Chuang-tzu's P'eng: Developing Perspective

Chuang-tzu tells the story of a giant bird, P'eng, which when it flies travels hundreds of miles a minute. The dove and cicada scoff at it. What need does one have for size? They can see as far as the elm and the sapanwood tree. What else is there?

The Taoist sage says, Little understanding does not come up to great understanding; the short-lived cannot come up to the long-lived. (Burton Watson's translation)

Taoists searched for wisdom by looking for the elixir of immortality. If someone 70 years knows so much more than someone 20 years old, supreme knowledge must come only if one was immortal, having eternity to accumulate knowledge that became wisdom.

But there is another way of understanding the metaphor. We don't have to become immortal to rise above the tiny, limited and limiting worlds we inhabit. With perspective we can see beyond the stage of our personal dramas. When we can see beyond the tips of our noses we discover a world so much bigger—it even feels infinite—and the stresses we feel diminish seeing how tiny they are in the larger scheme.

This perspective, I think, is one of the benefits accruing from regular meditation practice. Sitting quietly until the incessant flow of me-thoughts begin to slow down, even occasionally stop, I loosen the grip of the self on selecting what I experience and the world opens up to amazement. The world is far bigger than what I normally concern myself about.

With me being not only center but the whole of what I see the world is small indeed. When I can see beyond myself I might understand that I am not alone. The world is not my sole responsibility. I am in this together with everyone else. I don't have to act all the time, the next minute, hour, day or year not dependent solely on the act. Countless other acts come together each minute, each hour, each lifetime. I'll do my own thing but what transpires transcends what I do, what I know.

To be so small is strangely empowering. I no longer have to rely on just my meager resources. The world's resources are mine as well.