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Daoism -> Zhuangzi -> Outer Chapters -> Knowledge Rambling in the North -> 4

Shun asked (his attendant) Cheng, saying,
?」 'Can I get the Dao and hold it as mine?'
The reply was,
'Your body is not your own to hold
?」- how then can you get and hold the Dao?'
Shun resumed,
'If my body be not mine to possess and hold,
?」 who holds it?'
Cheng said,
'It is the bodily form entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth.
Life is not yours to hold.
It is the blended harmony (of the Yin and Yang), entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth.
Your nature, constituted as it is, is not yours to hold.
It is entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth to act in accordance with it.
Your grandsons and sons are not yours to hold.
They are the exuviae entrusted to you by Heaven and Earth.
Therefore when we walk, we should not know where we are going;
when we stop and rest, we should not know what to occupy ourselves with
when we eat, we should not know the taste of our food
- all is done by the strong Yang influence of Heaven and Earth'.
?」How then can you get (the Dao), and hold it as your own?'


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