Chuang Tzu - Equalizing Heaven And Earth by Julian Colgan

Openly staring into the emptiness of space, 

the sky is not all that big compared to 

the smallness of this mind. 

Making my body feel like a useless tree 

that is in the process of disintegrating, 

and making my mind as inactive 

as inanimate matter, 

what I am sitting on is sitting on me. 

Forgetting who I am or what I am exactly, 

the melodies of far off heavens 

are as perceptible as the buzzing of bees. 

Focusing on the inhalation and exhalation 

of trees, I hear a great rumbling 

coming from all of the layers of the earth. 

Just as some persons are quiet and some are loud, 

similarly, the entire earth sometimes belches 

and sometimes cries. 

On other occasions, you can hear 

infinite sounds through finite sounds 

and thus the concert of life is in full sway. 

The Tao plays through everyone's instrument 

of a voice, giving everyone the chance 

to mute the notes of the Tao 

or the chance to amplify what the Tao 

has entrusted them with since mere infancy. 

What is great to small men is 

barely noticed by the Tao 

and what is great to the Tao 

is often treated as less than worthy 

by the world at large. 

Sleeping, waking, or running, 

the soul of things is known and unknown 

by those who struggle and those who laugh. 

Laughing at being slow to run after fear, 

the arrow of judgement stills 

the practitioner's attachment to being right. 

Fading and fading away like the joyous 

beauties of the seasons, 

the age of unfulfillment is drawing near 

for those who cringe at the sight of possible death. 

All of the activities of the feeling nature 

issues forth from the emptiness of being. 

Where they go to once they are expressed 

is a mystery to the wise and to the pretentious. 

Stopping their flow of expressions 

is useless until the seasons are fully understood. 

The cause of being is likeable to no being. 

Though we sense there is a creator or a self, 

where is the self when it loses its form and disappears? 

From which body part does this self originate from? 

Is it the self which causes the body to act 

in conformity with the seasons and the Tao? 

Whether grasped at or not, 

the self ceases to exist while existing 

and exists while not existing. 

Working for nothing really, 

where does the self go to when it stops working? 

Holding onto a formed image of a formed image, 

what image is your image? 

Guided by being guideless, 

a fixed mentality is without perimeters 

and thus there is no necessity 

for calling others rigid or flexible. 

Sounding out soundless words, 

what is the use of making formed sentences and ideas? 

Lost in perpetual contemplation, the meaninglessness of life 

is filled with innate meaning. 

Seeing the Tao right in front of you, 

how can you not see the Tao? 

The Tao is an immortal word, 

yet it remains clouded over by meaning. 

Clear to the point of intellectual devastation, 

those who deny others end up denying nothing 

and those who agree with others end up agreeing with no one. 

Perceiver and perceived arising at the same moment, 

how can we distinguish between what is right 

and what is wrong? 

Clear and unclear in meaning, 

the relativity of this and that is no longer 

able to be a this or a that. 

Infinite in both directions of being 

right and being wrong, 

the Tao clears away intelligence and stupidity. 

Thinking and acting as the Tao thinks and acts 

in a unitarian fashion, the dualism of dualism 

is empty without having to be in any way empty. 

Unity being the Tao and the Tao being you, 

what is clear and unclear in no way affects 

the causal agent of nothingness. 

Like a monkey who is promised 

a different amount of nuts during various 

phases of the day, what difference does it make 

when you receive one type of dualism today 

and another type of dualism the next few corresponding days? 

Only a monkey is a monkey; 

therefore, leave nature to its own devices 

and surf the tides of gain and loss 

as you would climb to a solitary tree 

for a better perspective on love. 

Reaching somewhere, aim for nowhere. 

When nowhere, aim for some place 

other than somewhere. 

Nothing can be added onto or taken away from. 

Because of the balanced nature of the Tao, 

what is missing is actually found 

and what is found is nowhere to be seen. 

Brilliant because of being ignorant, 

ignore your way through being brilliant 

and toss aside the need to be needy of being needed. 

Beginning without beginning and without ending, 

the end is close to what is new 

and what is new is in no way new. 

Saying something as if I said something, 

say what is unsayable to be said. 

The hairline on my head 

being greater than the hairline of a mountain, 

what is one is two and what is two is one. 

From emptiness to fullness and 

from fullness to balance, 

the Tao is the way of ways. 

Outside of the universe of sages, 

what is discussed by the peoples 

is discussed by the Tao. 

No longer seeing left or right 

or up or down, 

the directions and distinctions 

that are given by the mind are confusing and enlightening. 

Taking endlessness from the limitless Tao, 

I am never full because I am never empty. 

Exhausted without tiring, 

the infinite speed of infinity 

is mine and mine alone. 

Explaining everything while remaining silent, 

Confucius and the like cannot for the life of them 

understand understanding itself. 

Holding the sun and the moon in each eye ball 

and being a unified unit in a moment's time, 

why frantically make yourself busy 

when there is nothing to do 

but to be yourself when you are yourself. 

Dreaming of dreaming a dream 

that is not a dream, 

what does dreaming mean to you 

who are a figment of a dreamless dream? 

Confusing sensory alertness for a perceiving consciousness, 

Confucius dreams that no one dreams. 

Dreaming about infinity, the finite is less 

than real for those who are awake. 

Once I was a butterfly 

and now I am a man. 

Maybe a man is a butterfly 

and a butterfly is a man. 

No longer distinguishing between 

self and other, I enjoy being a butterfly 

while being a man and I enjoy 

dreaming while being fully awake. 

Transforming into a changeless state, 

what state is there but no state 

and what man is there but no man? 

As a butterfly I am free. 

As a man I am free. 

Be happy with your freedom. 

by Julian Colgan (Copyright)

Chuang Tzu

 http://emptinessofmind.blogspot.ca/2012/11/chuang-tzu-equalizing-heaven-and-earth.html?view=flipcard