World of Paradox

Mother’s Distress Day (II)
World of Paradox

O world of happiness!
First time we met,
you welcomed me with a smile;
I responded with wailing.
Heaven disturbed. Earth rocked.

O world of sorrow!
Our final parting,
I sent you off with  wailing;
you responded without words.
Heaven. Earth. Closed.

O world of paradox!
Regardless of first encounter or parting forever,
I always wailed at you.
Wailing for the world begins with a smile of yours,
but bliss ends with your eyes closed.

Yu Guangzhong

There was a poetry reading and piano performance to celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend. Inspired and deeply moved by the poet Professor Yu’s three poems on Mother’s Distress Day, the pianist Christiana Chiu-shih Lin composed and performed a beautiful piano piece.

Professor Yu is my favorite Taiwanese poet. Though he taught English and American literature, his poems are all in Chinese. Just want to share the touching poem with this translation (that may not fully convey the poet’s original Chinese words).

For Mother’s Distress Day I:This Life Time.
People celebrate births but mourn deaths. See Chuang Tzu’s quotes on life and death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May you all have a Free Easy Mind!

Free Easy Mind is a book site and not a blog  on the teachings of Chuang Tzu, Tao, Zen, Spirituality and Chinese characters. Freeasypeace  is the blog to apply his teachings in world conflicts, stress and loss.

Due to my inadequate knowledge of blogging and social media or there is very limited interest in Chuang Tzu, the time and efforts I spent on sharing in writing what I learnt from Chuang Tzu have not been very effective in achieving my goals for promoting peace for others and doing good.

It is time for me to move on, in different directions and endeavors on peace and doing good instead of blogging for the time being or until I have acquired more competence  and find a new purpose in blogging and posting in social media.For more explanation please read the last post on Freeasy Peace Blog.Let me invite you to explore other pages and posts on the book site or buy the Free Easy Mind ebook at Amazon as donations to the French father’s Nursing Home for the Mentally Challenged in Eastern Taiwan.

Thank you all for your visits, likes and follows as well as the learning from your blogs that I follow and will continue to read as time permits.May you all have a free easy mind despite chaos in the world and leave a legacy of millennium charm in your world!

Freedom

“Put all things in order
but not with benevolence;
nurture all generations
but not with obligation;
live in the ancient times
but never too antiquated;
sculptor all things in the world
under the sky
and hold up above the earth,
but not with craft.
This is rambling freely.”

(from Chapter 6 “The Great  Master”, Book of Chuang Tzu)
 Wang Shu
Freedom
I am free because I own myself,
I can own myself in freedom.
Freedom must comply with nature
and know what can exist.
To be able to wander,
one must first own oneself .
Wander in and out of art,
have my hands and feet experience freely to enlighten.
Enlightened in any posture for ease.

 Wang Shu
Wander in Color Poetry
How much in life is inevitable ,
what is the matter now?
There is nothing right now
like immersed love
in flowers at dawn
and dim moonlight.
Consign interest in nature,
the poetic heart wanders in dreams,
the soul mates with clouds.
Regardless of seasons come and go,
recite carefree
in and out of art.

 Wang Shu
Delightful Thoughts
Life is but a dream,
how can it be the way I want!
I can only learn to let it be
and strive to be willing to let go.
Appreciation is to entertain with rambling,
joy is to befriend with birds
and smell the flowers everyday.
It pleases me when the soul
drinks with like minds.
Self fulfillment is attained
amidst the company of bamboos.
Fantasize in the radiant beauty of clouds
Delight eyes with amazing lights and colors,
So dwell in a small garden
and write about thoughts,
how poetic!

 Wang Shu
Embrace Colors in Delight
Ramble in art puts my heart at ease,
delight in the great sound of nature.
Compose a new tune for worldly bondage,
tread alone on wild path,
footprints vanish like rainbow.

 Wang Shu
Breeze
Wander in poetry art
to nurture the soul.
Great beauty is fresh, cold,
true to oneself.
A breeze embraces me,
ride along its delight.
Joy and pain, free and easy,
in the deluded body.

Wang Shu
(national artist of Austria, also taught Chinese philosophy in Germany)
Wang Shu is a dear friend who inspired me to embark on the long journey to study Taoist philosophy of Lao Tzu and then Chuang Tzu. Hope his art and poetry facilitate your appreciation for Chuang Tzu’s teachings.All his poems are in Chinese, some in German.

Self is One’s True Nature

“If you serve your own mind,
joy and sorrow cannot do anything to you”
Chuang Tzu

“Those who lost themselves
are not true to themselves,
they cannot rule over others.
Many renowned people in history
were actually enslaved rulers,
they suited themselves to
what suited others,
and not what really suited themselves.”
( from Chapter 6 “ The Great Master”, Book of Chuang Tzu)

Wang Shu
To Self
The mind is universe’s promised land.
Self- esteem has to be cultivated with one’s efforts.
Confidence is based on protecting one’s true self.
Self-fulfillment stems from one’s roots.
Strive not to fight after fame or wealth.
Anchor self and not be deluded  by worldly cravings.
Self-reliance and self-delight make one at ease.
The mind is universe’s promised land,
my appearance is in my own hands,
poetic thoughts spread over canvas  colors,
where self knowledge and one’s nature are.

Wang Shu
Self Guide
Create a beautiful soul
with art poetry.
Cherish lone years
and free space.
Treasure even more,
rambling in precious land of art
I own in my heart.

Wang Shu
Ease the Nature
The mind is a superb vast desert and rich wilderness.
The mind bestows colors
with natural delight and gentle spirit.
Suit the self in accord with time and matter.
Take dimension to flow with one’s nature,
capture image based on mood.
Meditation calms, soothing me.
Wonders and scenes cannot be interpreted with talks,
High, for spiritual clarity,
understand in silence.
Discipline the self
but definitely not following the crowd,
or monistic views;
it’s letting the mind express freely;
a superb vast desert and rich wilderness.

Wang Shu
Teachings
Don’t abide by other’s laws.
Delight, charm and setting
develop from one’s own life.
Convention is out of the realm of teachings,
dimensions, free and easy in great beauty .

Wang Shu
Gradual Awakening
Profound truth has no address,
gradual awakening, no monastic door for emptiness.
Wonder heart is aloof
from human tactics,
nature hides itself
yet respect the self.

Wang Shu
(national artist of Austria, also taught Chinese philosophy in Germany)
Wang Shu is a dear friend who inspired me to embark on the long journey to study Taoist philosophy of Lao Tzu and then Chuang Tzu. Hope his art and poetry translated in English from Chinese will facilitate your appreciation for Chuang Tzu’s teachings.All his poems are in Chinese, some in German.

Dream,Shadow and Reality

Chuang Tzu dreamed he was a butterfly,
fluttering and dancing leisurely and at ease …….
He did not know if it was him
who dreamt about the butterfly
or the butterfly dreaming about him….
it is called transformation of the material.

(from Chapter 2 “All Things Equal”, Book of Chuang Tzu)

Shadow

The shadow of the shadow asked the shadow, “Just now you got up and moved, now you stop. Just now you sat down and now you get up. How come you cannot make up your mind?”

The shadow said, “Do you think this is so because I have expectations? Do you think this is like so because what I expect in turn also has expectations? Do you think I can expect things like the snake sloughing the scales or the cicada its wings? How can I tell how things are? How can I tell how things are not?”

(from Chapter 2“All Things Equal”, Book of Chuang Tzu)

 

 Wang Shu

Amazing Clarity

Watch the shore in stillness,
see the natural delights under the water.
An instant of calm,
a cloud of color spirits,
form reflected in water.

The fish comes,
fighting to devour  the shadow.
The shadow rests unperturbed,
Quiet and still.
The fish devours
yet the shadow is not harmed.
The shadow arouses the fish’s hunger.
How could the fish know
the shadow is just a game?

Watch the shore in stillness,
the shadow is like the breeze,
the shadow is like a cloud.

Wang Shu
(national artist of Austria, also taught Chinese philosophy in Germany)
Wang Shu is a dear friend who inspired me to embark on the long journey to study Taoist philosophy of Lao Tzu and then Chuang Tzu. Hope his art and poetry translated in English from Chinese facilitate your appreciation for Chuang Tzu’s teachings.All his poems are in Chinese, some in German.

 

 

Still, Void & One

“Stillness in Motion:
Things come in motion,
stillness is developed.”
Chuang Tzu

“The spirit awaits things to come to it in void.
Tao comes together in the void.
Mind fasting is being in the void.”
Chuang Tzu

“Void Room Illumines.”
Chuang Tzu

“Tao Interchanges in One.”
Chuang Tzu

ArcherPoint’s ERP Tao.

“The sage harmonizes conflicts
and rest in the balanced Law of Nature;
this is called dual path. ”
Chuang Tzu

Vincent van Gogh

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity
but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”
Thomas Merton

 Wang Shu
Still Leisure, Void Illumined
Rest the heart with no fetters.
Soul and nature in art.
Let wild wind embraces body.
Watch thoughts in clouds.
where self knowledge and one’s nature are.

 Wang Shu

Void Stillness
Unconcerned, pick a remote place,
A tranquil self at ease.
Retreat from worldly fetters in silent void,
intimate with tree and grass.
Poetic art can enlighten.
Fleeting life comes from my spirit.
See nothing in what comes and goes.
Know: experience innocence.

Wang Shu

Nature’s Mind Image
Nature is a collection of amazing  poetry,
natural scenes bring wonders in love for art.
Transform harmony into mind image,
accommodate this life in void.

Wang Shu
(national artist of Austria, also taught Chinese philosophy in Germany)
Wang Shu is a dear friend who inspired me to embark on the long journey to study Taoist philosophy of Lao Tzu and then Chuang Tzu. Hope his art and poetry translated in English from Chinese facilitate your appreciation for Chuang Tzu’s teachings.All his poems are in Chinese but some in German.

From One to Eternity

A horizontal stroke is the Chinese character “ONE”. It lies on the earth, the female symbol or Yin. When turned vertical, it is a man or masculine Yang. In ancient times, people tie a knot to represent ten and then the knot was flattened into a horizontal stroke to become the character “TEN”. Yin and yang together is perfect. There is a Chinese term “Ten Perfect, Ten Beautiful” meaning impeccable.

The pictogram of “Thousand” is an old man with very bent back to represent a hundred-year-old man on top of “Ten”. Thus ten centenarians would be a thousand.

One is the root for impeccable state and it evolves to thousands and then ten thousands to infinite numbers meaning all.

“All Things and I are One”
Chuang Tzu

A horizontal and vertical “One” in Chinese character make “Ten”. A thousand is a centenarian over ten and the pictogram “ANCIENT” is made up of “ten” and “mouth” depicting stories passing through ten mouths or generations would be considered as ancient.

Su Shih is probably the best loved poet in the Chinese world past or present. His life stories are passed down through a thousand years and more than ten mouths. His poem of “ancient memories of Red Cliff” has a line lamenting how characters of millennium charm or “thousand years in ancient time of delightful wind and flowing stream”. In Chinese, “wind” and “stream” or “flow” are often used to describe men who can charm women into having affairs with them.Su Shih himself is also referred to as millennium charm. 

Quotes on People

“Don’t ever push people too hard,
they respond with the ill-natured heart
and don’t even know how it comes about.
When they don’t know what they are doing,
how can they know the consequences?”
Chuang Tzu

“Consumed by anger or joy
when nothing is lost in real terms.”
Chuang Tzu
Monkey Parables and Metaphor

“Animals kill only when something goes against their nature.”
Chuang Tzu
Deal with Difficult People like the Tiger Feeder

No Emotion

“What I call no emotions is
not letting the passion of likes and dislikes
to harm ourselves.”

Chuang Tzu

Wang Shu
Dissolve the Unsettled Heart

Socialize with flower and grass to know innocence,
wed empty void, the lifetime mate.
Seek mountains and rivers
to dissolve the unsettled heart
that dwells in wind, rain and self in emotion.

Wang Shu

Guard the Heart
Express your feelings,
guard your heart,
unaffected by any matter.
Meet conventions,
practice watch,
law of nature is boundless.
Who can let go
opportunities just for me?
As if existing yet nonexistent,
as if unreal yet apparent.

Wang Shu
(national artist of Austria, also taught Chinese philosophy in Germany)
Wang Shu is a dear friend who inspired me to embark on the long journey to study Taoist philosophy of Lao Tzu and then Chuang Tzu. Hope his art and poetry translated in English from Chinese will facilitate your appreciation for Chuang Tzu’s teachings.His poems are all in Chinese, but some in German.

Charm in Loss

“Think One, Not What’s Lost”
(Chuang Tzu)

Little Austin who showed his schoolmates that he could do what they thought he could not was a real inspiration. It’s more than courage, it is being enlightened by loss and discrimination.Instead of mourning over what cannot be done, think what can be done at the moment.

“Use of No Use is Great Use.”
(Chuang Tzu)

For any musician, loss of hearing would render him or her useless , a disability discriminated and doomed in any music career. Blessed with the profound sound of silence, Beethoven’s true nature emerged.

The melancholy music in Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concerto Second Movement filled our eyes with tears and feelings of ineffable blessings, a beautiful signature of life.

A nonprofit organization uses abandoned race horses to help withdrawn children who may be considered useless by many, it is not just a vision but a noble mission to promote appreciation for everyone and everything around us; then we can see the potential to do good to someone or put something to good use.