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 > >------------------------------ ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com