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# 2022-10-22 - Wisdom of China and India by Lin Yutang | |
This book was on my high school reading list and i found it at a | |
garage sale for $1. What a bargain! It is actually an omnibus | |
collection of many Chinese and Indian classics. | |
# Hymns From The Rigveda | |
Rigveda, wikipedia | |
## Introduction | |
I notice among certain European students of Hinduism the constant | |
insinuation of polytheism with a tone of reproach. That Hindu | |
monotheism developed in the Upanishads with the Vedanta belief in the | |
One behind all things is a minor point. It is my belief that it is | |
entirely unimportant what god one worships, monotheistic or | |
polytheistic; what is important is that belief should produce the | |
true spirit of devotion in the life of the worshiper. In modern | |
terms, what is important is that religion be [effective], that is, | |
that it produce results, and I may say that modern monotheism is less | |
[effective] than when men [and women] believed in the spirituality of | |
trees and rocks, and mountains and rivers. | |
# The Upanishads | |
Upanishads, wikipedia | |
## Introduction | |
Personally I have been kept away from many of the world's | |
masterpieces because in my young days I happened to stumble upon some | |
bad edition or translation of a certain work. | |
The Upanishads are strictly speaking the speculations of the Indian | |
forest sages about the world system, and therefore quite different | |
from the Hymns of the Rigveda. The entire collection breathes the | |
spirit of a troubled inquiry into the problems of the reality, the | |
individual soul, and the world soul behind the phenomena. The | |
Sankhya philosophers believed that the world consists of two | |
principles, souls [Purusha] and the material world, the Prakriti, or | |
Nature, while the Vedanta philosophers believed in one all-comprising | |
unity. Out of such debates in the forest grew these books. These | |
questions are vexing in their very nature... Still, as Tagore | |
rightly points out, the whole approach is too intellectual, and the | |
final consummation of Vedic philosophy is to be found in the | |
Bhagavad-Gita, written perhaps two centuries later, when an ardent | |
devotion to a personal God took the place of these barren | |
speculations. | |
# The Lord's Song (The Bhagavad-Gita) | |
Bhagavad Gita, wikipedia | |
## Introduction | |
The Bhagavad-Gita stands in relation to Hinduism as the Sermon on the | |
Mount stands in relation to the Christian teachings. It has been | |
described as the "Essence of the Vedas." | |
The whole book breathes the Hindu mental and religious atmosphere, | |
although some of the teachings, such as the emphasis on action and | |
doing it without regard to selfish benefit but for devotion to God, | |
and particularly the denial of materialism and emphatic Vedic | |
assertion of the spirit behind all things, offer viewpoints that are | |
either present or are greatly needed in the modern world. | |
The great power of the Gita lies in the fact that it teaches a | |
"loving faith" or devotion (bhakti) to a personal God, Krishna. The | |
final message of Krishna is: "Giving up all Dharmas, come unto me | |
alone for refuge. I shall free thee from all sins; grieve not." | |
# The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali | |
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, wikipedia | |
## Introduction | |
The reason for the popularity of yoga philosophy and its particular | |
appeal to the modern world is twofold; it arises from the combination | |
of a system of physical regimen that has something to do with | |
physical and mental health with a mystic search for inner stability | |
and the psychic depths of man's soul, which seems to underlie a broad | |
and deep undercurrent of modern life. | |
Yoga (meaning "yoke") represents a form of personal discipline, with | |
the object of "yoking" the body to the soul, and the individual soul | |
to the universal soul. It begins with a unique and unparalleled | |
exploration in the region of the involuntary muscles and bringing | |
them under the control of the mind, and proceeds to the liberation of | |
the mind from its sense impressions and the deeper residuents and | |
impediments that not only clog but form the fabric of our | |
subconscious life... | |
> There is no supernatural, says the Yogi, but there are in nature | |
> gross manifestations and subtle manifestations. The subtle are the | |
> causes, the gross the effects. The gross can be easily perceived | |
> by the senses; not so the subtle. The practice of Rāja-Yoga will | |
> lead to the acquisition of the more subtle perceptions. --Swami | |
> Vivekananda | |
# The Ramayana | |
Ramayana, wikipedia | |
## Introduction | |
It is more than a figure of speech to say that the Mahabharata must | |
be compared, if compared at all, to Home's Iliad, and the Ramayana, | |
with the Odyssey. To take the Mahabharata, the subject of the epic | |
was the same, dealing with a long-drawn-out war between the Kurus and | |
the Panchalas, as Homer dealt with the Trojan War. In magnitude, the | |
Mahabharata comprises 100,000 couplets, which is the result of | |
successive accretions in the easy sloka verse-form, while the | |
Ramayana comprises 24,000 couplets, and is more the unified work of | |
one writer. In so far as the Ramayana deals with the story of | |
wanderings of Rama and his wife Sita, it may be said to resemble the | |
Odyssey. Beyond that, the resemblance ceases... | |
In modern terms, the Mahabharata may be said to be realistic, and the | |
Ramayana, idealistic, in their respective handling of human | |
characters. The subject of the Mahabharata is men and war; the | |
subject of Ramayana is women and the home. If I judge human nature | |
correctly, by the preference of fathers for daughters and mothers for | |
sons, then it is inevitable that Mahabharata is the women's epic, | |
while Ramayana is the men's. | |
# The Epic of Rama | |
[Abridged] Translated by Romesh Dutt | |
Jabali a learned Brahman and a Sophist skilled in word | |
Questioned Faith and Law and Duty, spake to young Ayodhya's lord: | |
"Wherefore, Rama, idle maxims cloud thy heart and warp thy mind, | |
Maxims which mislead the simple and the thoughtless human kind? | |
Love nor friendship doth a mortal to his kith or kindred own, | |
Entering on this wide earth friendless, and departing all alone, | |
Foolishly upon the father and the mother dotes the son, | |
Kinship is an idle fancy,--save thyself thy kith is none! | |
In the wayside inn he halteth who in distant lands doth roam, | |
Leaves it with the dawning daylight for another transient home, | |
Thus on earth are kin and kindred, home and country, wealth and store, | |
We but meet them on our journey, leave them as we pass before! | |
[Supposing these are true, then owning no kin nor country, Rama would | |
not own rulership of said country either] | |
[Rama replies:] | |
... | |
Tortuous wisdom brings no profit, virtue shuns the crooked way, | |
For the deed proclaims the hero from the man of spacious lies, | |
[IOW, a tree is judged by its fruit.] | |
* * * | |
To his foes resistless Rama is a lightning from above, | |
To his friends a tree of shelter, soul of tenderness and love, | |
Dearer than his love of glory is his love to heal and bless, | |
Dearer than the crown and empire is his hermit's holy dress, | |
Brother's love is truest safety, brother's hate is deadliest sin! | |
Bali turns not from encounter even with his dying breath, | |
Insult from a foe, unanswered, is a deeper stain than death. | |
* * * | |
Love like thine, true-hearted brother, not on earth we often find! | |
* * * | |
Valmiki came to the sacrifice, and his pupils, Lava and Kusa, chanted | |
there the great Epic, the Ramayana, describing the deeds of Rama. In | |
this interesting portion of the poem we find how songs and poetry | |
were handed down in ancient India by memory. The boys had learnt the | |
whole of the Epic by heart, and chanted portions of it, day after | |
day, till the recital was completed. We are told that the poem | |
consists of seven books, 500 cantos, and 24,000 couplets. Twenty | |
cantos were recited each day, so that the recital of the whole poem | |
must have taken twenty-five days. It was by such feats of memory and | |
by such recitals that literature was preserved in ancient times in | |
India. | |
# Dhammapada | |
Dhammapada, wikipedia | |
Sitting alone, lying down a lone, waking alone without ceasing, and | |
alone subduing [herself or] himself, let a man [or woman] be happy | |
near the edge of a forest. | |
If anything is to be done, let a man [or woman] do it, let [her or] | |
him attack it vigorously! A careless pilgrim only scatters the dust | |
of [her or] his passions more widely. | |
# Three Sermons by Buddha | |
Yet it is undeniable that the hold of Buddhism upon its millions of | |
believers rests not upon the desire to enter Nirvana, but upon the | |
preaching of such common truths as gentleness and kindness, and that | |
the charm of Buddha's personality is exactly that charm of gentleness | |
and kindness. | |
But, as we shall see in the "Fire Sermon," there is one thing in | |
Buddhism which can never convince the truly modern man [or woman], | |
and that is the doctrine of the aversion for the body, taught in this | |
Sermon, as well as elsewhere. So long as any religion teaches | |
other-wordliness, I do not care whether it teaches a Heaven of the | |
Pearly Gates or a Nirvana. The body is not bad, that is all there is | |
to it. The body is transient, but it is not bad. It goes through | |
old age and death, but it is not bad. Our passions must be brought | |
under control, but they are not bad in themselves. Our sense | |
impressions are mere illusions, but they are not bad. This is the | |
feeling of the modern man [or woman] about the truth of the body. | |
# Kisā Gotamī | |
Not from weeping nor from grieving will anyone obtain peace of mind; | |
on the contrary, [her or] his pain will be greater and [her or] his | |
body will suffer. | |
# The Light of Asia (Life of Buddha) | |
Buddha was opposed to the priestcraft and preached directly to the | |
people in their spoken tongue instead of in the classical Sanskrit of | |
the Brahman. | |
"If life be aught, the savior of a life owns more the living thing | |
than he can own who sought to slay--the slayer spoils and wastes, the | |
cherisher sustains..." | |
Since pleasures end in pain, and youth in age, | |
And love in loss, and life in hateful death, | |
And death in unknown lives, which will but yoke | |
Men to their wheel again to whirl the round | |
Of false delights and woes that are not false, | |
Me too this lure hath cheated, so it seemed | |
Lovely to live, and life a sunlit stream | |
For ever flowing in a changeless peace; | |
Whereas the foolish ripple of the flood | |
Dances so lightly down by bloom and lawn | |
Only to pour its crystal quicklier | |
Into the foul salt sea... | |
How can it be that Brahm | |
Would make a world and keep it miserable, | |
Since, if, all-powerful, he leaves it so, | |
He is not good, and if not powerful, | |
He is not God? | |
Then, craving leave, he spake | |
Of life, which all can take but none can give, | |
Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep, | |
Wonderful, dear, and pleasant unto each, | |
Even to the meanest; yea, a boon to all | |
Where pity is, for pity makes the world | |
Soft to the weak and noble for the strong. | |
Then the World-honored spake: "Pity and need | |
Make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood, | |
Which runneth of one hue, nor caste in tears, | |
Which trickle salt with all; neither comes man | |
To birth with tilka-mark stamped on the brow, | |
Nor sacred thread on the neck. | |
# The Wisdom of China | |
## Introduction | |
The fact is, any branch of knowledge, whether it be the study of | |
rocks and minerals, or the study of cosmic rays, strikes mysticism as | |
soon as it reaches any depth. Witness Dr. Alexis Carrel and A.D. | |
Eddington. The nineteenth-century shallow rationalism naïvely | |
believed that the question "What is a blade of grass?" could be | |
answered adequately by considering the blade of grass as a purely | |
mechanical phenomenon. The contemporary scientific attitude is that | |
it cannot. Since Walt Whitman asked that question with his profound | |
mysticism, no one has been able to answer it and no scientist will | |
presume to answer it today. | |
For what is the Chinese philosophy, and does China have a philosophy, | |
say, like that of Descartes or Kant, a logically built and cogently | |
reasoned philosophy of knowledge or of the reality of the universe? | |
The answer is proudly "No." That is the whole point. So far as any | |
systematic epistemology or metaphysics is concerned, China had to | |
import it from India. The temperament for systematic philosophy | |
simply wasn't there [in China]... They [the Chinese people] have too | |
much sense for that. The sea of human life forever laps upon the | |
shores of Chinese thought, and the arrogance and absurdities of the | |
logician, the assumption that "I am exclusively right and you are | |
exclusively wrong," are not Chinese faults, whatever other faults | |
they may have. ... I notice that the scientists who popularize | |
science and who write it in the language that the common man [or | |
woman] can understand have a tendency to fall out of favor with the | |
Royal Academies. | |
Generally, the reader will find reading Chinese philosophies like | |
reading Emerson. Egon Friedell's characterization of Emerson's | |
method and style may serve as a perfect description of all Chinese | |
philosophers. "His propositions are there, unprepared, indisputable, | |
like sailors' signals coming out of a misty deep. He is an absolute | |
Impressionist, in his style, his composition and his thought. He | |
never propounds his ideas in a definite logical or artistic form, but | |
always in a natural and often accidental order which they have in his | |
head. He knows only provisional opinions, momentary truths. He | |
never sacrifices even a single word, sentence, or idea to the | |
architecture of the whole. Things like 'order of content,' | |
'introduction,' 'transitions' do not exist for him. He begins to | |
develop this or that view, and we think he is going to weave it | |
systematically, elucidate it from all sides and entrench it against | |
all possible attack. But then, suddenly, some alien picture or | |
simile, epigram or aperçu strikes him, full in the middle of his | |
chain of thought, and the theme thenceforward revolves on a quite new | |
axis. He calls his essays, 'Considerations by the Way,' but | |
everything that he wrote might equally be so entitled." | |
China's peculiar contribution to philosophy is therefore the distrust | |
of systematic philosophy. | |
Furthermore, the Chinese can ask a counter question, "Does the West | |
have a philosophy?" The answer is also clearly "No." We need a | |
philosophy of living and we clearly haven't got it. The Western man | |
[or woman] has tons of philosophy written by French, German, English, | |
and American professors, but still hasn't got a philosophy when he | |
[or she] wants it. In face, he [or she] seldom wants it. There are | |
professors of philosophy, but there are no philosophers. | |
H.G. Wells is suffering from the modern scientific Fact-Cult when he | |
believes we can reunify knowledge by his plan of a "world | |
encyclopædia." He seems to think that the gathering and systematic | |
presentation of data confers upon the scientist a Godlike wisdom, | |
that facts are cold figures, and the human mind is like an adding | |
machine, and that if you put all the facts into the machine, you will | |
automatically draw out the correct, infallible answer and the world | |
will then be saved. The folly of this conception is beyond belief. | |
We are suffering not from lack of facts, but rather from too many and | |
from lack of judgment. | |
But Confucianism says there is the knowledge of essentials and the | |
knowledge of externals, the knowledge of externals is the world of | |
facts, and the knowledge of essentials is the world of human | |
relationships and human behavior. Confucius says, "Be a good son, a | |
good brother, and a good friend, and if you have any energy left over | |
after attending to conduct, then study books." | |
For scientific materialism must spell determinism and determinism | |
must spell despair. It is therefore not an accident that the most | |
admired spirits of our times, not the greatest but the most vogue, | |
are pessimists. Our international chaos is founded upon our | |
philosophic despair... Only a robust mind like that of Walt Whitman | |
who was not afflicted with the scientific spirit and who was close in | |
touch with life itself and with the great humanity could retain that | |
enormous love and enormous faith in the common man. It is | |
interesting to point out that the flowers of New England culture were | |
so close to the Chinese: Whitman in his mysticism and his love for | |
this flesh-and-blood humanity, Thoreau in his pacifism and his rural | |
ideal and Emerson in his insight and epigrammatic wisdom. That | |
flower can blossom no more because the spirit of industrialism has | |
crushed it. | |
# Chuangtse, Mystic and Humorist | |
Zhuang Zhou, wikipedia | |
Taoism is not a school of thought in China, it is a deep, fundamental | |
trait of Chinese thinking and of the Chinese attitude toward life and | |
toward society. ... It provides the only safe, romantic release from | |
the severe Confucian classic restraint, and humanizes the very | |
humanists themselves. Therefore when a Chinese [person] succeeds, he | |
[or she] is always a Confucianist, and when he [or she] fails, he [or | |
she] is always a Taoist. As more people fail than succeed in this | |
world, and as all who succeed know that they succeed in a lame and | |
halting manner when they examine themselves in the dark hours of the | |
night, I believe Taoist ideas are more often at work than | |
Confucianism. | |
Chuangtse is therefore important as the first one who fully developed | |
the Taoistic thesis of the rhythm of life, contained in the epigrams | |
of Laotse. Unlike other Chinese philosophers principally occupied | |
with practical questions of government and personal morality, he | |
gives the only metaphysics existing in Chinese literature before the | |
coming of Buddhism. ... Certain traits in it, like weeding out the | |
idea of the ego and quiet contemplation and "seeing the Solitary" | |
explain how these native Chinese ideas were back of the development | |
of the Ch'an (Japanese Zen) Buddhism. | |
It must be also plainly understood that he [Chuangtse] was a humorist | |
with a wild and rather luxuriant fantasy, with an American love for | |
exaggeration and the big. One should therefore read him as one would | |
a humorist writes, knowing that he is frivolous when he is profound, | |
and profound when he is frivolous. | |
The extant text of Chuangtse consists of thirty-three chapters... | |
The chapters containing the most virulent attacks on Confucianism | |
(not included here) have been considered forgery, and a few Chinese | |
"textual critics" have even considered all of them forgery except the | |
first seven chapters. | |
When THIS (subjective) and THAT (objective) are both without their | |
correlates, that is the very 'Axis of Tao.' And when that axis | |
passes through the centre at which all Infinities converge, | |
affirmations and denials alike blend into the Infinite One. | |
Only the truly intelligent understand this principle of the leveling | |
of all things into One. They discard the distinctions and take | |
refuge in the common and ordinary things. The common and ordinary | |
things serve certain functions and therefore retain the wholeness of | |
nature. From this wholeness, one comprehends, an from comprehension, | |
one comes near to the Tao. There it stops. To stop without knowing | |
how it stops--this is Tao. | |
If then all things are One, what room is there for speech? On the | |
other hand, since I can say the word 'one' how can speech not exist? | |
If it does exist, we have One and speech--two; and two and one--three | |
from which point onward even the best mathematicians will fail to | |
reach (the ultimate); how much more then should ordinary people fail? | |
Hence, if from nothing you can proceed to something, and subsequently | |
reach three, it follows that it would be still easier if you were to | |
start from something. Since you cannot proceed, stop here. | |
The true Sage keeps his knowledge within [her or] him, while men [and | |
women] in general set forth theirs in arguments, in order to convince | |
each other. And therefore it is said that one who argues does so | |
because he [or she] cannot see certain points. | |
Now perfect Tao cannot be given a name. A perfect argument does not | |
employ words. Perfect kindness does not concern itself with | |
(individual acts of) kindness. Perfect integrity is not critical of | |
others. Perfect courage does not push itself forward. | |
For the Tao which manifests is not Tao. Speech which argues falls | |
short of its aim. Kindness which has fixed objects loses its scope. | |
Integrity which is obvious is not believed in. Courage which pushes | |
itself forward never accomplishes anything. ... Therefore that | |
knowledge which stops at which it does not know, is the highest | |
knowledge. | |
"How do I know that love of life is not a delusion after all? How do | |
I know but that he [or she] who dreads death is not as a child who | |
has lost [her or] his way and does not know [her or] his way home?" | |
"Granting that you and I argue. If you get the better of me, and not | |
I of you, are you necessarily right and I wrong? Or if I get the | |
better of you and not you of me, am I necessarily right and you | |
wrong? Or are we both partly right and partly wrong? Or are we both | |
wholly right and wholly wrong? You and I cannot know this, and | |
consequently we live in darkness." | |
Human life is limited, but knowledge is limitless. To drive the | |
limited in pursuit of the limitless is fatal; and to presume that one | |
really knows is fatal indeed! | |
The Master came, because it was his time to be born; he went, because | |
it was his time to go away. Those who accept the natural course and | |
sequence of things and live in obedience to it are beyond joy and | |
sorrow. The ancients spoke of this as the emancipation from bondage. | |
The fingers may not be able to supply all the fuel, but the fire is | |
transmitted, and we know not when it will come to an end. | |
... in what consists this fasting of the heart? | |
Concentrate your will. Hear not with your ears, but with your mind; | |
not with you mind, but with your spirit. Let your hearing stop with | |
the ears, and let your mind stop with its images. Let you spirit, | |
however, be like a blank, passively responsive to externals. In such | |
open receptivity only can Tao abide. And that open receptivity is | |
the fasting of the heart. | |
This chapter deals entirely with deformities--a literary device for | |
emphasizing the contrast of the inner and the outer man [or woman]. | |
"A man," replied Confucius, "does not seek to see himself in running | |
water, but in still water. For only what is itself still can instill | |
stillness into others. ... For the possession of one's original | |
(nature) is evidenced in true courage. A man will, single-handed, | |
brave a whole army." | |
He should not permit likes and dislikes to disturb his internal | |
economy. But now you are devoting your intelligence to externals, | |
and wearing out your vital spirit. Lean against a tree and sing; or | |
sit against a table and sleep! God has made you a shapely sight | |
[complex and deep], yet your only thought is the hard and white | |
[abstract attributes of objects]. | |
Correct knowledge is dependent on objects, but the objects of | |
knowledge are relative and uncertain (changing). We must, moreover, | |
have true men [and women] before we can have true knowledge. | |
For what they cared for was ONE and what they did not care for was | |
ONE also. That which they regarded as ONE was ONE, and that which | |
they did not regard as ONE was ONE likewise. In that which was ONE, | |
they were of God; in that which was not ONE, they were of man[kind]. | |
And so between the human and the divine no conflict ensued. This was | |
to be a true man [or woman]. | |
A boat may be hidden in a creek, or concealed in a bog, which is | |
generally considered safe. But at midnight a strong man [or woman] | |
may come and carry it away on [her or] his back. Those dull of | |
understanding do not perceive that however you conceal small things | |
in larger ones, there will always be a chance of losing them. But if | |
you entrust that which belongs to the universe to the whole universe, | |
from it there will be no escape. For this is the great law of things. | |
To have been cast in this human form is to us already a source of | |
joy. How much greater joy beyond our conception to know that that | |
which is now in human form may undergo countless transitions, with | |
only the infinite to look forward to? Therefore it is that the Sage | |
rejoices in that which can never be lost, but endures always. | |
Moreover, those who rely on the arc, the line, compasses, and the | |
square to make correct forms injure the natural constitution of | |
things. Those who use cords to bind and glue to piece things | |
together interfere with the natural character of things. Those who | |
seek to satisfy the mind of man[kind] by hampering it with ceremonies | |
and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original | |
nature. There is an original nature in things. Things in their | |
original nature are curved without the help of arcs, straight without | |
lines, round without compasses, and rectangular without squares; they | |
are joined together without glue, and hold together without cords. | |
In this manner all things live and grow from an inner urge and none | |
can tell how they come to do so. They all have a place in the scheme | |
of things and none can tell how they come to have their proper place. | |
From time immemorial this has always been so, and it may not be | |
tampered with. | |
Consequently, with the entire world, one cannot furnish sufficient | |
inducements or deterrents to action. ... the world has lived in a | |
helter-skelter of promotions and punishments. What chance have the | |
people left for living the even tenor of their lives? | |
By means of inaction alone can [one] allow the people to live out the | |
even tenor of their lives. | |
See nothing; hear nothing; guard your spirit in quietude and your | |
body will go right of its own accord. | |
Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without; | |
for much knowledge is a curse. | |
The people of this world all rejoice in others being like themselves, | |
and object to others being different from themselves. Those who make | |
friends with their likes and do not make friends with their unlikes, | |
are influenced by a desire to be above the others. But how can these | |
who desire to be above the others ever be above the others? Rather | |
than base one's judgment on the opinions of the many, let each look | |
after [her or] his own affairs. | |
# The Book of History | |
Book of Documents, wikipedia | |
## Introduction | |
I would characterize the Confucian political ideal as strictly | |
anarchism, in which moral culture of the people making government | |
unnecessary becomes the ideal. If it is asked why the people of | |
Chinatown in New York never have any use for the police, the answer | |
is Confucianism. There never were any police in China for four | |
thousand years. The people have got to learn to regulate their lives | |
socially, and not rely upon the law. | |
The importance of the Book of History (Shu King) is basic. It is to | |
Confucianism as the Upanishads are to Hinduism. ... Confucius was | |
strictly a historian, engaged in historical research, and spoke of | |
himself as a transmitter rather than an innovator. He had a passion | |
for history. | |
When the first Ch'in Emperor burned the Confucian books in B.C. 213, | |
most of them were destroyed. Four years later he died and his great | |
empire began to crumble and in another three years, B.C. 206, it | |
collapsed. There were many old scholars still living who had | |
committed the texts to memory. A simplification of the Chinese | |
script had taken place during the Ch'in reign by order of Li Sze, and | |
the scholars began to write down what they remembered in the "Modern | |
Script." | |
## Documents of Chinese Democracy (Shu Ching) | |
(According to the rules for) the regulation of divination, one should | |
first make up [her or] his mind, and afterwards refer ([her or] his | |
judgment) to the great tortoise-shell [i-ching]. ... Divination, when | |
fortunate, should not be repeated. | |
When the palace is a wild of lust, | |
And the country is a wild for hunting; | |
When spirits [alcohol?] are liked, and music is the delight; | |
When there are lofty roofs and carved walls;-- | |
The existence of any one of these things | |
Has never been but the prelude to ruin. | |
# Mencius | |
Mencius, wikipedia | |
## Introduction | |
Mencius lived in B.C. 372-289 and was thus a contemporary of Plato | |
... and of Aristotle... Mencius believed in the innate goodness of | |
human nature, while Hsüntse believed in its badness. Consequently | |
Hsüntse believed in culture and restraint, while Mencius believed | |
that culture consisted in seeking and retrieving the original | |
goodness of man[kind]. "A great man is one who has not lost the | |
child's heart." | |
Consequently there was a certain high idealism in Mencius when he | |
spoke of the "expansive spirit" in us, which he beautifully pinned | |
down in a phrase, "the air of the early dawn," which every early | |
riser is familiar with. How to save and keep that air, or spirit, of | |
the early dawn through the day, or how to guard the warm and good | |
heart of the child through our life is the moral problem. | |
# Motse: The Religious Teacher | |
Mozi, wikipedia | |
## Introduction | |
Among all Chinese philosophers, [Motse] comes closest to the | |
Christian teachings, for he alone taught universal love as the basis | |
of society and of peace, showed that Heaven loved the people equally, | |
and insisted on the belief in the existence of the spirits. ... the | |
broad-minded should be pleased that what is true can be independently | |
discovered by the human mind. What should really discourage | |
[missionaries] is that the Chinese as a nation have rejected this | |
doctrine after its reaching an enormous influence. [Ever so with | |
prophets.] | |
Mencius referred to him as one who "would wear [out] his head and his | |
heels to benefit the world." He taught and praised altruism, | |
frugality, and the hard life. Chuangtse said that his followers | |
"wore coarse garments and walked in sandals, and day and night | |
without cease lived the hard life as their goal." | |
The important thing is that both fascism and the doctrine of | |
universal love collapsed in China and have never been tried again. | |
Only in this light can we truly appreciate Confucianism. | |
## Motse | |
[The way of universal love and mutual aid] is to regard the state of | |
others as one's own, the house of others as one's own, the persons of | |
others as one's self. | |
But the gentlemen of the world would say: "So far so good. It is of | |
course very excellent when love becomes universal. But it is only a | |
difficult and distant ideal." | |
This is simply because [they] do not recognize what is to the benefit | |
of the world, or understand what is its calamity. Now, to besiege a | |
city, to fight in the fields, or to achieve a name at the cost of | |
death--these are what men [and women] find difficult. Yet when the | |
superior encourages them, the multitude can do them. Besides, | |
universal love and mutual aid is quite different from these. Whoever | |
loves is loved by others; whoever benefits others is benefited by | |
others; whoever hates others is hated by others; whoever injures | |
others is injured by others. Then, what difficulty is there with it | |
(universal love)? | |
# The Aphorisms of Confucius | |
## Introduction | |
One of the most curious facts of world history is that three of the | |
world's greatest and most influential thinkers were born within two | |
decades of each other. Laotse was probably born in B.C. 570, Buddha | |
in 563, and Confucius in 551. | |
Among Chinese scholars, Confucianism is known as the "religion of | |
li," the nearest translation for which would be "religion of moral | |
order." | |
Anyway, Confucius said of himself "I transmit and do not create." | |
From Motse, we learn that half a century after Confucius died, the | |
Confucian scholars wore a special cap and "talked an ancient | |
language." | |
This [Confucian Golden Mean] is the same as the Aristotelian Golden | |
Mean, a rather sad discovery for ardent students of moral conduct. | |
It is the discovery that the gentleman can do nothing exciting or out | |
of the way to distinguish himself except by his indistinguishability | |
from other gentlemen. | |
Confucius taught four things: | |
* literature | |
* personal conduct | |
* being one's true self | |
* honesty in social relationships | |
Confucius denounced or tried to avoid four things: | |
* arbitrariness of opinion | |
* dogmatism | |
* narrow-mindedness | |
* egoism | |
Confucius said, "Wake yourself up with poetry, establish your | |
character in li, and complete your education in music." | |
Confucius said, "It is the man [or woman] that makes the truth great, | |
and not the truth that makes man [or woman] great." | |
Tsekung asked "Is there one single word that can serve as a principle | |
of conduct for life?" Confucius replied, "Perhaps the word | |
'reciprocity' (shu) will do. Do not do unto others what you do not | |
want others to do unto you." | |
Confucius said, "Humility is near to moral discipline (or li); | |
simplicity of character is near to true [humanity]; and loyalty is | |
near to sincerity of heart. If a [person] will carefully cultivate | |
these things in [one's] conduct, one may still error a little, but... | |
won't be far from the standard of true [humanity]. For with humility | |
or a pious attitude, [one] seldom commits errors; with simplicity of | |
heart, [one] is generally reliable; and with simplicity of character, | |
[one] is usually generous. You seldom make a mistake when you start | |
off from these points." | |
# The Golden Mean of Tsesze | |
Zisi, wikipedia | |
When the passions, such as joy, anger, grief, and pleasure have not | |
awakened, that is our CENTRAL self, or moral being (chung). When | |
these passions awaken and each and all attain due measure and degree, | |
that is HARMONY, or moral order (ho). | |
Truth means the fulfillment of our self; and moral law means | |
following the law of our being. Truth is the substance of material | |
existence. Without truth there is no material existence. | |
The fulfillment of our being is moral sense. The fulfillment of the | |
nature of things outside of us is intellect. These, moral sense and | |
intellect, are the powers or faculties of our being. They combine | |
the inner or subjective and the outer or objective use of the mind. | |
Therefore, with truth, everything is done right. | |
Thus absolute truth is indestructible. Being indestructible, it is | |
eternal. Being eternal, it is self-existent. Being self-existent, | |
it is infinite. Being infinite, it is vast and deep. Being vast and | |
deep, it is transcendental and intelligent. It is because it is vast | |
and deep that it contains all existence. It is because it is | |
transcendental and intelligent that it embraces all existence. It is | |
because it is infinite and eternal that it fulfills or perfects all | |
existence. In vastness and depth it is like the Earth. In | |
transcendental intelligence it is like Heaven. Infinite and eternal, | |
it is the Infinite itself. | |
Such being the nature of absolute truth, it manifests itself without | |
being seen; it produces effects without motion; it accomplishes its | |
ends without action. | |
# Chinese Poetry | |
----- | |
I cannot come to you. I am afraid. | |
I will not come to you. These, I have said. | |
Though all the night I lie awake and know | |
That you are lying, waking, even so. | |
Though day by day you take the lonely road, | |
And come at nightfall to a dark abode. | |
Yet if so be you are indeed my friend, | |
Then in the end, | |
There is one road, a road I've never gone, | |
And down that road you shall not pass alone. | |
And there's one night you'll find me by your side. | |
The night that they tell me you have died. | |
----- | |
I would have gone to my lord in his need, | |
Have galloped there all the way, | |
But this is a matter concerns the State, | |
And I, being a woman, must stay. | |
I watched them leaving the palace yard, | |
In carriage and robe of state. | |
I would have gone by the hills and the fields, | |
I know they will come too late. | |
I may walk in the garden and gather | |
Lilies of mother-of-pearl. | |
I had a plan that would have saved the State. | |
--But mine are the thoughts of a girl. | |
The Elder Statesmen sit on the mats, | |
And wrangle through half the day; | |
A hundred plans they have drafted and dropped, | |
And mine was the only way. | |
----- | |
A Message to Mêng Hao-Jan | |
Master, I hail you from my heart, | |
And your fame arisen to the skies... | |
Renouncing in ruddy youth the importance of hat and chariot, | |
You chose pine-trees and clouds; and now, white-haired, | |
Drunk with the moon, a sage of dreams, | |
Flower-bewitched, you are deaf to the Emperor... | |
High mountain, how I long to reach you, | |
Breathing your sweetness even here! | |
# Six Chapters of a Floating Life | |
## Introduction | |
... in this simple story of two guileless creatures in their search | |
for beauty, living a life of poverty and privations, decidedly | |
outwitted by life and their cleverer fellowmen, yet determined to | |
snatch every moment of happiness and always fearful of the jealousy | |
of the gods, I seem to see the essence of a Chinese way of life as | |
really lived by two persons who happened to be husband and wife. Two | |
ordinary artistic persons who did not accomplish anything | |
particularly noteworthy in this world, but merely loved the beautiful | |
things in life, lived their quiet life with some good friends after | |
their own heart--ostensibly failures, and happy in their failure. | |
They were too good to be successful, for they were retiring, | |
cultivated souls... Was it morally wrong for a woman to disguise | |
herself as a man or to take a passionate interest in a beautiful | |
sing-song girl? If so, she could not have been conscious of it. She | |
merely yearned to see and know the beautiful things in life, | |
beautiful things which lay not within the reach of moral women in | |
ancient China to see... | |
## Chapter 1, Wedded Bliss | |
I was born in 1763... on the twenty-second day of November. The | |
country was then in the heyday of peace and, moreover, I was born in | |
a scholars' family... So altogether I may say that the gods have been | |
unusually kind to me. | |
I am by nature unconventional and straightforward, but Yün was a | |
stickler for forms, like the Confucian schoolmasters. Whenever I put | |
on a dress for her or tidied up her sleeves, she would say "So much | |
obliged" again and again, and when I passed her a towel or a fan, she | |
must receive it standing up. | |
On the seventh night of the seventh moon of that year [1780], Yün | |
prepared incense, candles, and some melons and fruits, so that we | |
might together worship the Grandson of Heaven... The seventh day of | |
the seventh moon is the only day in the year when the pair of | |
heavenly lovers, the Cowherd ("grandson of heaven") and the Spinning | |
Maiden are allowed to meet each other across the Milky Way. | |
"If you are in love with a thing, you will forget its ugliness," said | |
Yün. | |
... Yün said: "A woman is an incarnation of the feminine principle, | |
and so are pearls. For a woman to wear pearls would be to leave no | |
room for the male principle. For that reason I don't prize them." | |
## Chapter 2, The Little Pleasures of Life | |
To burn incense in a quiet room is one of the cultivated pleasures of | |
a leisurely life. Yün used to burn aloes-wood and shuhsiang [a kind | |
of fragrant wood from Cambodia.] She used to steam the wood first in | |
a cauldron thoroughly, and then place it on a copper wire net over a | |
stove, about half an inch from the fire. Under the action of the | |
slow fire, the wood would give out a kind of subtle fragrance without | |
any visible smoke. | |
My friends knew that I was poor, and often helped pay the expenses in | |
order that we might get together and talk for the whole day. I was | |
very keen on keeping the place spotlessly clean, and was besides, | |
fond of free and easy ways with my friends. | |
The whole day long, we were occupied in discussing poetry or painting | |
only. These friends came and went as they pleased, like swallows | |
beneath the eaves. Yün would take off her hair-pin and sell it for | |
wine without a second's thought, for she would not let a beautiful | |
day pass without company. To-day these friends are scattered to the | |
four corners of the earth like clouds dispersed by a storm, and the | |
woman I loved is dead, like broken jade and buried incense. How sad | |
indeed to look back upon these things! | |
Among the friends at Hsiaoshuanglou, four things were tabooed: | |
firstly, talking about people's official promotions; secondly, | |
gossiping about lawsuits and current affairs; thirdly, discussing the | |
conventional eight-legged essays for the imperial exams; and | |
fourthly, playing cards and dice. Whoever broke any of these rules | |
was penalized to provide five catties of wine. On the other hand, | |
there were four things which we all approved: generosity, romantic | |
charm, free and easy ways, and quietness. | |
There are two places in Soochow called the South Garden and the North | |
Garden. We would go there when the rape flowers were in bloom, but | |
there was no wine shop near by where we could have a drink. If we | |
brought eatables along in a basket, there was little fun drinking | |
cold wine in the company of the flowers. Some proposed that we | |
should look for something to drink in the neighborhood, and others | |
suggested that we should look at the flowers first and then come back | |
for a drink, but this was never quite the ideal thing, which should | |
be to drink warm wine in the presence of flowers. While no one could | |
make any satisfactory suggestion, Yün smiled and said, "Tomorrow you | |
people provide the money and I'll carry a stove to the place myself." | |
"Very well," they all said. When my friends had left, I asked Yün | |
how she was going to do it. "I am not going to carry it myself," she | |
said. "I have seen wonton sellers in the streets who carry along a | |
stove and a pan and everything we need. We could just ask one of | |
these fellows to go along with us. I'll prepare the dishes first, | |
and when we arrive, all we need is just to heat them up, and we will | |
have everything ready including tea and wine." | |
"But what about the kettle for boiling tea?" | |
"We could carry along an earthen pot," she said, "remove the wonton | |
seller's pan and suspend the pot over the fire by a spike. This will | |
then serve us as a kettle for boiling water, won't it?" | |
I clapped my hands in applause. There was a wonton seller by the | |
name of Pao, whom we asked to go along with us the following | |
afternoon, agreeing to pay him a hundred cash, to which Pao agreed. | |
The following day my friends, who were going to see the flowers, | |
arrived. I told them about the arrangements, and they were all | |
amused at Yün's ingenious idea. We started off after lunch, | |
bringing along with us some straw mats and cushions. When we had | |
arrived at the South Garden, we chose a place under the shade of | |
willow trees, and sat together on the ground. First we boiled some | |
tea, and after drinking it, we warmed up the wine and prepared | |
dishes. The sun was beautiful and the breeze was gentle, while the | |
yellow rape flowers in the field looked like a stretch of gold, with | |
people in blue gowns and red sleeves passing by the rice fields and | |
butterflies flitting to and fro--a sight which could make one drunk | |
without any liquor. Very soon the wine and dishes were ready and we | |
sat together on the ground drinking and eating. The wonton seller | |
was quite a likable person and we asked him to join us. People who | |
saw us thus enjoying ourselves thought it quite a novel idea. Then | |
the cups, bowls, and dishes lay about in great disorder on the ground | |
while we were already slightly drunk, some sitting and some lying | |
down, and some singing or shouting. When the sun was going down, I | |
wanted to eat congee, and the wonton seller bought some rice and | |
cooked it for us. We then came back with a full belly. | |
"Did you enjoy it today?" asked Yün. | |
"We could not have enjoyed it so much, had it not been for Madame!" | |
all of us exclaimed. Then merrily we parted. | |
## Chapter 3, Sorrow | |
My wife and I often had to pawn things when we were in need of money, | |
and while at first we managed to make both ends meet, gradually our | |
purse became thinner and thinner. | |
[Yün became ill and bed-ridden.] Yün had given birth to a | |
daughter, named Ch'ingchün, who was then fourteen years old. We | |
also had a son named Fengsen, who was then twelve... I was out of a | |
job for many years, and had set up a shop for selling books and | |
paintings in my own home. The income of the shop for three days was | |
hardly sufficient to meet one day's expenses, and I was hard pressed | |
for money and worried all the time. For this reason, Yün swore that | |
she would never see any doctor or take any medicine. | |
"... The illness is now deep in my system and no doctor will be of | |
any avail, and you may just as well spare yourself the expense. As I | |
look back upon the twenty-three years of our married life, I know | |
that you have loved me and been most considerate to me, in spite of | |
all my faults. I am happy to die with a husband and understanding | |
friend like you and I have no regrets. Yes, I have been as happy as | |
a fairy at times, with my warm cotton clothing and frugal but full | |
meals and the happy home we had." | |
Then Yün held my hand and was going to say something again, but she | |
could only mumble the words "Next incarnation!" half audibly again | |
and again. Suddenly she began to feel short of breath, her chin was | |
set, her eyes stood wide open, and however I called her name, she | |
could not utter a single word. Two lines of tears began to roll down | |
her face. After a while, her breath became weaker and her tears | |
gradually dried up and her spirit departed from this life for ever. | |
This was on the thirteenth of the third moon, 1803. A solitary lamp | |
was shining then in the room, and a sense of utter forlornness | |
overcame me. In my heart opened a wound that shall be healed | |
nevermore! | |
After Yün's death, I thought of the poet Lin Haching who "took the | |
plum-trees for his wives and a stork for his son," and I called | |
myself "Meiyi," meaning "one bereaved of the plum-tree." | |
I then said good-bye to my mother and went to tell Ch'ingchün that I | |
was going to a mountain to become a Taoist monk. | |
## Chapter 4, The Joys of Travel | |
I am by nature fond of forming my own opinions without regard to what | |
others say. For instance, in my criticism of painting and poetry, I | |
would value highly certain things that others look down upon, and | |
think nothing of what others prize very highly. So it is also with | |
natural scenery, whose true appreciation must come from one's own | |
heart or not at all. | |
[Chapters 5 and 6 are missing] | |
# Family Letters of a Chinese Poet | |
What I hate the most is to have caged birds; we enjoy them while they | |
are shut up in prison. What justification is there that we are | |
entitled to thwart the instincts of animals to please our own nature? | |
God also loves them dearly in his heart, and we who are supposed to | |
be the crown of all creation cannot even sympathize with God's heart. | |
How then is the animal world going to have a place of refuge? | |
... I always love birds, but there is a proper way of doing it. One | |
who loves birds should plant trees, so that the house shall be | |
surrounded with hundreds of shady branches and be a country and a | |
home for birds. ... How shall the keeping of a bird in a cage... be | |
compared with it in generosity of spirit and kindness? | |
# The Epigrams of Lusin | |
Lu Xun, wikipedia | |
People hate Buddhist monks and nuns, Mohammedans, and Christians, but | |
no one hates a Taoist. To understand the reason for this is to | |
understand half of China. | |
Both talking and writing are the signs of those who have failed. | |
Those who are engaged in fighting the evil forces have no time for | |
these, and those who are successful keep quiet. | |
# One Hundred Proverbs | |
All the universe is an inn; search not specially for a retreat of | |
peace: all the people are your relatives; expect therefore troubles | |
from them. | |
Keep your mind busy to accomplish things; keep your mind open to | |
understand things. | |
Of the things that are good, only study is good without accompanying | |
evil; the love of mountains and rivers is good without accompanying | |
evil; taking pleasure in the moon, the breeze, flowers, and bamboos | |
is good without accompanying evil; sitting in upright posture in | |
silence is good without accompanying evil. | |
The sun and moon shoot past like a bullet in our floating life; only | |
sleep affords a little extension of our span of life. ... As for | |
seeing novel things in our sleep--traveling abroad and being able to | |
walk without legs and fly without wings--it provides us with a little | |
fairyland. | |
author: Lin, Yutang, 1895-1976 | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Lin_Yutang | |
LOC: PK2978.E5 L5 | |
source: gopher://tilde.pink/1/~bencollver/ia/details/wisdomofchinaand035380mbp | |
tags: ebook,spirit | |
title: Wisdom of China and India | |
# Tags | |
ebook | |
spirit |