The Rainbow Makers Research & Talent Project (RMRTP)

Chuang Tzu - Freedom Without Attachments

In the deepest of oceans lies a great fish 

who is also a great bird when outside 

of its native territories. 

Residing in heaven's pond, 

this great fish lifts itself out of its 

own conditioning to become a whirling mass of energy. 

Flying through the air, 

what greater wonder is there than a fish 

who can fly and a bird who can swim 

for an indefinite amount of time 

under the lake beds of normal consciousness. 

Energy is the collective breathing of oceanic 

and sky bound entities. 

Is the color of the sky as far reaching as it seems 

and is the sky an ocean and the ocean a sky? 

Adopting the vision of super conscious entities, 

what is ridiculous to the earth bound entities 

is not so to the boundless entities. 

If the water of your mind is not deep enough, 

then nothing that is significantly heavy 

will decide to remain within you to float 

around the perimeters of your consciousness. 

If the air of your contemplations 

is not thick enough, 

then the bird of transcendence 

will find some other place to flap its ancient wings. 

Pigeons and other miniscule birds 

openly mock the great bird, 

saying that its travels and destinations 

leads nowhere but home. 

In reality, the great bird's journey 

is what makes it more than great 

and more than capable of leading thousands 

of small minded birds back to the real home of the Tao. 

Those who are possessed of a small fund of knowledge 

cannot naturally understand those who 

have knowledge up to the rim of infinity. 

In like manner, those who are of ill experience 

cannot naturally relate to those who 

are the fundamental principle behind all possible phenomena. 

Timed by an ever winding clock, 

vegetation does not endure for longer 

than a night and a day 

and bugs of the night do not often 

make it to the next coming minute second. 

Short lived and ill tempered is that entity 

which wants to live longer 

than it should, could or would. 

There once lived a tree in the center of the Tao. 

Enduring for eight hundred springs 

and eight hundred falls, 

what can we, who live no less than eighty years, 

say about life in its sum totality? 

So small and insignificant are we 

who are predisposed to attaining mediocrity 

or perfection in just one general area of life 

or in just one intellectual skill. 

The true sage laughs at all of life, 

knowing what others praise 

is not worth the time that it takes 

in order for it to become praiseworthy. 

Not budging an instance for 

those who are attached to distinguishing 

between what is internal and what is external, 

the boundaries of the mind dissolves back 

into the natural awareness of the Tao. 

The true sage rides on the winds of heaven 

just as he rides on a wild and free horse. 

Travelling to the outermost limits of consciousness, 

no name and no self is all that is desired. 

Meeting someone who is capable of giving 

discourses on the most wonderful of phenomena 

for rivers on end, that crazy fool said that 

there were men who were as fine as dragons 

and as versatile as cosmic energy. 

Capable of living indefinitely, 

who is to believe the mad rantings of the Tao. 

The Tao, responding, says that 

the blind cannot see the light of day 

and therefore cannot appreciate 

the wild and tame tides of infinite existences. 

Deaf to the sound of wisdom, 

look elsewhere besides your mind 

for real knowledge of cosmic energy and cosmic events. 

Uniting everything into one great entity, 

the troubles of politics and social societies 

are as unnoticeable by the Tao 

as a morning star is to normal finite perceptions. 

Left with a huge old tree, 

do not consider its ultimate function 

to be based on whether it is useable 

by small minded bird like entities. 

Planting the tree of your heart 

in the infinite emptiness of nothingness, 

sleep under its cosmic branches 

of protection and freeing knowledge. 

No axe man being brave enough 

to attempt cutting away at its unending roots, 

the Tao is perceived as useless to those 

who think that they are ultimately useful. 

As humble as dirt, allow the Tao 

to step all over your pride 

so that you may be able to see 

what is truly enduring and useful 

and what is of cosmic and planetary significance. 

Humbled by the Tao, 

fortunate are those who hear from you. 

                                Emptinessofmind.blogspot.ca by Julian Colgan