TAOIST AESTHETIC

Aesthetics four Taoist thresholds

 

 

Empathy

Entered the garden to brighten the day


 What we are, that only can we sea

R. W. Emerson 


Chaung-Tzu and Hui-Tzu had strolled on to the bridge over the Hao, when the former observed, “See how the minnows are darting about! this is the pleasure of fishes”

“You not being a fish yourself”, said Hui-Tzu, “How you possibly know in what consists the pleasure of fishes?”

“And you not being I”, retorted Chuang-Tzu, “How can you know what I do not know?” 

“If I, not being you, can not know what you know”, urged Hui-Tzu, “it follows that you, not being a fish, can not know in what consists the pleasure of fishes.

“Let us go back”, said Chuang-Tzu”To your original question…  You asked me how I knew in what consists the pleasure of fishes. Your very question shows that you knew I knew.

For you asked me I knew.

I knew it from my own feelings on this bridge”

From my own feelings above the bridge, I infer those of the fishes bellow 

Chuang-Tzu

Herbert A. Giles translation

 

Vital Rhythm

Full sun in the garden


Vibrations / Chi / Kundalini / Prana / Ki / Carma


Page of the I Ching Book of Changes , Song Dynasty printing of between 960 and 1269 .

I Ching Book of Changes

 

Reticence

Late afternoon in the garden


What is suggested, you should not say


Banana leaves covering the yard

Moss invades solitary

The monk and the visitor, having exchanged words sublime, shut

Floating in the air a scent unknown

Lao-tse, Tao Te Ching, XI

 

Emptiness

It is night in Pan-yun-tuan garden


Sound loneliness


Thirty spokes converge

In the hub of a wheel;
But the use of the cart
Will depend on the part
Of the hub that is void.

With a wall all around
A clay bowl is moulded;
But the use of the bowl
Will depend on the part
Of the bowl that is void.

Cut out windows and doors
In the house that you build;
But the use of the house
Will depend on the part
Of the house that is void.

Thus advantage is had
From whatever is there;
But usefulness arises
From whatever is not.

Lao-tse, Tao Te Ching, XI

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