fish trap is the fish: once

you’ve got the fish, you can forget the trap.
The point of a rabbit snare is the rabbit:
once you’ve got the rabbit, you can forget
the snare. And the point of a word is the
idea: once you’ve got the idea, you can
forget the word.

How can I find someone who’s forgotten

words, so we can have a few words
together?

Chuang-Tse

Sources:
☯ Chan, Wing-Tsit, translator and editor: A Source Book in Chinese
Philosophy, 1963

☯ Hinton, David, translator: The Inner Chapters of Chuang Tzu, 1997

☯ Lawall, Sarah, editor: Norton Anthology of World Literature

(Volume A), 2002

☯ Ludwig, Theodore M.: The Sacred Paths of the East, 2001

☯ Mitchell, Stephen, editor: The Tao Te Ching, 1988

 Being & non-Being

We join spokes together in a wheel, Being a beginning. Being not yet

but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.
We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.
Lao-Tse, Chapter 11
beginning to be a beginning. Being
not yet beginning to be a not yet
beginning to be a beginning. Being
being. Being nonbeing. Being not yet
beginning to be nonbeing. Being not
yet beginning to be a not yet
beginning to be nonbeing. Then
suddenly, being nonbeing. And when
it comes to nonbeing, I don‘t know
yet what's being and what's
nonbeing.
There now: I've spoken. But I still
don't know whether it was being
spoken or nonbeing spoken.
Chuang-Tse

Change, Death, Transformation

Long ago, a certain Chuang Tzu dreamt he was a butterfly – a butterfly fluttering
here and there on a whim, happy and carefree, knowing nothing of Chuang Tzu.
Then all of a sudden he woke to find that he was, beyond all doubt, Chuang Tzu.
Who knows if it was Chuang Tzu dreaming a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming
Chuang Tzu? Chuang Tzu and butterfly: clearly there’s a difference. This is called
the transformation of all things.

Chuang-Tse
 Knowledge, Names, Distinctions

The tao that can be told

is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named

is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.

Naming is the origin

of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the

mystery.

Caught in desire, you see only the

manifestations.

Lao-Tse, Chapter 1

To wear yourself out illuminating the unity of all things without realizing that
they're the same -- this is called 'three in the morning.' Why 'three in the
morning'? There was once a monkey trainer who said at feeding time, 'You get
three in the morning and four in the evening.' The monkeys got very angry, so he
said, 'Okay, I'll give you four in the morning and three in the evening.' At this, the
monkeys were happy again. Nothing was lost in either name or reality, but they
were angry one way and pleased the other. This is why the sage brings 'yes this'
and 'no that' together and rests in heaven the equalizer. This is called taking two
paths at once.

Chuang-Tse
 Heaven (t'ien) & the Natural (jiran)
Suppose a mighty metalsmith cast a piece of metal and the metal jumped up and
said ‘No, no -- I must be one of those legendary Mo-Yeh swords!’ Wouldn't the
metalsmith consider it ominous metal? And suppose, having chanced upon
human form, I insist 'Human, human, and nothing but human!' Wouldn't the
Maker-of-Change consider me an ominous person? I see heaven and earth as a
mighty foundry and the Maker-of-Change as a mighty metalsmith -- so wherever
they send me, how could I ever complain? I'll sleep soundly -- and then suddenly
I'll wake.

Chuang-Tse

Wu-Wei: non-Action
In the pursuit of knowledge The gentlest thing in the world

every day something is added. overcomes the hardest thing in the

world.
In the practice of the Tao,
That which has no substance
every day something is dropped.
enters where there is no space.
Less and less do you need to force
things, This shows the value of non-action.

until finally you arrive at non-action. Teaching without words,

When nothing is done, performing without actions:

nothing is left undone. that is the Master's way.

True mastery can be gained Lao-Tse, Chapter 43

by letting things go their own way.

It can't be gained by interfering. If you let them move together, at ease

and serene, you'll never lose your joy.
Lao-Tse, Chapter 48
Chuang-Tse
 Te & the Individual
Don't be a carcass of names

or treasure-house of schemes;

don't be a servant of pursuits

or proprietor of fine wisdom.

Make the inexhaustible your body

and wander beyond origins.

Make everything heaven gave you

treasure enough

and know you have nothing.

Live empty, perfectly empty.

Sage masters always employ mind like a pure

mirror:

welcome nothing, refuse nothing,

reflect everything, hold nothing.

And so they triumph over things with

never a wound. Chuang-Tse

the Individual & Society

I take no action and the people of themselves are transformed.

I love tranquility and the people of themselves become correct.

I engage in no activity and the people of themselves become prosperous.

I have no desires and the people of themselves become simple.

Lao-Tse, Chapter 57