Chuang Tse is climbing up the mountain that has no ledge,

He is climbing up the sky that has no north and no south,

He is climbing up where there is no beginning, no end;

Through the shrubbery and the oak-trees and the forests

He is climbing up from realms below to the mystic unity.

There is no bamboo-tube to look through at the strange stars,

There is no awl with which to index the world for his wife.

Gone are for him the digital markers and the wind-cocks,

Gone is the green valley, heard is no more the bee-crooning,

Gone are the hillocks, gone are the altitudes of thought.

Chuang Tse is climbing up the mountain that has no trails,

Chuang Tse is conquering the snow-white peaks of utter silence.

He has reached the grandeur of the dimensionless point,

He has outwinged distances of the mysterious Bird of Time.

Suddenly he has become the blue ether of the luminous Self,

Suddenly he has become the expanse of a superconscient glow,

Suddenly he has become one with the infinity of the All-Alone.

There is no bamboo-tube telescope, no awl of imagination,

There are no river-beds, no estuaries, no lakes, no swans,

The landscape has vanished, and there are no wheels of revolution.

He is what Yin and Yang gave him, he is simply the son of Tao;

Chuang Tse is drowned in the Autumn flood of a hundred streams.

The waterfall has become quiet—yet the Unknown is beyond.

Will Chuang Tse then climb up the mountain to be the mountain?

RY Deshpande

18 September1978

Chuang Tse, Zhuang Tze, Chuang Tsu Chuang Tzu (370 BC - 268 BC)

Chuang Tse was a famous Taoist philosopher in ancient China who lived around the 4th century BC during the Warring States Period. Using parable and anecdote, allegory and paradox, he set forth the early ideas of what was to become the Taoist school. Central in these ideas is the belief that only by understanding Tao (the Way of Nature) and dwelling in unity can man achieve true happiness and be truly free in both life and death. Witty and imaginative, enriched by brilliant imagery, making sportive use of both mythological and historical personages such as Confucius, the book which bears Chuang Tzu's name has been savoured by Chinese readers for centuries.

Root of Heaven roamed on the south side of Mount Vast. When he came to the bank of Clear Stream he met Nameless Man and asked him. "Please tell me how to manage the world."

"Go away you dunce." Nameless Man said. "Such questions are no fun. I was just about to join the Creator of Things. If I get bored with that, I'll climb on the bird Merges with the Sky and soar beyond the six directions. I'll visit Nothing Whatever town and stay in Boundless country. Why do you bring up managing the world to disturb my thoughts? ''

Still Root of Heaven repeated his question and Nameless Man responded "Let your rnind wander among the insipid, blend your energies with the featureless, spontaneously accord with things, and you will have no room for selfishness. Then the world will be in order."