Monday, September 12, 2011

Zen & Tao Poetic 6 - Child

稚子 (譚子化書卷1道化)

稚子弄影,不知为影所弄;狂夫侮像,不知为像所侮。(化家者不知为家所化,化国者不知为国所化,化天下者不知为天下所化。三皇,有道者也,不知其道化为五帝之德。五帝,有德者也,不知其德化为三王之仁义。三王,有仁义者也,不知其仁义化为秦汉之战争。)醉者负醉,疥者疗疥,其势弥颠,其病弥笃,而无反者也。

Child from Tan's Book-of-Change (my translation)

A child makes his own shadow to play tricks
without knowing his shadow manipulating him
An impulsive man insults a statue
without knowing the statue stirring up his emotion
..........
A drunken man helps the drunks
An infected person takes care of the infected
Only aggravate the problem
Can't be otherwise!

2 comments:

  1. I liked the impulsive man/statue imagery. So often we are led by external factors and fail to realize that our internal dialogues to them is the real source of suffering. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete

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