We find truth by following the way in simplicity, as symbolized in a story by Taoist philosopher Chuang-Tzu.
Cook Ting was cutting up an ox for Lord Wen-hui. 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 Wen-hui. “Imagine skill reaching such heights!’
Cook Ting 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 follow things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.
“A good cook changes his knife once a year, because he cuts. A mediocre cook 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 in. 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 would 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 Wen-hui. “I have heard the words of Cook Ting and learned how to care for life!”[1]
This story has surreal touches (the knife with no thickness that never gets dull) indicating that it is not to be taken literally; rather the story is about how to “care for life.” Life is something like cutting up an ox: a large task, involving work for others, requiring tools and skill, and offering the possibility for three levels of growth.
We begin caring for life on the level of perceptual fact, advance to philosophical reflection, and then ascend not just to ideas about spiritual realities but to spiritual realization and relating. The way the ox (life) looks when we are living mainly on the material level is different from the way the ox looks when reflective thinking has matured; and the intellectual level is quite different from the spiritual level of relating. A person who lives mainly on the spiritual level continues to engage in problem-solving that requires attention primarily on the material or intellectual agenda; but the spiritual way of engaging in those activities differs from how we would do things in the early stages of growth. Freely interpreting, we can read the story of Cook Ting as a story of the integrated experience of living the truth.
(“Zhuangzi” is the increasingly common way to transliterate the philosopher’s name.)
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[1] Chuang Tzu, Basic Writings, trans. Burton Watson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), Section 3, “The Secret of Caring for Life,” pp. 46-47.
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Living the truth, to move away from the herd of pleasant living of one’s time , and travel the solitary road of spiritual attainment, following the distant light which you discern in your soul requires moral courage, faith, trust, hope and sincerity. It is a mighty struggle of self mastery.
This story reminds me of a story taken from Williams James’ Variety of Religious Experience, which I paraphrase here. One day a young man heard a beautiful song being played by a musical instrument. And this song captured his imagination, and he resolved to learn to play this song. Now this young man was not a musician at this time. He began taking lessons, studying the ins and outs of music. He began to learn to play his instrument. At first, the sounds that he was able to play were very simple and somewhat primitive but at this stage of his development, it was all that he could do.
But as he continued to play, he learned to play more and more complex sounds, until he had matured to the point where he could play that beautiful song that had captured his imagination. At first the his rendition of the song was not a high order of quality, but persistence and tenacity finally paid off. He was able to play a satisfactory rendition of this song. And the playing of this sound gave him quite a bit of joy. But he was still not satisfied. He continued to play his instrument, and soon discovered other songs that he enjoyed as well, but his first love was the original song that had captured his imagination and fired his zeal.
Many years passed, and he became extremely competent with his musical instrument. He eventually mastered this instrument so that his music reached near perfection levels. One day while he was playing in a concert, he realized that he was no longer playing the instrument, but he had become the instrument through which the music was being played.
Living the truth began when my mind first recognized the concept of living truth. Before this event, my level of truth discernment had primarily to do with the material level, that is do not lie, but tell the truth. But spiritual truth was a whole different level of reality. When I did finally recognize it, the conflict began between the old way of living which was primarily material and the new way of living which was spiritual. The new level of truth while I accepted it intellectually, I found that I had great difficulty living it at first, even though I wanted to. My desire for living it had not reached supreme levels. There was still some inertia from the old way. During this period, reversals happened quite frequently, sometimes embracing the new way, and then returning back to the old way.
But the more that I tried to embrace this new way of living, I began to have more and more success, and I had to acknowledge that this was a more excellent way of living than the old way. As time progressed I began to realize more and more that the truth was being lived through me and this brought me a sense spiritual satisfaction that I had never known before. It was liberating. It caused me to rejoice that even though I was a material being living in a material world, and had to pay attention to the material aspects of life, I could also live the spiritual life. I could love my brothers and sisters as God loves them.
Dr Perry
Your story of struggle and success is realistic enough to be encouraging and idealistic enough to provide direction. Thanks!
Living the truth, to move away from the herd of pleasant living of one’s time , and travel the solitary road of spiritual attainment, following the distant light which you discern in your soul requires moral courage, faith, trust, hope and sincerity. It is a mighty struggle of self mastery.
This story reminds me of a story taken from Williams James’ Variety of Religious Experience, which I paraphrase here. One day a young man heard a beautiful song being played by a musical instrument. And this song captured his imagination, and he resolved to learn to play this song. Now this young man was not a musician at this time. He began taking lessons, studying the ins and outs of music. He began to learn to play his instrument. At first, the sounds that he was able to play were very simple and somewhat primitive but at this stage of his development, it was all that he could do.
But as he continued to play, he learned to play more and more complex sounds, until he had matured to the point where he could play that beautiful song that had captured his imagination. At first the his rendition of the song was not a high order of quality, but persistence and tenacity finally paid off. He was able to play a satisfactory rendition of this song. And the playing of this sound gave him quite a bit of joy. But he was still not satisfied. He continued to play his instrument, and soon discovered other songs that he enjoyed as well, but his first love was the original song that had captured his imagination and fired his zeal.
Many years passed, and he became extremely competent with his musical instrument. He eventually mastered this instrument so that his music reached near perfection levels. One day while he was playing in a concert, he realized that he was no longer playing the instrument, but he had become the instrument through which the music was being played.
Living the truth began when my mind first recognized the concept of living truth. Before this event, my level of truth discernment had primarily to do with the material level, that is do not lie, but tell the truth. But spiritual truth was a whole different level of reality. When I did finally recognize it, the conflict began between the old way of living which was primarily material and the new way of living which was spiritual. The new level of truth while I accepted it intellectually, I found that I had great difficulty living it at first, even though I wanted to. My desire for living it had not reached supreme levels. There was still some inertia from the old way. During this period, reversals happened quite frequently, sometimes embracing the new way, and then returning back to the old way.
But the more that I tried to embrace this new way of living, I began to have more and more success, and I had to acknowledge that this was a more excellent way of living than the old way. As time progressed I began to realize more and more that the truth was being lived through me and this brought me a sense spiritual satisfaction that I had never known before. It was liberating. It caused me to rejoice that even though I was a material being living in a material world, and had to pay attention to the material aspects of life, I could also live the spiritual life. I could love my brothers and sisters as God loves them.
Dr Perry
Your story of struggle and success is realistic enough to be encouraging and idealistic enough to provide direction. Thanks!
Who made the knife?
Chuang-tzu’s surreal touches dislodge the reader’s inclination to take his stories literally. Yes, a knife with no thickness!
Who made the knife?
Chuang-tzu’s surreal touches dislodge the reader’s inclination to take his stories literally. Yes, a knife with no thickness!