At the very outset of this ancient text, Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) immediately tries to shock our sensibilities by speaking of creatures so humongous as to make them wholly unbelievable. It's not that the sage himself believes in their mighty girth and width either. He simply is letting us see that he will employ a number of literary techniques to stretch our perspective.
And that is what this section of Chapter 1 is all about -- perspective or, as Keith Seddon phrases it, "The Relativity of Perspectives".
A cicada can't understand the world of a human, let alone K'un which "is so huge I don't know how many thousand li he measures." A day hike can't be compared to a trip of one thousand miles. And a creature that lives only a few scant weeks or months can't begin to comprehend what it means to live for hundreds of years.
Each being -- including each of us -- is limited in perspective by a set of parameters. In Chapter 2 of Learning the Tao: Chuang Tzu as Teacher
, Seddon writes,
And that is what this section of Chapter 1 is all about -- perspective or, as Keith Seddon phrases it, "The Relativity of Perspectives".
A cicada can't understand the world of a human, let alone K'un which "is so huge I don't know how many thousand li he measures." A day hike can't be compared to a trip of one thousand miles. And a creature that lives only a few scant weeks or months can't begin to comprehend what it means to live for hundreds of years.
Each being -- including each of us -- is limited in perspective by a set of parameters. In Chapter 2 of Learning the Tao: Chuang Tzu as Teacher
, Seddon writes,There is nothing wrong with the perspective the cicada and the dove have, but they made the mistake of trying to judge affairs beyond their experience in terms of their experience, which of course they could not do.
This is one of the things that gets me about religious deities. Believers like to spend inordinate amounts of time telling you about their god -- his/her attributes. But how could a mere mortal even understand one scintilla of a being so broad as to defy all imagination? It would be like a human trying to explain the theory of quantum physics to an amoeba!!
Beyond religion, this portion of Chapter 1 beseeches each of us not to make the mistake of trying to understand that which we cannot comprehend. Not only is it an exercise in futility, but it transforms us into pompous and delusional individuals. We make up stories to fill in the gaps and, in time, we come to believe that our stories represent reality.
To read more musings about the Zhuangzi, you can visit the index page for this ongoing series.
Beyond religion, this portion of Chapter 1 beseeches each of us not to make the mistake of trying to understand that which we cannot comprehend. Not only is it an exercise in futility, but it transforms us into pompous and delusional individuals. We make up stories to fill in the gaps and, in time, we come to believe that our stories represent reality.
To read more musings about the Zhuangzi, you can visit the index page for this ongoing series.
i think the danger lies in believing that we do understand, not in trying to understand. trying to understand things beyond our grasp is the key to learning, and if we constantly stretch our minds then we will end up having a healthy and capable mind. however we do need to accept that ours is a very limited view of the world, and we are not going to understand even a scosh of life's mysteries in one lifetime!
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