The Three Principle Texts of Daoism translated by ... - Bad Request

decried in my native State. Gain excites in me no joy, andloss no sorrow. I look on life in the same light as death,on riches in the same light as poverty, on my fellow-menas so many swine, and on myself as I look on my fellowmen.I dwell in my home as though it were a merecaravanserai, and regard my native district with no morefeeling than I would a barbarian State. Afflicted as I amin these various ways, honours and rewards fail to rouseme, pains and penalties to overawe me, good or badfortune to influence me, joy or grief to move me. Thus Iam incapable of serving my sovereign, of associating withmy friends and kinsmen, of directing my wife andchildren, or of controlling my servants and retainers.“Men are controlled by external influences in so far astheir minds are open to impressions of good and evil,and their bodies are sensitive to injury or the reverse. Butone who is able to discern a connecting unity in the mostmultiform diversity will surely, in his survey of theuniverse, be unconscious of the differences betweenpositive and negative.“What disease is this, and what remedy is there that willcure it?"Wên Chih replied by asking Lung Shu to stand with hisback to the light, while he himself faced the light andlooked at him intently. “Ah!" said he after a while, “I seethat a good square inch of your heart is hollow. You arewithin an ace of being a true sage. Six of the orifices inyour heart are open and clear, and only the seventh isblocked up.