Entering the Tao by Hua-Ching Ni

Author:Hua-Ching Ni
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala Publications

Love

The mutual response of two young hearts presents the picture of love. In the I Ching this is illustrated by a young girl, and a young boy, and the mutual attraction shared between them.

When I was young, I focused more on my spiritual achievement than on experiences of love. After studying the important teachings of the three main cultural traditions—Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism—I harmonized and expressed all three with the following words:

Confucianism is my garment,

Buddhism is my cane,

and Taoism is my sandal.

My young, proud mind seemed to be satisfied with this combination. However, one day I discovered that someone had added some new, handwritten words to each line of my writing on the wall of my study. These lines now said:

Confucianism is my garment,

—it is too short for you!

Buddhism is my cane,

—it is too weak to support you!

and Taoism is my sandal

—it has been worn out long ago!

My first response to this discovery was outrage. I thought it must be my younger brother or elder sister making fun of me, but since it did not seem to be an ordinary joke, I immediately corrected my judgment. The person who wrote these lines had to have a vision higher than, or equal to, mine. I felt puzzled. Who could have done this? Since the handwriting was not much better than mine, it could not be the work of a dignified adult. Also, this happened to be my personal study upstairs. I was the only one who used most of the upstairs rooms, except for the one used as the family shrine. After making many inquiries of my family, I discovered that some of my sister’s girlfriends had visited us. One of them had been in our family shrine for a short while. She was the only daughter of one of my father’s friends. She had to be the one who did this. She was famous for being the most beautiful girl in our town. She was also well educated and a lover of literature.

Though I had never paid attention to her before, I decided I must pay her a visit. I thought of the ancient one’s saying: “Three people are walking together; one of them must have something I can learn.” I dressed myself neatly and directly went to see her.

She received me in the small hall of their garden. After our greeting, I politely and straightforwardly requested an explanation of the addition I was certain she had made on my study wall. She blushed and suggested that if I would call on her for ten days she would then give me her explanation. I agreed to this as my respectful lesson. Thus, every afternoon I went to her house. We read some good, ancient poetry, played Chinese chess, and did some gardening. Our friendship developed more with each day. When she tenderly touched the back of my hand, I felt that something had struck me, yet I liked it. Her eyes were the most beautiful poem I had ever read. The sweetness of her delicate smell intoxicated me.

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