Chapter Twenty
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Chapter Twenty
When we renounce learning we have no troubles.
The ready ‘yes,’ and flattering ‘yea;’–
Small is the difference they display.
But mark their issues, good and ill;–
What space the gulf between shall fill?
What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end is the range of questions asking to be discussed!
The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased; as if enjoying a full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem listless and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of their presence. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look dejected and forlorn, as if I had no home to go to. The multitude of men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost everything. My mind is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of chaos.
Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to be benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull and confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as if I had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. Thus I alone am different from other men, but I value the nursing-mother the Tao.
