Zhi Travels North (4)

1 Shun asked Cheng, “Can I get Tao and hold it as mine?”

2 Cheng answered, “You don’t even hold your body. How can you possess Tao?”

3 Popping out his eyes, Shun said, “Alas! If my body be not mine to possess and hold, then, tell me who possess it?”

4 Cheng explained, “The nature entrusts the body to you; your life actually is not yours but the nature’s. It’s an exquisite combination, by which life bestows on you temporarily.

5 Even your personality is not yours but the nature’s. The evolvement of nature creates something to insert into your gene.

6 Your offspring is not yours for certain. They are like the skin of snake or the shell of cicada that the nature entrusts to you.

7 Since all of yours are from the nature, it is not wrong to say that you are the puppet of nature. All of yours is under the control of nature. Your deeds and living are without exception. They are done to match the operation of nature. They are a part of operation of Yin and Yang. As a puppet without self-determination, how can you possess Tao?”