things in process...we are overseas
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forgetting the words

荃者所以在魚,得魚而忘荃(魚網);蹄者所以在兔,得兔而忘蹄(兔置)。言者所以在意,得意而忘言;吾安得夫忘言之人而與之言哉?

Nets exist for catching fish; once a fish is caught, the net is forgotten. Traps exist for catching rabbits; once a rabbit is caught, the trap is forgotten. Words exist for expressing ideas; once the ideas are expressed, the words are forgotten. i would like to find someone who forgets words and have a talk with him!

— 庄子 Zhuangzi,《外務》”Waiwu”

“The real escapes language, or rather, and more serious still, language hides reality, because language immediately posits us inside the unilaterality of a point of view. I say this as opposed to that, I see things this way as opposed to that way. As soon as we speak, we are closed inside a partiality that makes us miss the essential communal dimension of things. The characteristic of language is to mark differences, that of discourse is to use languages to state an opinion, whereas lack of differentiation characterizes the Tao of reality.” (from Detour and Access, François Jullien)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 11:09 pm and is filed under overseas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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