Great and Small

Posted on March 17, 2008 By

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“When we look at things in the light of Tao,
Nothing is best, nothing is worst.
Each thing, seen in its own light,
Stands out in its own way.
It can seem to be “better”
Than what it is compared with it
On its own terms.
But seen in terms of the whole,
No one thing stands out as “better.”

So the whole cosmos is a grain of rice,
And tip of a hair
is as big as a mountain –
Such is the relative view.

Fine horses can travel a hundred miles a day,
But they cannot catch mice
Like terriers or weasels:
All creatures have gifts of their own.

Can a man cling only to heaven
And know nothing of earth?
They are correlative: to know one
is to know the other.
To refuse one
Is to refuse both.
…”

The Way of Chuang Tzu, “Great and Small”, Thomas Merton

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It is Yin. It is Yang. It is Balance.
Namaste.

Reflections


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