May we not say that this is the end of a pruning-hook?
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peck.wisdom 23,094 posts
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Of Brahma, sitting lone Upon His lotus-throne; Of saints and sages, and the serpent races Ananta, Vasuki; Yea! mightiest Lord! I see Thy thousand thousand arms, and breasts, and faces, And eyes,--on every side Perfect, diversified; And nowhere end of Thee, nowhere beginning, Nowhere a centre! Shifts-- Wherever soul's gaze lifts-- Thy central Self, all-wielding, and all-winning!
And the same is true of all other things; they have each of them an end and a special excellence?
[The word "decision" would have reference to the measurement of distance mentioned above, letting the enemy get near before striking. But I cannot help thinking that Sun Tzŭ meant to use the word in a figurative sense comparable to our own idiom "short and sharp." Cf. Wang Hsi’s note, which after describing the falcon’s mode of attack, proceeds: "This is just how the ‘psychological moment’ should be seized in war."]
HERE ENDETH CHAPTER X. OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, Entitled "Vibhuti Yog," Or "The Book of Religion by the Heavenly Perfections."
[In the first case, he will entice him with a bait; in the second, he will strike at some important point which the enemy will have to defend.]
And you also said that the just will not go beyond his like but his unlike?
Well, and can the eyes fulfil their end if they are wanting in their own proper excellence and have a defect instead?
The Master said, 'I returned from Wei to Lu, and then the music was reformed, and the pieces in the Royal songs and Praise songs all found their proper places.'
Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of the trigger.
Whensoever any man doth trespass against other, presently consider with thyself what it was that he did suppose to be good, what to be evil, when he did trespass. For this when thou knowest, thou wilt pity him thou wilt have no occasion either to wonder, or to be angry. For either thou thyself dust yet live in that error and ignorance, as that thou dust suppose either that very thing that he doth, or some other like worldly thing, to be good; and so thou art bound to pardon him if he have done that which thou in the like case wouldst have done thyself. Or if so be that thou dost not any more suppose the same things to be good or evil, that he doth; how canst thou but be gentle unto him that is in an error?
Tao Te Ching — Chapter 27: Chapter 31
Who knows Me thus, With mind unclouded, knoweth all, dear Prince! And with his whole soul ever worshippeth Me.
The work of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, And Sudras, O thou Slayer of thy Foes! Is fixed by reason of the Qualities Planted in each:
And what of the ignorant? would he not desire to have more than either the knowing or the ignorant?
[“He deigned not to throw down Orodes as he fled, or with the darted spear to give him a wound unseen; but overtaking him, he confronted him face to face, and encountered man to man: superior, not in stratagem, but in valiant arms.”--AEneid, x. 732.]
There is the "rightful"doer. He who acts Free from self-seeking, humble, resolute, Steadfast, in good or evil hap the same, Content to do aright-he "truly" acts. There is th' "impassioned" doer. He that works From impulse, seeking profit, rude and bold To overcome, unchastened; slave by turns Of sorrow and of joy: of Rajas he! And there be evil doers; loose of heart, Low-minded, stubborn, fraudulent, remiss, Dull, slow, despondent--children of the "dark."
I am delighted, he replied, to hear you say so, and shall begin by speaking, as I proposed, of the nature and origin of justice.
Very true, I said; that is what I have to do: But will you be so good as answer yet one more question? Does the just man try to gain any advantage over the just?
That also is a fine passage of Plato's, where he speaketh of worldly things in these words: 'Thou must also as from some higher place look down, as it were, upon the things of this world, as flocks, armies, husbandmen's labours, marriages, divorces, generations, deaths: the tumults of courts and places of judicatures; desert places; the several nations of barbarians, public festivals, mournings, fairs, markets.' How all things upon earth are pell-mell; and how miraculously things contrary one to another, concur to the beauty and perfection of this universe.