Thursday, December 20, 2012

Bit by Bit - Chapter 5, Part 2

Trey Smith


Ch'ang Chi said, "If he's lost a foot and is still superior to the Master, then how far above the common run of men he must be! A man like that - what unique way does he have of using his mind?"

Confucius said, "Life and death are great affairs, and yet they are no change to him. Though heaven and earth flop over and fall down, it is no loss to him. He sees clearly into what has no falsehood and does not shift with things. He takes it as fate that things should change, and he holds fast to the source."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ch'ang Chi.

Confucius said, "If you look at them from the point of view of their differences, then there is liver and gall, Ch'u and Yueh. But if you look at them from the point of view of their sameness, then the ten thousand things are all one. A man like this doesn't know what his ears or eyes should approve - he lets his mind play in the harmony of virtue. As for things, he sees them as one and does not see their loss. He regards the loss of a foot as a lump of earth thrown away."

~ Burton Watson translation ~
When you see a person with a "physical disability," what do you see? For most people, you see the disability, that aspect of the person that lies outside the norm.

If the disability is congenital, the person who possesses it does not view it as abnormal. Why? Because that is the way he or she has been since birth! In the overall scheme of things on a societal level, this physical aspect falls outside the norm, but for the person who has it, it IS the norm -- the only norm they intrinsically know.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

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