/lit/ - Literature

When things get to a point wherein no one thinker that comes to mind can be easily disregarded, and paradoxes seem to come out of everything, when one can't really say that this or that way or posture is the correct one--after some time has passed, and we can say that we are in another, thinking back, we call that past time a philosophical Golden Age.

Such a time we inhabit.

If to save the world I were to cut a hair, knowing it would regrow, would I be doing it a favor?

>>9875143
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/ycgp/ycgp04.htm

>>8756398
http://sacred-texts.com/tao/ycgp/ycgp09.htm

>>8585600
Preach.

16. The Nature of Man

Yang Chu said: “Men resemble heaven and earth in that they cherish five principles. Of all creatures, man is the most skillful. His nails and teeth do not suffice to procure him maintenance and shelter. His skin and sinews do not suffice to defend him; though running he cannot attain profit nor escape harm, and he has neither hair nor feathers to protect him from the cold and heat. He is thus compelled to use things to nourish his nature, to rely on his intelligence, and not to put his confidence in brute force; therefore intelligence is appreciated because it preserves us and brute force despised because it encroaches upon things.

“But I am not the owner of my own body, for I, when I am born, must complete it, nor do I possess things, for having got them, I must part with them again. The body is essential for birth, but things are essential for its maintenance.

“If there were a body born complete I could not possess it, and I could not possess things not to be parted with. For possessing a body or things would be unlawfully appropriating a body belonging to the whole universe, and appropriating things belonging to the universe which no sage would do.

“He who regards as common property a body appertaining to the universe and the things of the universe is a perfect man.

“And that is the highest degree of perfection.”

"Heir" would imply there's anything to be inherited, when in fact it's the other way around, and both rejected the law of inheritance.

>thinking words and perceptions (and therefore those who work with them) could ever be not fraudulent
>thinking something that is created through its separation/contrast with sensorial reality can ever replace it, or should
put your shit into place
lest you get smackt in the face

15. All Things Pass

Yang Chu said: “The memory of things of highest antiquity is faded. Who recollects them? Of the time of the three generations of Emperors something is preserved, but the rest is lost. Of the five rulers something is still known, the rest is only guessed at. Of the events during the time of the three emperors some are veiled in deep obscurity, and some are clear, yet out of a hundred thousand not one is recollected. Of the things of our present life some are heard, others seen, yet not one out of ten thousand is recollected. It is impossible to calculate the number of years elapsed from remote antiquity to the present day. Only from Fw-hsi downwards there are more than three hundred thousand years.

“Every trace of intelligent and stupid men, of the beautiful and ugly, successful and unsuccessful, right and wrong, is effaced. And whether quickly or slowly is the only point of difference.

“If anybody cares for one hour's blame or praise so much that, by torturing his spirit and body, he struggles for a name lasting some hundred years after his death, can the halo of glory revive his dried bones, or give it back the joy of living?”

8. The Art of Life

Yen-Ping-Chung asked Kuan-Yi-Wu as to cherishing life.

Kuan-Yi-Wu replied: “It suffices to give it its free course, neither checking nor obstructing it.”

Yen-Ping-Chung said: “And as to details?”

Kuan-Yi-Wu replied: “Allow the ear to hear what it likes, the eye to see what it likes, the nose to smell what it likes, the mouth to say what it likes, the body to enjoy the comforts it likes to have, and the mind to do what it likes.

“Now what the ear likes to hear is music, and the prohibition of it is what I call obstruction to the ear.

“What the eye likes to look at is beauty; and its not being permitted to regard this beauty I call obstruction of sight.

“What the nose likes to smell is perfume; and its not being permitted to smell I call obstruction to scent.

“What the mouth likes to talk about is right and wrong; and if it is not permitted to speak I call it obstruction of the understanding.

“The comforts the body enjoys to have are rich food and fine clothing; and if it is not permitted, then I call that obstruction of the senses of the body.

“What the mind likes is to be at peace; and its not being permitted rest I call obstruction of the mind's nature.

“All these obstructions are a source of the most painful vexation.

“Morbidly to cultivate this cause of vexation, unable to get rid of it, and so have a long but very sad life of a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand years, is not what I call cherishing life.

“But to check this source of obstruction and with calm enjoyment to await death for a day, a month, or a year or ten years, is what I understand by enjoying life.”

Kuan-Yi-Wu said: “Since I have told you about cherishing life, please tell me how it is with the burial of the dead.”

Yen-Ping-Chung said: “Burying the dead is but of very little importance. What shall I tell you about it?”

Kuan-Yi-Wu replied: “I really wish to hear it.”

Yen-Ping-Chung answered: “What can I do when I am dead? They may burn my body, or cast it into deep water, or inter it, or leave it uninterred, or throw it wrapped up in a mat into some ditch, or cover it with princely apparel and embroidered garments and rest it in a stone sarcophagus. All that depends on mere chance.”

Kuan-Yi-Wu looked round at Pao-Shu-huang-tse and said to him: “Both of us have made some progress in the doctrine of life and death.”

>>7769991
“Chieh availed himself of the wealth of many generations, and attained to the honour of facing south as king. His wisdom was sufficient to restrain his many subjects, and his power great enough to shake the land within the four seas. He indulged in what was agreeable to his eyes and ears, and fulfilled his heart's desires. He was gay and merry till death.

“Of all mortals he was the most reckless and dissipated.

“Chow also availed himself of the wealth of many generations, and became King.

“Everything yielded to his will.

“Abandoning himself to his desires through the long night, he indulged in debauchery in his seraglio. Nor did he embitter his life with propriety and righteousness.

“He was merry and gay till he was put to death.

“Of all mortals he was the most licentious and extravagant.

“These two villains while alive took delight in following their own inclination and desires, and after death were called fools and tyrants. Yet reality is nothing that can be given by reputation.

“Ignorant of censure and unconscious of praise, they differed in no respect from the stump of a tree or a clod of earth.

“The four sages, though objects of admiration, were troubled up to their very end, and were equally and alike doomed to die.

“The two villains, though detested and hated by many, remained in high spirits up to the very end, and they too were equally doomed to die.”

>Life is full of suffering, and its chief purpose is pleasure. There is no god and no after-life; men are the helpless puppets of the blind natural forces that made them, and that gave them their unchosen ancestry and their inalienable character. The wise man will accept this fate without complaint, but will not be fooled by all the nonsense of Confucius and Mozi about inherent virtue, universal love, and a good name: morality is a deception practised upon the simple by the clever; universal love is the delusion of children, who do not know the universal enmity that forms the law of life; and a good name is a posthumous bauble which the fools who paid so dearly for it cannot enjoy. In life the good suffer like the bad, and the wicked seem to enjoy themselves more keenly than the good.

>>7543835
Good post. I got my share of prime in University so I've broken the spell. Best thing people can do is fuck a bunch of girls as early as possible so they can get it out of their system, I think.

Whenever I doubt NEETdom I just look at job openings online for 30 seconds. Looking at the social media of former prime is also a great way to realise that you've made the right choice not getting caught up in that.

>"Life is full of suffering, and its chief purpose is pleasure. There is no god and no after-life; men are the helpless puppets of the blind natural forces that made them, and that gave them their unchosen ancestry and their inalienable character. The wise man will accept this fate without complaint, but will not be fooled by all the nonsense of Confucius and Mozi about inherent virtue, universal love, and a good name: morality is a deception practised upon the simple by the clever; universal love is the delusion of children, who do not know the universal enmity that forms the law of life; and a good name is a posthumous bauble which the fools who paid so dearly for it cannot enjoy. In life the good suffer like the bad, and the wicked seem to enjoy themselves more keenly than the good”

>>7472743
Why are you miserable, family?