Great Knowledge

The work of Chuang Tzu is available to us as a result of the reading, reflection, and study of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk.

In justifying his interest in the Eastern Taoist philosopher, the Christian Merton wrote:  "I think I may be pardoned for consorting with a Chinese recluse who shared the climate and peace of my own kind of solitude, and who is my own kind of person."

GREAT KNOWLEDGE

Chuang Tzu

Great knowledge sees all in one.

Small knowledge breaks down into the many.

 

When the body sleeps, the soul is enfolded in One.

When the body wakes, the openings begin to function.

They resound with every encounter

With all the varied business of life, the strivings of the heart;

Men are blocked, perplexed, lost in doubt

Little fears eat away their peace of heart.

Great fears swallow them whole.

Arrows shot at a target:  hit and miss, right and wrong.

That is what men call judgment, decision.

Their pronouncements are as final

As treaties between emperors.

O, they make their point!

Yet their arguments fall faster and feebler

Than dead leaves in autumn and winter.

Their talks flows out like piss.

Never to be recovered.

They stand at last, blocked, bound, and gagged,

Choked up like old drain pipes.

The mind fails.  It shall not see light again.

 

Pleasure and rage

Sadness and joy

Hopes and regrets

Change and stability

Weakness and decision

Impatience and sloth:

All are sounds from the same flute,

All mushrooms from the same wet mould.

Day and night follow one another and come upon us

Without our seeing how they sprout!

...

If there were no "that"

There would be no "this."

If there were no "this"

There would be nothing for all these winds to play on.

So far can we go.

But how shall we understand

What brings it about?

 

One may well suppose the True Governor

To be behind it all.  That such a Power works

I can believe.  I cannot see his form.

He acts, but has no form.