I completed reading "The Essential Chuang Tzu" early this morning, while enjoying a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Perfect. The sky is blue, the air is still and one can hear birds in the distance.

• "What is a true human? The True Ones of antiquity didn't reject being solitary, didn't crow about accomplishments, and didn't lay plans. Just so! When they failed, they felt no regret. When they succeeded, they didn't grow self-satisfied. Just so! They climbed high without fear. ... The true Ones of antiquity slept without dreams and awakened without anxiety. They did not ned to sweeten what they ate. They breathed deep. The True One breathes from the heels, ordinary people breathe from their throats." (Chap. 6, p. 41-42)
• "One who wants to set things straight can't lose sight of the facts of nature and destiny. ... The crane's legs are long, but if you shorten them, he'll be sad. It's just so with nature: the long has nothing to be broken off; the short nothing to be drawn out. And there is no reason to grieve." (Chap. 8, p. 59)
• "What I call hearing is not what you do with your ear to the door. It's listening to yourself. What I call seeing clearly doesn't involve seeing anything else, just seeing yourself clearly. One who can't see himself but can only see others can't gain himself, but gains only for others. He gets what others need, oblivious to his own needs. One who is always at the service of others is never his own, is a slave. (Chap. 8, p. 61)
• "The knowledge that creates deceit and poisonous ambiguity, that fiddles with distinctions about hard and white, that stirs the dust about sameness and difference - this knowledge is great indeed. It is by this knowledge that doubt is made the habit of the people. The crime is addiction to knowing. Thus it is that in All-under-heaven they know only to seek after what they do not know." (Chap. 10, p. 70)
• "That's the power of addiction to technical knowledge - it throws All-under-heaven in chaos." (Chap. 10, p. 70)
• " 'A frog in a well can't have much to say about the sea, It's bound by its own empty space. A summer bug won't have much to say about ice. It's trapped in its tiny time. A cloistered scholar can't have much to say about the Tao, being all wrapped up in his doctrine and dogma." (Chap. 17, p. 84)
• "The stallions of Ch'i-chi and Hua-liu could run a thousand li in a single day, but they weren't as good at catching rats as a weasel or a cat. Which is to say, there are differences in talents. (Chap. 17. p. 87)
• "Admiring the past and despising the present is an affectation of scholars. ... It is only the one who's really gotten there who can rmble free and easy in the world. ... The teaching of such people is not available to scholars. Nor is it like wht they teach." (Chap. 26, p. 137)

This is a book I have thoroughly enjoyed. It is one I will read again.

My readings in Tao, zen and buddhism have been one of the delights of this year of learning.