Sublime

SU CH’E says, “The interchange of yin and yang, of high and low, of great and small is the way things are and cannot be avoided. Fools are selfish. They insist on having their own way and meet with disaster. Sages know they cannot oppose things. They agree with whatever they meet. They eliminate extremes and thereby keep the world from harm.

But his name was not Lao-tzu, which means “Old Master.” Ssu-ma Ch’ien says his family name was Li, his personal name was Erh (meaning “ear,” hence, learned), and his posthumous name was Tan (meaning “long-eared,” hence, wise).

But a universe which grows utterly excludes the possibility of knowing how it grows in the clumsy terms of thought and language, so that no Taoist would dream of asking whether the Tao knows how it produces the universe. For it operates according to spontaneity, not according to plan.

Here is one of the main links between Taoism and Zen, for the style and terminology of the Book of Chao is Taoist throughout though the subject matter is Buddhist. The sayings of the early Zen masters, such as Hui-neng, Shen-hui, and Huang-po, are full of these very ideas-that truly to know is not to know, that the awakened mind responds immediatel

But Laozi and Zhuangzi, being Daoists, thought the fewer laws the better, whereas Shenzi and Hanfeizi, being Legalists, thought the entire point of government was to intervene and intervene some more.

49

WU CH’ENG says, “All of these things are useful. But without an empty place for an axle, a cart can’t move. Without a hollow place in the middle, a pot can’t hold things. Without spaces for doors and windows, a room can’t admit people or light. But these three examples are only metaphors. What keeps our body alive is the existence of breath within