Drifting (2006)

Give up learning, and put an end to your troubles.

Is there a difference between yes and no?
Is there a difference between good and evil?
Must I fear what others fear? What nonsense!
Other people are contented, enjoying the sacrificial feast of the ox.
In spring some go to the park, and climb the terrace,
But I alone am drifting not knowing where I am.
Like a new-born babe before it learns to smile,
I am alone, without a place to go.

Others have more than they need, but I alone have nothing.
I am a fool. Oh, yes! I am confused.
Other men are clear and bright,
But I alone am dim and weak.
Other men are sharp and clever,
But I alone am dull and stupid.
Oh, I drift like the waves of the sea.
Without direction, like the restless wind.

Everyone else is busy,
But I alone am aimless and depressed.
I am different.
I am nourished by the great mother.

Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu – chapter 20

20. Wandering

What is the difference between assent and denial?
What is the difference between beautiful and ugly?
What is the difference between fearsome and afraid?

The people are merry as if at a magnificent party
Or playing in the park at springtime,
But I am tranquil and wandering,
Like a newborn before it learns to smile,
Alone, with no true home.

The people have enough and to spare,
Where I have nothing,
And my heart is foolish,
Muddled and cloudy.

The people are bright and certain,
Where I am dim and confused;
The people are clever and wise,
Where I am dull and ignorant;
Aimless as a wave drifting over the sea,
Attached to nothing.

The people are busy with purpose,
Where I am impractical and rough;
I do not share the peoples’ cares
But I am fed at nature’s breast.

— Peter Merel translation

Why should you care if people agree or disagree with you?
Why should you care if others find you attractive or not?
Why should you care if you win or lose — what’s the point of the game?
Call bullshit on all that.

Let other people get themselves worked up.
I’m not going to give myself away.
A baby doesn’t know how to smile, but it’s still happy.

Let other people get excited about stuff.
I’m not going to hang on to anything.
I’m not going to fill my mind with ideas.
I’m not going to get stuck in a rut, tied down to any one place.

Other people are clever;
I guess I must be stupid.
Other people have goals;
I guess I must be aimless.
Like the wind. Or the waves.

I’m not like other people.
I’m getting right with Tao.

— J. Garon translation

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5 Responses

  1. The illustration certainally goes with the poem – I find the poetry painful even with the nourishment by the great mother…
    There are times when I have had such feelings – those times are filled with pain — perhaps I am really missing the final message of the poem

  2. Tao often feels like a lonely path, since others don’t see it and follow it. But, since you are connected to Tao, to everything, it is not truly lonely at all. To be “nourished by the great mother” makes up for all the rest of the seeming “loneliness” in what most people see as the “real” world. But their real world is actually the artificial one, and the great mother IS the true real world.

    The point is that what seems like a lonely path is, in fact, the only real path. The rest is merely illusion or artifice.

    What most people search for in spirituality is actually this sense of connection. That is what is termed as enlightenment. Once you feel that, you actually become free of many of the cravings that people typically feel.

    To me, this poem is sort of the essence of the great Taoist joke. To others, people who follow Tao look lost and alone. But from the inside, they are not alone, but connected with everything around them.

    The tree in the picture is not alone, it is connected with the earth and sky, nourished by the earth and air and rain. To the outside view it seems alone, but it isn’t, really.

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