November 27
How should the mind discern rightly? Empty, collected and still. Filled with one corner, it misses the whole; only the still, wide mind sees things as they stand in relation to one another.
Xunzi, Dispelling Blindness (freely rendered)
The Missing Axe
How should the mind discern rightly? Empty, collected and still. Filled with one corner, it misses the whole; only the still, wide mind sees things as they stand in relation to one another.
A man could not find his axe and suspected his neighbour's son. He watched the way the boy walked. That was how someone walked who had stolen an axe. He studied his face and listened to him speak. There too he recognised the thief. Every movement the boy made seemed to confirm his suspicion.
Later, while digging in a hollow, the man found the missing axe. When he met the neighbour's son the next day, he looked at him again. In his walk, his face and his manner he could now discover nothing thievish at all.
