Bit by Bit - Chapter 5, Part 9

Trey Smith

"What do you mean when you say his powers are whole?" asked Duke Ai.

Confucius said, "Life, death, preservation, loss, failure, success, poverty, riches, worthiness, unworthiness, slander, fame, hunger, thirst, cold, heat - these are the alternations of the world, the workings of fate. Day and night they change place before us and wisdom cannot spy out their source. Therefore, they should not be enough to destroy your harmony; they should not be allowed to enter the Spirit Storehouse. If you can harmonize and delight in them, master them and never be at a loss for joy, if you can do this day and night without break and make it be spring with everything, mingling with all and creating the moment within your own mind - this is what I call being whole in power."
~ Burton Watson translation ~

For me, fate is nothing more than the result of complex calculations carried out within the intricacies of the web of life. If the human mind had the capacity to push back far enough beyond the confines of our own little self-defined worlds, we could see all the variables at work and how each impacted all the others. Instead of blaming things on luck or fate, we would simply say, "Hah! That result makes perfect sense."

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