The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 3, Part 1

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

Editorial Note: So as to clarify certain references below to historical events, the editor thought it best to fill the reader in on some of the details of those events. It happened, as is so often the case, that when hundreds of grasshoppers descended upon a single meadow, certain long-time residents got a bit miffed. In this case, it was the ants.

As you probably know, there is a long-standing animosity between grasshoppers and ants. This is in no small measure the consequence of myths perpetuated in fable and film, which the insects themselves have only too willingly adopted. Ants tend to look upon grasshoppers as domineering profligates who move about at random, doing as they please and reaping where they have not sown. Gypsies of the insect world, as the saying goes. And the grasshoppers, for their part, look upon ants as mindless automatons hopelessly stuck in convention and anality — no matter how industrious.

Although there had already been brief disagreements, things came to a head when certain ants decided to make off with the corpse of a dead grasshopper. Certain grasshoppers took great offense at this and things were about to get out of hand when Grasshopper stepped into the fray and calmed things down enough to instruct them all. He directed their attention first to a wonderful little story in the Book of Chuang-tzu in which the followers of Chuang-tzu are concerned about preparations for his funeral. Though somewhat lengthy, I take the liberty of sharing the meat of that story here since it seems so apropos to the topics recorded in these discussions:

“Chuang-tzu was dying and his followers wanted to provide a glorious funeral. Chuang-tzu said, ‘I have Heaven and Earth as my shroud and coffin...all forms of life for my mourners...What more could I need?’

His followers said, ‘We are worried, Master, that the crows and kites will eat you.’

‘Above ground I shall be eaten by crows and kites,’ said Chuang-tzu, ‘and below ground by worms and ants. Aren’t you just being rather partisan in wanting to feed only one of these groups, so depriving the others?’”i

Hearing this story the grasshoppers realized they were being a bit too sentimental regarding the body of their deceased comrade and, if someone was to recycle it, it might as well be the ants. Moreover, through further reflection by all, it was decided that both grasshoppers and ants had both the right and, indeed, the heavenly mandate to fulfill their own special innate natures. That ants tidy their surroundings by taking home and consuming the deceased seemed clearly to correspond to their innate natures. That the grasshoppers saw it as their innate nature to be much too lazy to dig a hole for the body and the prospect of a murder of crows inviting themselves to a dinner of grasshoppers were also persuasive arguments for leaving the ants to go about their business.

What follows are excerpts from a second spontaneous gathering of grasshoppers in a Nepalese meadow in the summer of 2001.

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.