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

“Let me take an illustration," said the wheelwright,“from my own trade. In making a wheel, if you work tooslowly, you can't make it firm; if you work too fast, thespokes won't fit in. You must go neither too slowly nortoo fast. There must be co-ordination of mind and hand.Words cannot explain what it is, but there is somemysterious art herein. I cannot teach it to my son; norcan he learn it from me. Consequently, though seventyyears of age, I am still making wheels in my old age. Ifthe ancients, together with what they could not impart,are dead and gone, then what your Highness is studyingmust be the dregs."5.A drunken man who falls out of a cart, though he maysuffer, does not die. His bones are the same as otherpeople's; but he meets his accident in a different way. Hisspirit is in a condition of security. He is not conscious ofriding in the cart; neither is he conscious of falling out ofit. Ideas of life, death, fear, etc., cannot penetrate hisbreast; and so he does not suffer from contact withobjective existences. And if such security is to be gotfrom wine, how much more is it to be got from God? It isin God that the Sage seeks his refuge, and so he is freefrom harm.