Losing Ourselves by Jay L. Garfield

Author:Jay L. Garfield [Garfield, Jay L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780691220284
Publisher: Princeton UP
Published: 2022-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

A Daoist Perspective

Up to this point, when drawing on Asian ideas, I have focused on those of Indian Buddhists and their interlocutors. But this is not the only Asian context in which we find deep reflection on the question of the reality of the self. We also find discussions of this kind of nondual, immersed awareness and agency in the Daoist as well as in the Chan and Zen Buddhist traditions. Let us begin with a justly famous passage from the Chinese classic the Zhuangzi: the story of Butcher Ding, a story that illustrates nonduality and selflessness both in the domain of subjectivity and in the domain of philosophy.

Butcher Ding was cutting up an ox for Lord Wenhui. At every touch of his hand, every heave of his shoulder, every move of his feet, every thrust of his knee—zip! zoop! He slithered the knife along with a zing, and all was in perfect rhythm, as though he were performing the dance of the Mulberry Grove or keeping time to the Ching-shou music.

“Ah, this is marvelous!” said Lord Wenhui. “Imagine skill reaching such heights!”

Butcher Ding laid down his knife and replied, “What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now—now I go at it by spirit and don’t look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and following things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.

“A good butcher changes his knife once a year—because he cuts. A mediocre Butcher changes his knife once a month—because he hacks. I’ve had this knife of mine for nineteen years and I’ve cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone. There are spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness. If you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there’s plenty of room—more than enough for the blade to play about it. That’s why after nineteen years the blade of my knife is still as good as when it first came from the grindstone.

“However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until—flop! the whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there holding the knife and look all around me, completely satisfied and reluctant to move on, and then I wipe off the knife and put it away.”

“Excellent!” said Lord Wenhui. “I have heard the words

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.