The Way of Heaven and Earth Has No Visible Trace; Sages Establish Rules to Bind Ordinary Mortals
On this journey south to seek monks and sages, Mr. Steven Nicholas Alexander Zhou Ergou Maimaiti was suddenly seized by poetic inspiration and improvised a quatrain:
A tiny room like a dungeon, deep and fathomless;
Reins of fame and locks of gain are hard to cast off.
The Way of heaven and earth has no visible trace;
Sages establish rules to bind ordinary mortals.
The magnificent mountains and rivers and the beautiful scenery swept away the gloom in the heart of Mr. Steven Nicholas Alexander Zhou Ergou Maimaiti. But unfortunately, Doctor Zhou is no longer a free man; he cannot, like a backpacker, roam to his heart's content across the great rivers and mountains of the motherland.
Mr. Zhou Ergou is treating many critically ill patients. The physician is the official in charge of life; duty calls. Even though he may not truly save a life, being away from his post for too long always carries the suspicion of treating human life as worthless, which is most inappropriate. So he must return to that "fathomless" tiny room, bound by the reins of fame and locks of gain. Yet since he sought virtue and found it, he has no regrets or complaints.
Before nature, the strength and insight of human beings are truly trivial. But since ancient times, many "great men," "gentlemen," "heroes," and "sages" have felt quite pleased with themselves, filled with the heroic (or heroisque) spirit that "between heaven and earth, I alone am honored."
Their followers are even worse, living inside circles drawn by the sages and worthies, parroting others' sayings and preening themselves—truly tedious and uninteresting. But humanity on this earth is, by and large, mostly tedious. Many people do not like to think or create for themselves; they prefer someone to lead the way.
The power of nature is truly both revered and feared. It created the miracle of life, yet stands ever ready to destroy it. Clinging to life and fearing death is not only human nature but the common instinct of all living things in this world. Who knows how much trouble this very "instinct" has spawned.
To comfort the sorrow, fear, reluctance, and anguish that human hearts produce under the shadow of death, artists, thinkers, writers, religious teachers, and scientists have all exhausted every means at their disposal. They have created countless works and theories, trying to soothe or anesthetize the human soul.
Yet regrettably, no matter how hard they try, death will still come. Not only others will die; we ourselves will die. The only thing in the world that can be called fair is that no one escapes death. To meet death calmly is hard; the reason religions have always had believers is, in the final analysis, that we cannot shake off our fear of death.
When a person grows old and feeble, he walks with a cane; when the mind is frail, it needs a spiritual cane to face death. It is just that each person's spiritual cane is different. Thus sages bind ordinary mortals as easily as catching a chicken in a coop: as long as they sell a few spiritual canes to the common folk, those mortals are easily taken captive.
When truly confronted with the death of oneself or a loved one, how many can be as free and easy as Zhuangzi? Death is the last thunderclap that awakens humanity from its drunken, dreamlike existence; it truly has a soul-shaking effect.
Because of long training, I myself have grown accustomed to death and can face and accept it calmly. Heaven has arranged the whole course of life in this way, and what human beings can do is limited. Facing death directly and accepting the facts is the only choice I can make.
Knowing death yet not fearing it, what remains is how to face life. My life is short—this is beyond doubt—so my life should be governed by me, not lived according to any predetermined model. I believe this is a self-evident truth.
When the monk Kaisen of Enryaku-ji in Japan was surrounded by Oda Nobunaga's soldiers and about to be burned alive, he left a verse and met death calmly. His verse read: "Peaceful meditation need not depend on mountains and waters; extinguish the fire within the heart, and of itself it grows cool."
Perhaps only when a person extinguishes that fire in his heart can he enter the cool land—free, peaceful, fearless, free of delusion, with a clear and lucid mind, facing this complex and troubled world and this fickle life!
Returning, returning to that dusty world full of joys and sorrows, partings and reunions, carrying a heart like a wisp of cloud, treading the waves as if on level ground.