Tang's questions to Ji (one of his wise ministers) were about this point:~ Nina Correa translation ~
"In the far north where nothing grows there's an unexplored sea that seems like a lake in the sky. In it is some sort of fish that's a thousand miles wide, and no one knows its length. It's been given the name Kun. There's some sort of bird that's been given the name Peng. Its back is like Mount Taishan, and it has wings that hang down like clouds in the sky. It can spiral upward like a cyclone for thirty thousand miles, cut through the floating clouds having only the blue sky above its shoulders, and then set a course for the south as it heads for the southern wilderness. A scolding quail laughingly asks: 'Where's it going? I jump and leap as I rise, but then fall back down after only a couple of feet. I hover between the low bushes and plants, which is also a method of flying. Then where does it think it's going?' "
This is the debate between what's small and what's large.
How often do we mock others when it is you or I -- not them -- who doesn't understand the context of a given situation?
This is one of the great problems with a lack of an adequate perspective. We judge things more by what we "know" or believe as opposed to how things are. If a certain tack has not proven successful in our own experience, we conflate that to mean that such a tack won't work in ANY situation, even those with a completely different set of variables!
This is one of the reasons that both Lao Tzu & Chuang Tzu stress approaching life openly like an empty bowl. When we encounter circumstances without preconceived notions -- a limited perspective -- we are more able to consider options that flow with the situation. A limited perspective will produce limited results; an open perspective is more apt to produce unlimited results.
To read more musings about the Zhuangzi, you can visit the index page for this ongoing series.
This is one of the great problems with a lack of an adequate perspective. We judge things more by what we "know" or believe as opposed to how things are. If a certain tack has not proven successful in our own experience, we conflate that to mean that such a tack won't work in ANY situation, even those with a completely different set of variables!
This is one of the reasons that both Lao Tzu & Chuang Tzu stress approaching life openly like an empty bowl. When we encounter circumstances without preconceived notions -- a limited perspective -- we are more able to consider options that flow with the situation. A limited perspective will produce limited results; an open perspective is more apt to produce unlimited results.
To read more musings about the Zhuangzi, you can visit the index page for this ongoing series.
this is strange, because i often have dreams or fantasies almost exactly like the experiences he describes here. spiraling upward like a cyclone, stretching myself to be as wide as the ocean...
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