Trey Smith
How do I know this is so? The morning mushroom knows nothing of twilight and dawn; the summer cicada knows nothing of spring and autumn. They are the short-lived. South of Ch'u there is a caterpillar which counts five hundred years as one spring and five hundred years as one autumn. Long, long ago there was a great rose of Sharon that counted eight thousand years as one spring and eight thousand years as one autumn. They are the long-lived. Yet P'eng-tsu alone is famous today for having lived a long time, and everybody tries to ape him. Isn't it pitiful!.The very idea that people could KNOW God or have the ability to unravel the Grand Mystery is baffling. Human intellect or imagination is so limited and the enormity of the universe is so vast. It would be like a single pea pod comprehending the entire farm or one blade of grass fully understanding a field!
~ Burton Watson translation ~
Rather than strive -- unsuccessfully, I might add -- to understand that which defies understanding, why not float free in the ignorance that is shared by each of the ten thousand things?
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