Chuang Tzu Quotes on Sense & Perception (3 Quotes)

Prince Wen Hui's cook was cutting up an ox.... The ox fell apart with a whisper. The bright cleaver murmured like a gentle wind. Rhythm Timing Like a sacred dance.... Prince Wen Hui Good work Your method is faultless The cook Method What I follow is Tao beyond all methods When I first began to cut up oxen I would see before me the whole ox all in one mass. After three years I no longer saw this mass. I saw the distinctions. But now I see nothing with the eye. My whole being apprehends. My senses are idle. The spirit free to work without plan follows its own instinct guided by natural line, by the secret opening, the hidden space, my cleaver finds its own way... Then I withdraw the blade, I stand still and let the joy of the work sink in. I clean the blade and put it away. Prince Wan Hui This is it My cook has shown me how I ought to live my own life.

Love of colors bewilders the eye and it fails to see right. Love of harmonies bewitches the ear, and it loses its true hearing. Love of perfumes fills the head with dizziness. Love of flavors ruins the taste. Desires unsettle the heart until the original nature runs amok. These five are enemies of true life. Yet these are what men of discernment claim to live for. They are not what I live for. If this is life, then pigeons in a cage have found happiness.

The man who has some respect for his person keeps his carcass out of sight, hides himself as perfectly as he can.