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
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