Yan Hui asked Confucius:
“When Mengsun Tsai’s mother died, he sobbed loudly, but did not shed tears, did not grieve in his soul, and did not express grief at the funeral. But, despite these three missteps, he was known as the best expert on funeral rituals in his kingdom of Lu. This means that, in fact, there are people in the world who know how to achieve fame that is not supported by true merit. Frankly, I am perplexed.
“This Mengsun Tsai has achieved perfection, for he has gone beyond ordinary knowledge,” answered Confucius. — Simplifying a matter does not mean achieving anything, but doing away with it altogether means simplifying something. Mengsun does not know why he was born and why he will die, he does not know what comes ahead and what follows. And if he is destined to turn into something, he will accept with confidence transformations incomprehensible to him and that’s it! For, being in transformations, how can he know what does not transform? And, having not yet experienced transformations, how can he know what it is? Are we not, in our ignorance, like someone who is asleep and has not yet experienced what awakening is? Moreover, although his body changes, his heart does not suffer damage. He changes his refuge every day, but his spirit does not dissipate. Mengxun, of course, knows what awakening is. When another person cries, he cries too, because he follows whatever happens. After all, even when we say to ourselves: “Here I am,” can we be sure that someone we call this “I” actually is such? In a dream, we see ourselves as a bird and soar into the sky, and then suddenly we see ourselves as a fish and plunge into the abyss of water. And no one knows whether the one who is now uttering these words is asleep or awake.
Rather than dreaming and inventing, it is better to laugh heartily. And rather than indulge in laughter, it is better to trust life. Entrusting yourself to what was originally given, be drawn to transformations - then you will enter the vast palaces of Heavenly Unity.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru