Monkey Parable and Metaphor

Dual Path

Those who tax their intellect to strive for the one way they understand as Tao and don’t know different ways are all the same.They are like the monkeys who got angry when the trainer wanted to give them three acorns in the morning and four in the evening. The trainer then switched to four acorns in the morning and three in the evening. The monkeys were then happy.

 

Nothing is lost in real terms, but the monkeys were consumed by joy or anger.This is “adapt and respond to what is”. The sage harmonizes conflicts and rest in the balanced Law of Nature; this is called the dual path.” Chuang Tzu.

What is the Standard?

“Man sleeping in dampness will suffer from backache or their lower limbs become paralyzed. Would eels be the same? Man climbing up tall trees would be frightened and trembling, would the monkeys feel the same? Of those three, which ones know how to live well?” Chuang Tzu.