Chu Chai Tzu said to this teacher Chang Wu Tzu, “I have heard from Confucious that the sage does not involve herself with things of the world. She does not seek gain or try to avoid loss. She seeks nothing and does not even cling to Tao. She speaks without using words, and when using words does not say anything. Thus she travels beyond this world of dust. Confucious thinks these are just empty and fanciful words, but to me they seem like the very way of the mysterious Tao. What do you think?”
Chang Wu Tzu answered, “Even the Yellow Emperor himself would have been confused by these words; how can Confucious hope to understand them? I will speak to you a little recklessly and I want you to listen the same way. The sage floats alongside the sun and moon and embraces the universe, joining it all together into one great whole. She rejects distinctions and ignores social rank. Ordinary men struggle and toil while the sage seems stupid and blockheaded. To her ten thousand years are but one. To her the ten thousand beings are all one, forming a whole.
“How do I not know that loving life is a foolish delusion? How do I know if fearing death is like a man, who upon leaving home, cannot remember the way back and becomes afraid?”
from The Inner Chapters of Chuang Tzu by Solala Towler
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