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Too
many paths
One of Yang Tzu's neighbours,who lost
a sheep, sent all his men out to find it, and asked Yang
Tzu's servant to join in the search.
"
What !" exclaimed Yang Tzu. " Do you need all
those men to find one sheep ?"
"
There are so many paths it may have taken," the
neighbour explained. When his servant returned, Yang Tzu
asked him : " Well, did you find the sheep ?"
He
answered that they had not. Then Yang Tzu asked how they had
failed o find it.
"
There are too many paths," replied the servant. One
path leads to another, and we didn't know which to take, so
we hd to come back.
At
that Yang Tzu looked very thoughtful. He was silent for a
long time, and did not smile all day.
His
pupils were surprised.
"
A sheep is a trifle," they said, " and this wasn't
even yours. Why should you stop talking and smiling ?"
Yang
Tzu did not answer, and his pupils were puzzled.
One
of them, Meng-sun Yang, went out to describe what had
happened to Hsin-tu Tzu.
"
When there are too many paths," said Hsin-tu Tzu,
" a man cannot find his sheep. When a student has too
many interests, he fritters
away his time. The source
of all knowledge is one, but the branches of learning are
many. Only by returning to the primal truth can a man avoid
losing his way. You are Yang Tzu's pupil and study from him,
yet you seem to have failed completely to understsand
him."
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fritters
away |
If someone fritters away time or
money, they waste it on unimportant or unnecessary
thing. |
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