The Simple Way, Part 23

The Simple Way
The Life & Teachings of Zhouzi
by Scott Bradley

A monk asked, “Master, how might I become one with Tao?”

“If you are other than Tao, how might I become one with you?”

After a day’s reflection, the same monk asked, “Since all that I am is an expression of Tao, how is it that I feel separate from Tao?”

“This is because you feel separate from Tao.”

As the monk began to speak again, Zhouzi put up his hand and said, “Stop! Are you so sharp that you have already mastered the meaning of this reply? Reflect, and ask anon, if needs be.”

The following day the same monk declared, “Since feeling separate from Tao is an expression of Tao, then in the feeling itself is union with Tao. And thus the feeling does cease.”

“You have discovered the knack of our crafty speech, though I dispute it not,” replied Zhouzi. “But like the youth who imagines the marriage bed, you cannot know the reality until you have wed. Yet just as the promptings of the body soon lead to that day, so might your yearning for unity make these words true for you. Yet the yearning itself is the same as the perceived lack.”

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