If you haven't read Part 1 of this story, you should go back to read it first.
And when they were but a half-day’s journey distant they experienced such a great quaking of the very earth that they were thrown to the ground and were amazed to see the trees along the road dancing as though uprooted and possessed of the wine spirit. “Truly a great dragon has awakened deep in the earth!” exclaimed Tzu-yu.
“The earth has trembled like an old man in his bed!” exclaimed Chen Jen. “Let us go now and see what has happened to the villages before us!”
They had not gone far before they began to encounter refugees fleeing from these villages in a futile hope of succor in the city. And being moved with compassion for those who had nothing but the clothes they had donned that morning to farm in the paddies, the sages began to covertly dole out coins so they might have something with which to buy rice when they arrived at the city.
This went on without end until they reached the town of Yi Chieh both penniless and famished. Hearing this, Yi Chieh again employed Chen Jen to teach his children and Tzu-yu to manage his own efforts to aid the afflicted. And so it was that both sages settled into a time of employ and the exercise of their skills.
Now it came about that one morning as Chen Jen was instructing his pupils concerning the teachings of the Confucians and how they had codified and institutionalized the teaching of Virtue and had made benevolence and righteousness principles imposed from without rather than expressions welling from within, that five hands shot up.
Choosing the youngest son, Chen Jen invited him to speak. “Respected Teacher,” he asked, “all through the town people praise your benevolence and that of Tzu-yu, proclaiming how you gave away a great fortune to help those in need. And how you arrived here penniless and nearly starved yourselves. How is it then that you criticize the teachings of the Confucians who preach such benevolence?”
“I am ashamed to my core to hear such words!” exclaimed Chen Jen. “Is this not the very reason that so many sages take to the forests and dwell far from all men!? For praise and adoration is the curse of the sage. And many are the followers of Tao who have fallen prey to this insidious poison. For it is the loss of self, of all pretension, praise and name, that is the path to Tao.
And as for criticizing benevolence, I have done no such thing. For there is a true benevolence that arises from an open and surrendered heart; yet it is a benevolence that knows nothing of benevolence or of the application of principles. This is the good that arises spontaneously from our own innate nature and not the so-called good, self-conscious and self-interested. As it is written:
‘Birds flock to trees.
Fish take to water.
True good is not good.
True benevolence knows nothing of benevolence.’
We follow the middle way, the pivot of the Tao. We recognize neither good nor evil, for we know that all things are relative and all relatives feed off each other and the one exists only because of the other. As it is said:
‘Embrace the good and the wrong shall rule.
Cling to hope and despair will cling to you.’
And again:
‘Positive clings to negative, for there it finds its being.
Opposites exist only in their opposition.
Thus neither exists at all.’
Ours is the transcendent view, my pupils, and what we do arises from neither conscious decision nor attachment to the norms of convention. But this you know, for you have already found the inner voice and the light that arises from within.”
This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.
And when they were but a half-day’s journey distant they experienced such a great quaking of the very earth that they were thrown to the ground and were amazed to see the trees along the road dancing as though uprooted and possessed of the wine spirit. “Truly a great dragon has awakened deep in the earth!” exclaimed Tzu-yu.
“The earth has trembled like an old man in his bed!” exclaimed Chen Jen. “Let us go now and see what has happened to the villages before us!”
They had not gone far before they began to encounter refugees fleeing from these villages in a futile hope of succor in the city. And being moved with compassion for those who had nothing but the clothes they had donned that morning to farm in the paddies, the sages began to covertly dole out coins so they might have something with which to buy rice when they arrived at the city.
This went on without end until they reached the town of Yi Chieh both penniless and famished. Hearing this, Yi Chieh again employed Chen Jen to teach his children and Tzu-yu to manage his own efforts to aid the afflicted. And so it was that both sages settled into a time of employ and the exercise of their skills.
Now it came about that one morning as Chen Jen was instructing his pupils concerning the teachings of the Confucians and how they had codified and institutionalized the teaching of Virtue and had made benevolence and righteousness principles imposed from without rather than expressions welling from within, that five hands shot up.
Choosing the youngest son, Chen Jen invited him to speak. “Respected Teacher,” he asked, “all through the town people praise your benevolence and that of Tzu-yu, proclaiming how you gave away a great fortune to help those in need. And how you arrived here penniless and nearly starved yourselves. How is it then that you criticize the teachings of the Confucians who preach such benevolence?”
“I am ashamed to my core to hear such words!” exclaimed Chen Jen. “Is this not the very reason that so many sages take to the forests and dwell far from all men!? For praise and adoration is the curse of the sage. And many are the followers of Tao who have fallen prey to this insidious poison. For it is the loss of self, of all pretension, praise and name, that is the path to Tao.
And as for criticizing benevolence, I have done no such thing. For there is a true benevolence that arises from an open and surrendered heart; yet it is a benevolence that knows nothing of benevolence or of the application of principles. This is the good that arises spontaneously from our own innate nature and not the so-called good, self-conscious and self-interested. As it is written:
‘Birds flock to trees.
Fish take to water.
True good is not good.
True benevolence knows nothing of benevolence.’
We follow the middle way, the pivot of the Tao. We recognize neither good nor evil, for we know that all things are relative and all relatives feed off each other and the one exists only because of the other. As it is said:
‘Embrace the good and the wrong shall rule.
Cling to hope and despair will cling to you.’
And again:
‘Positive clings to negative, for there it finds its being.
Opposites exist only in their opposition.
Thus neither exists at all.’
Ours is the transcendent view, my pupils, and what we do arises from neither conscious decision nor attachment to the norms of convention. But this you know, for you have already found the inner voice and the light that arises from within.”
This post is part of a series. To view the index, go here.
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