Charles moyer <[log in to unmask]>  wrote:

>Subject: Confucius confusion
>
>Wei, I did read the  "Tao to ching"  - several times. It's on my bookshelf
>between "The Bhagavad Gita" and "The Diamond Sutra". It's a little worse
>for
>wear because it lived with me in a one room cabin in the woods many years
>ago. There's a picture of an old man smiling on the cover which brings to
>mind a story Lin Yutang tells in  "The Importance of Living". It is worth
>recounting here for its therapeutic value. You may know it. It concerns
>that
>lover of life, T'ao Yuanming.

A wonderful story.  Thank you for sharing it with us.  I think it represents
one of the highest types of wisdom.

>     "There was then in the great Lushan Mountains, at whose foot he (T'ao
>Yuanming) lived, a great society of illustrious Zen Buddhists, and the
>leader, a great scholar, tried to get him to join the Lotus Society. One
>day
>he was invited to come to a party, and his condition was that he should be
>allowed to drink. This breaking of the Buddhist rule was granted him and he
>went. But when it came to putting his name down as a member, he "knitted
>his
>brows and stole away." This was a society that so great a poet as Hsieh
>Lingyun had been very anxious to join, but could not get in. But still the
>abbot courted his friendship and one day he invited him to drink, together
>with another great Taoist friend. They were then a company of three; the
>abbot, representing Buddhism, T'ao representing Confucianism, and the other
>friend representing Taoism. It had been the abbot's life vow never to go
>beyond a certain bridge in his daily walks, but this day when he and the
>other friend were sending T'ao home, they were so pleasurably occupied in
>their conversation that the abbot went past the bridge without knowing it.
>When it was pointed out to him, the company of three laughed. This incident
>of the three laughing old men became the subject of popular Chinese
>paintings, because it symbolized the happiness and gaiety of three
>carefree,
>wise souls, representing three religions  united by the sense of humor."
>

The only proper response to this tale should be    : )


>     Peace,
>     Charles
>
>------------------------------
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