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event type
|
discourse
|
date & time |
18 Oct 1974 am
|
location |
Lao Tzu balcony, Poona
|
language |
English
|
audio |
Available, duration 1h 25min. Quality: good.
|
online audio |
|
video |
Not available
|
online video |
|
see also |
|
online text |
find the PDF of this discourse
|
shorttitle |
SHOE08
|
- notes
- synopsis
- Reader of the sutra: Sw Ananda Teertha.
- The sutra
- Chuang Tzu with his bamboo pole was fishing in the Pu river.
- The prince of Chu sent two vice chancellors with a formal document: we hereby appoint you prime minister.
- Chuang Tzu held his bamboo pole. Still watching Pu river, he said: 'I am told there is a sacred tortoise offered and canonised three thousand years ago, venerated by the prince, wrapped in silk, in a precious shrine on an altar in the temple. What do you think? Is it better to give up one's life and leave a sacred shell as an object of cult in a cloud of incense for three thousand years, or better to live as a plain turtle dragging its tail in the mud?'
- 'For the turtle' said the vice chancellor, 'better to live and drag its tail in the mud!'
- 'Go home!' said Chuang Tzu. 'Leave me here to drag my tail in the mud.'
- (source:CD-ROM)