Zhuangzi translation and commentary

夫子問於老聃曰：「有人治道若相放，可不可，然不然。辯者有言曰：『離堅白若縣宇。』若是，則可謂聖人乎？」

老聃曰：「是胥易技係，勞形怵心者也。執留之狗成思，猿狙之便自山林來。丘！予告若，而所不能聞與而所不能言。凡有首、有趾、無心、無耳者眾，有形者與無形無狀而皆存者盡無。其動，止也；其死，生也；其廢，起也。此又非其所以也。有治在人，忘乎物，忘乎天，其名為忘己。忘己之人，是之謂入於天。」

The master asked Lao Dan, "Some people maintain the way by putting each other in their place, 'can'ning the can't and 'so'ing not. The debaters have a saying: 'They separate hard from white as though hanging them in space.' Would you call such people wise?"

Lao Dan said, "Such a person is helter-skelter and a leashed beast, taxing his body and worrying his mind. The leashed, sitting dog has a lot to think about and the monkey's nimbleness drags it down from the mountain forests. Confucius, let me tell you something--something that cannot be heard and cannot be said. Of those with heads and feet, many have no minds or ears. For the bodied to coexist with no body and no form—no way! People's starting, stopping, dying, living, falling, rising are not what makes them so. What can be maintained is artificial. Forgetting things and forgetting nature is called forgetting yourself. And people who have forgotten themselves may be said to have entered the natural.