Thursday, August 8, 2013

Bit by Bit - Chapter 19, Part 13

Trey Smith

Duke Huan was hunting in a marsh, with Kuan Chung as his carriage driver, when he saw a ghost. The duke grasped Kuan Chung's hand and said, "Father Chung, what do you see?"

"I don't see anything," replied Kuan Chung.

When the duke returned home, he fell into a stupor, grew ill, and for several days did not go out.

~ Burton Watson translation ~
A lot of our fears are nothing more than ghosts! We conjure up ideas in our head and then we treat these manufactured images as tangible entities. These ghosts are the cause of much of our anxiety and stress -- I write from personal experience. Just like Duke Huan, we make ourselves sick with worry over nothing more than self-created phantoms.

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

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