Quotation From Zhuangzi

Singapore time 9.23 am 24th March 2008

Chapter 31
"Like species follow like," answered the old man. "Like sounds respond to like. This is a law of nature. I will now with your leave apply what I know to what you occupy yourself with,-- the affairs of men. The Son of Heaven, the princes, the ministers, and the people,--if these four fulfill their proper functions the result is good government. If they quit their proper places, the result is unutterable confusion. When the officials mind their duties and the people their business, neither is injured by the other.

"Further, men have eight blemishes, and there are four things which obstruct business. These should be investigated.
"Meddling with matters which do not matter to you, is prying.
"To push one's way in, regardless of neglect, is to be forward.
"To adapt one's thoughts and arrange one's words, is sycophancy.
"To applaud a person, right or wrong, is flattery.
"To love speaking evil of others, is slander.
"To sever friendships and break ties, is mischievousness.
"To praise people falsely with a view to injure them, is malice.
"To give ready assent with a view to worm out the wishes of others, good and bad alike, is to be a hypocrite.
"These eight blemishes cause a man to throw others into confusion and bring injury upon himself. The superior man will not have him for a friend; the enlightened prince will not employ him as his minister.
"To love the conduct of great affairs, and to introduce change into established order with a view to gain reputation,--this is ambition.
"To strive to get all into one's own hands, and to usurp what should be at the disposal of others,--this is greed.
"To know one's fault but not to correct them, to receive admonition but only to plunge deeper,--this is obstinacy.
"To suffer those who are like oneself, but as for those unlike not to credit them with the virtues they really possess,--this is bigotry.
"Such are the four things which obstruct business. And only he who can put aside the above eight and abstain from the above four is fit for instruction."

"Reverently care for your body. Carefully preserve your natural purity (shen shou qi zhen means fixing attention at your chu chiao, nose bridge.). Leave externals to others. Then you will not be involved. But as it is, instead of improving yourself you are trying to improve other people. Surely this is dealing with the external."

"Then may I enquire," said Confucius in a tone of distress, "what is the original purity?" [Your Spiritual Soul]

"Our original purity," replied the fisherman, "is the perfection of truth unalloyed. Without this, we cannot influence others. Hence, those who weep to order, though they mourn, do not grieve. Those who assume anger, though violent, do not inspire awe. Those who affect friendship, though they smile, are not in unison.

"Real mourning grieves in silence. Real anger awes without expression. Real friendship is unison without the aid of smiles. Our emotions are dependent upon the original purity within; and accordingly we hold the latter in esteem.

"Ceremonial is the invention of man. Our original purity is given to us from God. It is as it is, and cannot be changed. Wherefore the true Sage models himself upon God, and holds his original purity in esteem. He is independent of human exigencies. Fools, however, reverse this. They cannot model themselves upon God, and have to fall back on man. They do not hold original purity in esteem. Consequently they are ever suffering the vicissitudes of morality, and never reaching the goal. Alas! you, Sir, were early steeped in deceit, and are late in hearing the great doctrine." [God, tien, is Tao. Our original purity is Our Spiritual Soul.]

"Further, Tao is the source of all creation. Men have it, and live. They lose it, and die. Affairs in antagonism thereto, fail; in accordance therewith, succeed. Therefore, wherever Tao abides, there is the reverence of the true Sage. And as this old fisherman may be said to possess Tao, could I venture not to respect him?" [Man has Spiritual Soul, and lives. He loses his Spiritual Soul, he dies.]