From The Maxims Of Seng Tsan

[poliphilo]

The wise let things be
But the foolish are restless.
In truth all things are worthy of love,
But the foolish pick and choose.
They create illusions and fall madly in love with them.
How ridiculous this is.

The ignorant are torn by desire
But the wise have no likes and dislikes.
Good and evil, right and wrong, the lovely and unlovely:
All are illusions, conjuring tricks, insubstantial pageants.
Reach for them and there’s nothing.
Gain and loss, right and wrong:
Clear your mind of such nonsense.

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Ah, so.

Thank you.

[baritonejeff.livejournal.com]

At the risk of being "ridiculous" and "ignorant":

How very simplistic.

[ex-kalymura481.livejournal.com]

My reaction to the first verse was: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

However, by the second: "Good and evil, right and wrong, the lovely and unlovely: All are illusions" suggests (to me) that religions are out-ruled too.

Interesting; thank you.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Seng Tsan was a zen master. This is a very free version of what he wrote.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Chinese wisdom (and poetry) tastes very different from its European equivalent, doesn't it?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This stuff appeals to me. But (I agree) it would be very difficult to live by these principles.

Mind you, the same is true of the Sermon on the Mount.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This guy was a Zen master. Zen is more philosophy than religion. In other verses he talks about The Unity- by which he means something akin to Western transcendentalist views of Deity, I think.

[baritonejeff.livejournal.com]

This stuff appeals to me, too. And I thank you for posting it. But I guess my point is not about whether I agree with it or not, but whether I would WANT to live a life as blank as this proposes to me.

I agree with your statement about the Sermon on the Mount, but the difference for me is that those are precepts that I feel are worth striving towards. And, I also believe that the intention of the Sermon on the Mount is less about the achieving, and more about the striving, and what meaning and purpose that brings to life.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't feel that a life lived by those precepts would necessarily be blank. I think it would be a life of perfect freedom- something we're all supposed to want

But, as G.K. Chesterton once said of Christianity, it's not that it's failed, it's that it's never been tried.

[baritonejeff.livejournal.com]

Fascinating, but I still don't get "freedom" from his words. What I hear him proposing is, in it's way, as tyrannical as what he's opposing.

The Chesterton quote is amazingly perceptive. Thanks!