The Master said:“Everyone says, ‘I am wise!’Yet when driven into nets, snares, and traps,none of them knows how to avoid them.Everyone says, ‘I am wise!’Yet even if they choose the Doctrine of the Mean,they cannot hold to it for even a month.”
After bestowing the name “Wukong” (悟空, “Awakened to Emptiness”) upon the Monkey King, Master Subhuti declared the following words, which carry profound Taoist and Buddhist connotations:
He who knows (the Dao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it.He (who knows it) will keep his mouth shut and close the portals (of his nostrils). He will blunt his sharp points and unravel the complications of things; he will…
Without going outside his door, one understands (all that takes place) under the sky; without looking out from his window, one sees the Dao of Heaven. The farther that one goes out (from himself), the less he knows.Therefore the sages got their knowledge without travelling; gave their (right) names to things without seeing them;…