Howard Rheingold also said something (in the same essay) that has shaped my approach to Taoist texts.
"When I started out on my life's journey, I thought this little book [the Tao Te Ching] was a mystical tract that would lead eventually to a noetic revelation. Thirty years later, it's easier to recognize it as good, sound, immensely practical, astonishingly enduring advice about the way water flows, people act, history happens, universes evolve."
With that as an introduction, here is the passage of Chuang Tzu that has struck me the hardest so far. This one is from The Second Book of the Tao by Stephen Mitchell
"...Master Yu got sick. Master Ssu went to visit him. 'How are you?' He said.
Master Yu said, 'Amazing! Look at how the creator has bent me out of shape. My back is so curved that my intestines are on top of me. My chin digs into my belly button, my shoulders arch over my head, and my neck bones point to the sky.' Yet he seemed peaceful and unconcerned. Hobbling over to the well, he looked in and said, "My, my! How totally He has bent me out of shape!
....I received life when the time came, and I'll give it back when the time comes. Anyone who understands the proper order of things--that everything happens at exactly the right time--will be untouched by sorrow or joy....When you argue with reality, you lose."
Stephen Mitchell's commentary has this to say--
"Master Yu is afflicted with a neuromuscular syndrome that has bent him over like a paper clip. 'Afflicted?' No: presented; graced....People think that detachment must be a cold, humorless business. But Master Yu couldn't be more witty or engaging."
Not quite a Christian faith that all things work to the good of those who love God, but remarkably sane and admirable.
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