Utmost Joy (4)

1 Once Chuang Tzu traveled to the State of Chu, by the road he saw a skull exposing on the lawn.

2 Picking it up, Chuang Tzu stroked the skull. He tried to feel around the past life of the skull.

3 He said to the skull, “What did you do in your life. Why you exposed on the lawn?

4 Did your incontinence ruin your body?

5 Or were you beheaded because you did evil to infringe upon the law?

6 Or you did something lunatic made your parents and wife insulted, so you committed suicide to apologize to all people?

7 Or you died of hunger and cold in this wild field?”

8 After asking so many questions without answer, Chuang Tzu felt a little tired. He lay down on the lawn, using the skull as a pillow and slipped into sleep.

9 In the dream, the skull told Chuang Tzu, “Man, why you raved so badly. Tell you the truth, what you asked happens only in the human’s world. When a man dies, in the new place he is away from the problems. Do you want to know what happens after death?”

10 Chuang Tzu said, “Well, please.”

11 The skull said, “In this place there has no emperor, no officer, no hierarchic rank and no toil such as plowing in spring, weeding in summer, harvesting in autumn and storing in winter. Each person has absolute freedom and the life is as long as heaven and earth. Even the emperor in your world can’t possess the same joy as here we have.”

12 Chuang Tzu disbelieved that the place after death really is so good. He asked the skull, “If I asked Heaven to restore your blood, flesh and skeleton to you and let you return to human’s world and reunite with your family, will you accept it?”

13 The skull shook his head. “I am not so silly. I would not give up the joy here to exchange the toil in human’s world.”