Dear Friends,
image from www.flickr.com/photos
In America, each ex-President is given some fund to build a “Library” to commemorate himself. Wonder who will visit “George W Bush’s Library” ?
Or in all American universities, we find names attached to this hall or that building, names of either the rich or the famous. When they tried to name the Medical Faculty of HKU as Li Ka Shing Medical Faculty (Li donated HK$1 Bln), it caused a big huha locally. It’s LKS Medical Faculty now anyway.
In the first Chapter of <莊子> (“Zhuang Zi”), Zhuang-zi remarked :
- “… 至人無己, 神人無功, 聖人無名 …”
- ” … zhi-ren wu ji; shen-ren wu gong; sheng-ren wu ming…”
Zhuang-zi put forward the three category of people of wisdom, people who have attained certain level of enlightenment.
1. 至人無己 : (Zhi-ren has attained Self-lessness)
Whatever Zhi-ren does, the element of “self” does not come into the equation as part of the cause of his action.
“Zhi-ren” is essentially impossibe for all of us. (maybe when we are asleep we can pretend to be Zhi-ren as we temporarily lose the consciouness of self !).
2. 神人無功 : (Shen-ren has attained Effortlessness)
“Shen-ren” is not god. ”Shen-ren” does a lot of things that are good for the general public or the environment, but we don’t ordinarily realise his efforts nor is he shouting for recognition. Like the Sun, it gives out the vital energy all the time, without being asked or without effort, the Sun does not even bother whether we pray to it or not. That’s character of 神人.
3. 聖人無名 : (Sheng-ren has attained Name-lessness)
聖人, in English is usually refered to as “sage”.
LKS, JFK, Bill Gates, all geat personalities and philantropists, but they are not 聖人 as per Zhuang Zi. (why do they call Warren Buffet “Sage of Omaha ?”)
聖人 do not ask for recognition, they do not know/think they are Sheng-ren, they want to be ”name-less” and can be very ordinary. In that sense, the cleaners of the public toilets are all ”sheng ren”, the bus drivers are all “sheng ren”, the farmers are all “sheng ren”. Of course the millions of volunteers for various charities are all “sheng ren”.
In most movies, they either feature heros/heroines or the villains. The vast majority of the name-less ordinaries fell in the middle and got forgotten totally.
The interesting thing is, nobody knows where his level of attainment is. For if anybody thinks he/she is 至人, 神人 or 聖人 then he/she is already moving away from it. We have discussed this logic in posting What’s in a name ? That which we call a Rose . For 至人, 神人 or 聖人, there is no focus on the level of attainment. It is irrelevant.
Enjoy detecting the thousands of 聖人 around you the next time you walk in the street.
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xy2 , you have given us more to contemplate.
Sages and Saints, huh?
Well, Mother Teresa did not want to be a saint, but she was made one. She did not want to be recognized, but the world made a big huha out of her.
Many true saints are “saints” because they do not want a name for themselves, they sacrifice self for others and never want to be recognized or rewarded for what they did. Once you are recognized, you have already received your reward and you are no longer a saint. Do I make sense here??
I agree with you that there are many “saint” around us that we should take a moment everyday to recognise them.
xy2, Again what you mentioned about the rich and the famous in the West leaving their names behind in the likes of libraries, museums, art centers, schools/colleges etc. and the big huha the Chinese made when LKS wanted the medical faculty named after him has plenty to do with the difference between the West and the East and their cultures.
About George W. Bush’s library, his wife, Laura Bush is an ex-librarian and may be helpful when he starts a library!!
ch,
yes, true “saints” themselves are nameless.
In terms of Laozi (“老子”), it is the concept of “無為”.
“無為” (“wu wei”) is not “doing nothing”, but rather doing without effort, or without going against any natural laws, doing without conscious thinking.
That’s why the Sun’s activities is “wu wei” or the heart’s pumping is “wu wei”, it is powerful, it is vital and there is no “consciousness”.
Therefore “無為無不為”, i.e. because Wu wei does not “consciously” try to do anything, it can do everything.
By the way, as a light digression here,
LKS is not zhi-ren, shen-ren or sheng-ren, he is 超人! In HK , they call him “chiu-yan” and that is his nickname.
I think he personally relishes it!
(xy2, translate 超人 into pinyin Chinese, please)
ch,
超人 is “chao-ren” in Putonghua.
His son, Richard, is called 小超 (“xiao chao”, “siu-chiu”). Guess that’s Richard.
Millions of poor folks in HK want his head, he made a HK$25 company into a penny stock.
His father, made a bankrupt company (Hutch) into a household name globally, in a good sense.
超人 and 小超, just a word’s difference, but is a different world in between.
Have a great day
xy2, you tell me. I was one of the victims.
I want his head too!!!!