The Secret of Nurturing Life

My life has a limit, but knowledge has no limit. To pursue what is unlimited with what is limited is perilous. Follow the middle as your constant path. In this way, you can protect your body, preserve your life, sustain your parents, and live out your years.

Cook Ding was cutting up an ox for Lord Wenhui. Every stroke was in perfect rhythm, as if he were performing the Dance of the Mulberry Grove. Lord Wenhui said, 'Ah! How has your skill reached such a height?' Cook Ding put down his knife and replied, 'What I love is the Way, which goes beyond skill. When I first began to cut up oxen, all I could see was the ox. After three years, I no longer saw the whole ox. Now I go by spirit and do not look with my eyes. I follow the natural grain.'

'A good cook changes his knife once a year — because he cuts. A mediocre cook changes his knife once a month — because he hacks. I have had this knife for nineteen years, and I have cut up thousands of oxen, yet the blade is as sharp as if it had just come from the grindstone. There are spaces between the joints, and the blade has no thickness. If you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, there is plenty of room.'

When Lao Dan died, Qin Shi went to mourn. He wailed three times and came out. 'When the Master came, it was his time. When he went, he followed along. Be at peace with the time and dwell in what follows, and grief and joy cannot enter. The fuel is consumed, but the fire passes on.'