From Chuang Tzu (ca. 350 BCE):
Words are not just wind. Words have something to say. But if what they have to say is not fixed, then do they really say something? Or do they say nothing?
The torch of chaos and doubt - this is what the sage steers by.
The sage leans on the sun and moon, tucks the universe under his arm, merges himself with things, leaves the confusion and muddle as it is, and looks on slaves as exalted. . . . For him, all the ten thousand things are what they are, and thus they enfold each other.
"Suppose you and I had an argument. If you have beaten me instead of my beating you, then are you necessarily right and am I necessarily wrong? If I have beaten you instead of your beating me, then am I necessarily right and are you necessarily wrong? Are both of us right or are both of us wrong? . . . If right were really right, it would differ so clearly from not right that there would be no need for argument. If so were really so, it would differ so clearly from not so that there would be no need for argument. Forget the years; forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!"
From A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami:
I stopped into a bookstore and bought The Mountains of Hokkaido and a Hokkaido atlas, then went into a cafe, had two ginger ales, and skimmed through my purchases. . . . It was no comfort to learn that the number of mountains in the book represented but a tiny fraction of all the mountains in Hokkaido. Complicated by the fact that a mountain viewed from one angle gave a wholly different impression than from another angle.
"Mountains are living things," wrote the author in the preface to the book. "Mountains, according to the angle of view, the season, the time of day, the beholder's frame of mind, or any one thing, can effectively change their appearance. Thus, it is essential to recognize that we can never know more than one side, one small aspect of a mountain."
From The Sound of the Mountain, by Yasunari Kawabata:
"What will you have?" he asked, going on with the dicing.
"Herring."
"How many?"
"One."
"One?"
"Yes."
"Just one?"
For discussion next class:
First, what difference(s) exist in the order and process of creation in Gen 1:1-2:3 compared with that in Gen 2:4-3:24? Second, why are Adam and Eve expelled from the garden?