Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
Water is the softest substance in the world, but yet it can penetrate the hardest rock or anything -- granite, you name it. Water is also insubstantial; by that I mean you cannot grasp hold of it, you cannot punch it and hurt it. So every ... [DJ] is trying to do that; to be soft like water, and flexible and adapt itself to the opponent.
Establish nothing in regard to oneself. Let things be what they are, move like water, rest like a mirror, respond like an echo, pass quickly like the nonexistent, and be quiet as purity. Those who gain, lose. Do not precede others, always follow them.
Water is so fine that it is impossible to grasp a handful of it; strike it, yet it does not suffer hurt; stab it, and it is not wounded; sever it, yet it is not divided. It has no shape of its own but moulds itself to the receptacle that contains it. When heated to the state of steam it is invisible but has enough power to split the earth itself. When frozen it crystallises into a mighty rock. First it is turbulent like Niagara Falls, and then calm like a still pond, fearful like a torrent, and refreshing like a spring on a hot summer's day. So is the principle of wu we:
The rivers and seas are lords of a hundred valleys. This is because their strength is in lowliness; they are kings of them all. So it is that the perfect master wishing to lead them, he follows. Thus, though he is above them, he follows. Thus, though he is above them, men do not feel him to be an injury. And since he will not strive, none strive with him.
The world is full of people who are determined to be somebody or to give trouble. They want to get ahead, to stand out. Such ambition has no use for a [DJ]..., who rejects all forms of self-assertiveness and competition:
One who tries to stand on tiptoe cannot stand still. One who stretches his legs too far cannot walk. One who advertises himself too much is ignored. One who is too insistent on his own view finds few to agree with him. One who claims too much credit does not get even what he deserves. One who is too proud is soon humiliated. These are condemned as extremes of greediness and self-destructive activity. Therefore, one who acts naturally avoids such extremes.
Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.
Stop your sense, let sharp things be blunted,
Tangles resolved, the light tempered and turmoil subdued;
For this is mystic unity in which the wise man is moved
Neither by affection nor yet by estrangement,
Or profit or loss or honour or shame.
Accordingly, by all the world, he is held highest.
A [DJ]..., if he is really good, is not proud at all. "Pride," according to Mr. Eric Hoffer, "is a sense of worth that derives from something that is not organically part of oneself." Pride emphasises the importance of the superiority of a person's status in the eyes of others. There is fear and insecurity in pride because when a person aims at being highly esteemed and achieves such status, he is automatically involved in the fear of losing his status. Then protection of his status appears to be his most important need, and this creates anxiety. Mr. Hoffer further states that: "The less promise and potency in the self, the more imperative is the need for pride. One is proud when he identifies himself with an imaginary self; the core of pride is self rejection." As we know, [DJ]... is aiming at self cultivation, and the inner self is one's true self. So in order to realise his true self, a [DJ]... lives without being dependent upon the opinion of others. Since he is completely self-sufficient he can have no fear of not being esteemed. A [DJ]... devotes himself to being self-sufficient and never depends upon the external rating by others for his happiness. A [DJ]... master, unlike the beginner, holds himself in reserve, is quiet and unassuming, without the least desire to show off. Under the influence of [DJ]... training his proficiency becomes spiritual, and he himself, grown ever freer through spiritual struggle, is transformed. To him, fame and status mean nothing.
But as months and years go by, as his training acquires fuller maturity, his bodily attitude and his way of managing the technique toward no-mindedness come to resemble the state of mind he had at the very beginning of training when he knew nothing, when he was altogether ignorant of the art. The beginning and the end thus turn into next-door neighbours. In the musical scale, one may start with the lowest pitch and gradually ascend to the highest. When the highest is reached, one finds it is located next to the lowest. In a similar way, when the highest stage is reached in the study of [DJ]... teaching, a [DJ]... turns into a kind of simpleton who knows nothing of [DJ]..., nothing of its teachings, and is devoid of all learning. Intellectual calculations are lost sight of and a state of no-mindedness prevails. When the ultimate perfection is attained, the body and limbs perform by themselves what is assigned to them to do with no interference from the mind. The technical skill is so automatic it is completely divorced from conscious efforts.
here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony. Not-- if you have one to the extreme, you'll be very unscientific. if you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man--no longer a human being. so it is a successful combination of both, so therefore, it's not pure naturalness, or unnaturalness. the ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness.
Ultimately, [DJ]... means honestly expressing yourself. Now it is very difficult to do. I mean it is easy for me to put on a show and be ****y and be flooded with a ****y feeling and then feel, then, like pretty cool and all that. Or I can make all kinds of phony things, you see what I mean? And be blinded by it. Or I can show you some really fancy movement-but, to express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself--and to express myself honestly-that, my friend is very hard to do. And you have to train. You have to keep your reflexes so that when you want it--it's there!when you want to move, you are moving and when you move you are determined to move. Not taking one inch, not anything less than that! If I want to... , I'm going to do it man, and I'm going to do it! So that is the type of thing you gain to train yourself into it; to become one with it. You think--(snaps his fingers)--it is.
Using no way as way, Having no limitation as limitation.
