Hui Tzu said to Chuang Tzu:
— I have a big tree in my yard, people call it the Tree of Heaven. Its trunk is so crooked that you can’t put a plumb line to it. Its branches are so twisted that you can’t attach a square to them. Place it by the road and not a single carpenter will look at it. So are your words: they are great, but they are of no use, that is why people do not listen to them.
Chuang Tzu replied:
“Have you ever seen a wild cat stalk its prey?” She crawls, ready at every moment to rush right and left, up and down, but suddenly she falls into a trap and dies in a snare. But the yak: it is huge, like a cloud covering half the sky, but given its size it cannot even catch a mouse.
You say your tree is of no use. Well, plant it in the vastness of the Unprecedented Land, set it up at the edge of the Infinite Expanse, and walk around it for your own pleasure, without bothering yourself with worries, rest serenely under it, indulging in pleasant dreams. There the ax will not cut him down, and nothing will cause damage. If no benefit can be found, where will the worries come from?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru