Friday, December 13, 2013

Bit by Bit - Chapter 25, Part 3

Trey Smith

The sage penetrates bafflement and complication, rounding all into a single body, yet he does not know why - it is his inborn nature. He returns to fate and acts accordingly, using Heaven as his teacher, and men follow after, pinning labels on him. But if he worried about how much he knew and his actions were never constant for so much as a year or a season then how could he ever find a stopping place?
~ Burton Watson translation ~
I think it's not a question of the sage not knowing why, it's more that the sage doesn't care. He doesn't waste the time and energy to analyze his actions -- he simply acts within the flow.

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.