The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) · 16 of 57 · tr. James Legge
Book II (part 9)
The harmonising of them is to be found in the invisible operation of Heaven, and by following this on into the unlimited past.
It is by this method that we can complete our years (without our minds being disturbed) 1 .
'What is meant by harmonising (conflicting opinions) in the invisible operation of Heaven?
There is the affirmation and the denial of it; and there is the assertion of an opinion and the rejection of it.
If the affirmation be according to the reality of the fact, it is certainly different from the denial of it:--there can be no dispute about that.
If the assertion of an opinion be correct, it is certainly different from its rejection:--neither can there be any dispute about that.
Let us forget the lapse of time; let us forget the conflict of opinions.
Let us make our appeal to the Infinite, and take up our position there 2 .' 11.
The Penumbra asked the Shadow 3 , saying, 'Formerly you were walking on, and now you have stopped; formerly you were sitting, and now you have risen up:--how is it that you are so without stability?' The Shadow replied, 'I wait for the movements of something else to do what I do, and that something else on which I wait waits further p.
197 on another to do as it does 1 .
My waiting,--is it for the scales of a snake, or the wings of a cicada 2 ?
How should I know why I do one thing, or do not do another 3 ?
'Formerly, I, Kwang Kâu, dreamt that I was a butterfly, a butterfly flying about, feeling that it was enjoying itself I did not know that it was Kâu.
Suddenly I awoke, and was myself again, the veritable Kâu.
I did not know whether it had formerly been Kâu dreaming that he was a butterfly, or it was now a butterfly dreaming that it was Kâu.
But between Kâu and a butterfly there must be a difference 4 .
This is a case of what is called the Transformation of Things 4 .' Footnotes 176:1 See pp.
128-130.
176:2 Nan-kwo, 'the southern suburb,' had probably been the quarter where Dze-khî had resided, and is used as his surname.
He is introduced several times by Kwang-dze in his writings:--Books IV, 7; XXVII, 4, and perhaps elsewhere.
176:3 We have the surname of this disciple, Yen ( ); his name, Yen ( ); his honorary or posthumous epithet (Khäng); and his ordinary appellation, Dze-yû.
The use of the epithet shows that he and his master had lived before our author.
176:4 'He had lost himself;' that is, he had become unconscious of all around him, and even of himself, as if he were about to enter p.
177 into the state of Ian Immortal,' a mild form of the Buddhistic samâdhi.
But his attitude and appearance were intended by Kwang-dze to indicate what should be the mental condition in reference to the inquiry pursued in the Book;--a condition, it appears to me, of agnosticism.
See the account of Lâo-dze in a similar trance in Book XXI, par.
4.
177:1 The Chinese term here (lâi) denotes a reed or pipe, with three holes, by a combination of which there was formed the rudimentary or reed organ.
Our author uses it for the sounds or notes heard in nature, various as the various opinions of men in their discussions about things.
178:1 The sounds of Earth have been described fully and graphically.
Sufi self-effacement in God — the via by which the lover is unmade as a separate ego and recovered as God's act; specifies the practice/event rather than mystical_union's resulting state.
Footnotes describe a state where one loses oneself and becomes unconscious of surroundings, akin to self-effacement.
The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.
The text instructs the reader to make an appeal to the Infinite and take up a position there.
Effortless action aligned with the spontaneous flow of the Dao; non-coercive, non-striving conduct that yields results without forcing — the sage acts without acting.
[auto] The Shadow's reliance on external movement and the instruction to follow Heaven's operation exemplify effortless action aligned with the Dao.