Sunday, December 23, 2012

Bit by Bit - Chapter 5, Part 5

Trey Smith


In Lu there was a man named Shu-shan No-Toes who had had his foot cut off. Stumping along, he went to see Confucius.

"You weren't careful enough!" said Confucius. "Since you've already broken the law and gotten yourself into trouble like this, what do you expect to gain by coming to me now?"

No-Toes said, "I just didn't understand my duty and was too careless of my body, and so I lost a foot. But I've come now because I still have something that is worth more than a foot and I want to try to hold on to it. There is nothing that heaven doesn't cover, nothing that earth doesn't bear up. I supposed, Master, that you would be like heaven and earth. How did I know you would act like this?"

"It was stupid of me," said Confucius. "Please, Sir, won't you come in? I'd like to describe to you what I have learned."

But No-Toes went out.

Confucius said, "Be diligent, my disciples! Here is No-Toes, a man who has had his foot cut off, and still he's striving to learn so he can make up for the evil of his former conduct. How much more, then, should men whose virtue is still unimpaired!"

~ Burton Watson translation ~
Each of us is born with impediments. Some people have a naturally fiery temper. Others are so blase that nothing arouses them. Some people seem intrinsically pushy, while others tend to be passive. These sorts of limitations should not, however, stop us from trying to gain wisdom and to lead virtuous lives.

Every one of us has self-imposed barriers we need to work around.

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

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are unmoderated, so you can write whatever you want.