Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Not-One is Also One, Part 18

NOT–ONE IS ALSO ONE:
HEAVEN AND HUMAN
IN THE INNER CHAPTERS
OF THE ZHUANGZI
by Scott Bradley

Continuing with the discussion from Zhuangzi, Chapter 5...
Who can free himself from achievement
And from fame, descend and be lost
Amid the masses of men?
He will flow like Tao, unseen,
He will go about like life itself
With no name and no home.
Thomas Merton’s adaptation of this portion of the Zhuangzi (Chapter 20) puts it wonderfully. Relative to the world of men, the sage is no-one. Having no-self, how could it be otherwise? And no-self is the entrance fee to the vast and unmatched.

It is not that the sage removes himself from the world; he removes his self from himself. It is not that by removing himself from the world of men that he enters of the world of the Heavenly; having entered the world of the Heavenly, he is removed from the world of men.

Note: At the conclusion of this miniseries, a link will be provided for those interested in downloading or printing the entire document replete with footnotes.

1 comment:

  1. this is interesting to think about. i am ambivalent toward thinking that the self should be discarded or ignored. i will have to ponder this more. it seems as if awareness of self exists for a reason, but also humans can be entrapped within their ideas of self. so i will have to ponder this more.

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