Forgetting about preferences
Tao is obscured when men understand only one pair of opposites,
or concentrate only on a partial aspect of being.
Then clear expression also becomes muddled by mere wordplay,
affirming this one aspect and denying all the rest.
The pivot of Tao passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge.
He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point
from which all movements and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship…
Abandoning all thought of imposing a limit or taking sides, he rests in direct intuition.
(2:3, p. 59, p.61)
When we look at things in the light of Tao, nothing is best, nothing is worst.
Each thing, seen in its own light stands out in its own way.
It can seem to be “better” than what is compared with it on its own terms.
But seen in terms of the whole, no one thing stands out as “better” …
All creatures have gifts of their own…
All things have varying capacities.
Consequently he who wants to have right without wrong, order without disorder,
does not understand the principles of heaven and earth.
He does not know how things hang together.
Can a man cling only to heaven and know nothing of earth?
They are correlative: to know one is to know the other.
To refuse one is to refuse both.
(17:4,5,8, pp. 131-133)
When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten.
When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten.
When the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten.
No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions:
Then your affairs are under control.
You are a free man.
(19:12, pp. 166-167)
via Quotations from Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton, Terebess Asia Online (TAO).
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