Chapter 28: Zhuangzi's Theory of All Things, Vernacular Texts (8)
If I have a debate with you, and you win over me, and I don't say that I can't talk to you, then is what you said right? Am I wrong?
If? I beat you, you can't talk about me, so, am I right? Is that what you say wrong?
Which of us is right? If you're right, then I'm wrong. If I'm right, then you're wrong; Still is? Are we both right? Or are they all wrong?
You and I don't know who is right and who is wrong, and the world is already ignorant and prejudiced, so who can we make the right judgment about our arguments?
Let people who share your views judge? If he sees the same thing as you, how can he make the right judgment?
Let someone who shares my opinion judge? If you have the same opinion as me, how can you make the right judgment?
Let the point of view be different from mine and yours to judge? If you don't see the same as you and me, how can you make the right judgment? Let someone with the same point of view as me and you to judge? If we all share the same views as you and me, how can we make the right judgment?
In that case, you and I have no way of knowing who is right and who is wrong. So? Who else do we have to wait for to judge us?
Just when our debate is a voice, not a rhetoric. For example, the sound of the wind, the sound of birds, the sound of leaves, the sound of wild beasts, and so on. If that's the case? What are we arguing about? Do we still have to argue and debate?
Our argument is nothing but a voice that comes out!
Just like the call between birds, we have to distinguish what this bird means and what it means when it calls. It's just a sound!
Since it is impossible to judge who is right and who is wrong, then! Let's not dwell on that! Let's step out of the debate and talk about why we are arguing about right and wrong. Why are we debating?
Outcome! We will realize that the purpose of our debate is only to survive, to survive better. The controversy between Confucianism and Mohism is nothing more than that!
In that case, we are all here to survive, so why should we debate? Let's just let it be! Adapting to the environment and working hard to live is our pursuit!
If we can give up those meaningless arguments, give up those meaningless pursuits, and live for the sake of living, we can live to the end of our lives, and complete our life process as human beings this time.
What does it mean to go with the flow? To go with the flow is to follow the natural development of things, without human intervention. From the perspective and position of different things, there will be a difference between right and wrong. It is right to look at the problem from the perspective and standpoint of this matter. But! Looking at the problem from the perspective and position of another thing, then! It must be wrong.
So! If we step out of this circle and look at things from the level of the Tao rather than from the level of people, then! Your arguments, including those between Confucianism and Mohism, are in vain. There is no right or wrong, right or wrong in your arguments.
Because! Your arguments are nothing more than to live, to survive.
If we jump out of this circle and we look at life from the height of the Tao, then! We will realize that human beings, like all things, are just one thing in heaven and earth, and they are all just a process of life. So! We don't have to argue!
So! We still stand on the height of the Tao, forgetting life and death, forgetting right and wrong. Let us take the realm of our knowledge to a higher level, to reach the realm of infinity, just like the Tao, endless. Therefore! Saints do not argue with others about right and wrong, right and wrong, they stand on a higher level of cognition and look at the world. Look at things from the height of the Tao, look at things in the world. ”
The shadow of the shadow asked the shadow, "You were walking so well, why did you stop now; You were sitting there just now, why are you standing up again now? You shadow, why don't you have your own discipline? ”
The shadow replied, "I am the shadow, and there is a shadow when the sun shines." When the angle of sunlight changes, or if things move, I change and move with them, so why don't I have discipline?
You're going to say I'm not disciplined, then! The thing I rely on is not disciplined? If you want to say that the things I rely on have no discipline, then! Sunshine it hasn't been temperate yet!
Is the thing I rely on like the scales of a snake and the wings of a cicada? Grow on the body of the sun, like that! I can't see my shadow anymore. How do I know why this is the case, how I am a shadow? How do I know why this is the case, and what is wrong with me being a shadow? ”
In fact! The world is a shadow, or a shadow of a shadow. The shadow of the shadow depends on the shadow and exists, and the shadow depends on others and other things. Other people and things are dependent on the sunlight and exist.
The world is a shadow, so? Who is the sunshine?
Sunshine is the people we are attached to!
Who are the ones to whom we are attached?
The people we are attached to are Confucianism or Mohistism, the people who teach us how to live.
The world is a shadow, or a shadow of a shadow. We are all shadows, or shadows of shadows, all dependent on others. We are all shadows, we don't have ourselves, we exist dependent on others.
We are all shadows, we don't have our own discipline, we do what others do, we walk when others go, and we stop when others stop!
We are all shadows, so we have no brains and are attached to others! Because we are shadows, we are attached to others.
Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he was a butterfly, dancing, a butterfly at ease, he felt very happy and comfortable, and felt that this was him! I didn't know that I was Zhuang Zhou, and I thought I was a butterfly.
Suddenly, he remembered and was immediately frightened: Who am I Zhuang Zhou? Or butterflies? I don't know if Zhuang Zhou became a butterfly in his dream, or did the butterfly become Zhuang Zhou in his dream?
There must be a difference between Zhuang Zhou and a butterfly, Zhuang Zhou is Zhuang Zhou, and a butterfly is a butterfly. Both humans and butterflies come from the Tao and have evolved over countless years. One became a human being, became Zhuang Zhou; One evolved into an insect and a butterfly.
This is called materialization, and everyone has evolved from the Tao and evolved into different species. Man is a species, butterflies are a species, trees are a species, and beasts are a species...... We are all one species.