Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Wanderings - The Forest of Dark Sages, Part 3

If you haven't read Part 1 and Part 2 of this story, you should go back to read them first.

“Each and every thing has its own innate nature,” commented Chen Jen, “whether stone or tree or human being. And all things but man express that nature inherently. Let us be who we truly are, for that, my dear friends, is to find the bliss of harmony! Let us leave behind all knowing. Let us jump into the Flow of Nature and let it carry us where it will. And where we resist, where ‘humanity’ would diverge, let us rather go with that which is most primal. Let us go with Nature’s Flow.”

Then Chen Jen offered:
The heavens spin.
Seasons pass.
The wheel of life
Slowly turns
In the Forest of Dark Sages.

“Life flows on in the freedom of its own self-sustaining nature,” said Yu Chu. “But what do you mean by the Forest of Dark Sages?”

“The Forest of Dark Sages is everywhere and nowhere,” answered Chen Jen. “It is the great void of freedom in which the sage roams aimlessly, without purpose or meaning or identity. These sages are called ‘dark’ because they are unknown to the world, and indeed, they are unknown to their own selves.”

And P’o-tzu offered:
The pool is still
In the morning calm.
The reflected clouds
Cause not a riffle.

“Is not this the very image of the heart at peace?” suggested Tzu-yu. “The world and its passing entanglements are observed and reflected, but find no place in a heart at rest.”

Then Yu Chu offered:
This sea of grass
Tossed by the wind.
What freedom!

“I see it!” exclaimed Tzu-yu. “The wind sweeps the grass this way and that and it yields in joy to whatever might arise. This is freedom! And you, Yu Chu, have taken to the Tao like a fish takes to the water.”

“Is not this precisely the given nature of all that is?” responded Yu Chu. “For the fish to take pleasure in water is for the fish to flow with Tao. And for a man to be a man is for a man to flow with Tao.”

This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.

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