If you haven't read Part 1 of this story, you should go back to read it first.
“You saved us, Master!” exulted King Ching Chi. “What shall we do? Keep the books? But then they would kill us if they found us again! Sell them, and keep back some of the price? But what if they search us and find the money? Tell the authorities and have them meet the bandits instead? Then we would see their dried corpses hanging from the gates! And that certainly is where they belong!”
“Great was your glimpse of the Tao, King Ching Chi, but how slow is the self to relinquish control, for the self is a habit not easily broken!” answered Tzu-yu. “Our brother will do even as he spoke. And as for hanging from the gates, no man deserves such cruelty however cruel he be. And if we wish this fate on another, then we must be prepared to receive the same, for surely there exists some tyrant ready to apply it to vagrants and non-conformists such as we.”
Hearing this, King Ching Chi broke into tears. For long had he failed to master himself and ever seemed to be playing the fool in the presence of these two wise sages.
Stopping at once, Chen Jen addressed him as follows: “My dear comrade, do you see this dung here beside the road? This is my dung and your dung and the dung of Tzu-yu. And this here, does it not stink like human excrement? This is the Tao’s dung. This is the Tao! All that is in the world whether ‘fair’ or ‘foul’ is the world and belongs equally to the world just as we, too, belong to and are the world. It is the essence of harmony to embrace equally all that is.
Do you think that I have fewer dragons than you; that my self is not equally full of dung? It is not so. It is only that I have been longer on this journey than you and have understood more fully what is my true nature. But know that your true nature is no different than mine. And know, too, that this nature is always yours whether realized or no. The way of escape is to attempt no escape. The path of freedom is letting all that is just be.
‘Fear cannot conquer fear
nor self itself subdue.
Leave off all this striving
and let your dragons be.’
In acceptance of all that you find yourself to be—whether dung or wisdom, King Ching Chi—is the transcendence of self that you so wisely wish to realize. And you will know that this acceptance is complete when it matters not that you sometimes play the fool! There is nothing to become and nothing to escape. In embracing all that Is, we embrace, too, the dung that lives within. As it is written: ‘That which is One is One; that which is not One is also One.’”
“Ah,” continued Chen Jen, “look in that tree hither, what do you see?”
“I see a hornets’ nest and many hornets flying in and out,” answered King Ching Chi.
“This is the self. Observe it from afar, but let it be. What good could there be in taking it in hand and trying to pacify the inhabitants thereof? Would they not simply turn and sting you mercilessly?
Or have you not heard of the man who found a tiger cub and, thinking to tame it and make it a pet, brought it home to his family? And indeed, for some time it seemed he was successful, for he brought it into his very home and it played with his children most innocently. Yet in the end the tiger awoke to its own true nature and that man’s family was no more. Likewise the ego-self cannot be tamed or made to be other than it is, though it may appear to be so.
Surely you have heard of the forest cuckoo that lays its egg in the nest of another bird and then flies away without further worry. And when the other bird returns to its nest it proudly takes this beautiful and outsized egg for its own. Yet the egg, when it hatches, quickly knocks its siblings out of the nest and then proceeds to work the foster parents to exhaustion with the greatness of its appetite and its demands. This, too, is an image of the self that proudly thinks that it has been improved and runs its host ragged in an attempt to keep it so.
Worry not about this ego-self, King Ching Chi,” Chen Jen concluded, “for it will always be at heart a cunning and scheming thing that is best left to wither in neglect and obscurity.”
“You are as a father to me,” exclaimed King Ching Chi, “and your words ever lift my heart! And Tzu-yu is as an older brother whom I love and cherish as a guide.”
With this, the three continued on their way leaving every sense of pain or conflict well behind.
This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.
“You saved us, Master!” exulted King Ching Chi. “What shall we do? Keep the books? But then they would kill us if they found us again! Sell them, and keep back some of the price? But what if they search us and find the money? Tell the authorities and have them meet the bandits instead? Then we would see their dried corpses hanging from the gates! And that certainly is where they belong!”
“Great was your glimpse of the Tao, King Ching Chi, but how slow is the self to relinquish control, for the self is a habit not easily broken!” answered Tzu-yu. “Our brother will do even as he spoke. And as for hanging from the gates, no man deserves such cruelty however cruel he be. And if we wish this fate on another, then we must be prepared to receive the same, for surely there exists some tyrant ready to apply it to vagrants and non-conformists such as we.”
Hearing this, King Ching Chi broke into tears. For long had he failed to master himself and ever seemed to be playing the fool in the presence of these two wise sages.
Stopping at once, Chen Jen addressed him as follows: “My dear comrade, do you see this dung here beside the road? This is my dung and your dung and the dung of Tzu-yu. And this here, does it not stink like human excrement? This is the Tao’s dung. This is the Tao! All that is in the world whether ‘fair’ or ‘foul’ is the world and belongs equally to the world just as we, too, belong to and are the world. It is the essence of harmony to embrace equally all that is.
Do you think that I have fewer dragons than you; that my self is not equally full of dung? It is not so. It is only that I have been longer on this journey than you and have understood more fully what is my true nature. But know that your true nature is no different than mine. And know, too, that this nature is always yours whether realized or no. The way of escape is to attempt no escape. The path of freedom is letting all that is just be.
‘Fear cannot conquer fear
nor self itself subdue.
Leave off all this striving
and let your dragons be.’
In acceptance of all that you find yourself to be—whether dung or wisdom, King Ching Chi—is the transcendence of self that you so wisely wish to realize. And you will know that this acceptance is complete when it matters not that you sometimes play the fool! There is nothing to become and nothing to escape. In embracing all that Is, we embrace, too, the dung that lives within. As it is written: ‘That which is One is One; that which is not One is also One.’”
“Ah,” continued Chen Jen, “look in that tree hither, what do you see?”
“I see a hornets’ nest and many hornets flying in and out,” answered King Ching Chi.
“This is the self. Observe it from afar, but let it be. What good could there be in taking it in hand and trying to pacify the inhabitants thereof? Would they not simply turn and sting you mercilessly?
Or have you not heard of the man who found a tiger cub and, thinking to tame it and make it a pet, brought it home to his family? And indeed, for some time it seemed he was successful, for he brought it into his very home and it played with his children most innocently. Yet in the end the tiger awoke to its own true nature and that man’s family was no more. Likewise the ego-self cannot be tamed or made to be other than it is, though it may appear to be so.
Surely you have heard of the forest cuckoo that lays its egg in the nest of another bird and then flies away without further worry. And when the other bird returns to its nest it proudly takes this beautiful and outsized egg for its own. Yet the egg, when it hatches, quickly knocks its siblings out of the nest and then proceeds to work the foster parents to exhaustion with the greatness of its appetite and its demands. This, too, is an image of the self that proudly thinks that it has been improved and runs its host ragged in an attempt to keep it so.
Worry not about this ego-self, King Ching Chi,” Chen Jen concluded, “for it will always be at heart a cunning and scheming thing that is best left to wither in neglect and obscurity.”
“You are as a father to me,” exclaimed King Ching Chi, “and your words ever lift my heart! And Tzu-yu is as an older brother whom I love and cherish as a guide.”
With this, the three continued on their way leaving every sense of pain or conflict well behind.
This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.
Packed with wisdom and a great story. Really enjoying this series.
ReplyDeleteHey, we aim to please!! :)
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