Poem
I recently read a book by Tim Winton called, The Turning. It's a collection of linked short stories, and this poem was at the beginning of a story called, "Family." I thought of you when I read it. There's no title. Do any of you recognize the author? I've never heard of him, but his name looks Chinese. When an archer is shooting for nothing
He has all his skill
If he shoots for a brass buckle
He is already nervous
If he shoots for a prize of gold
He goes blind
Or sees two targets –
He is out of his mind!
His skill has not changed. But the prize
Divides him. He cares.
He thinks more of winning
Than of shooting –
And the need to win
Drains him of power.
Chuang Tzu
posted by Wendy at 8:13 PM
3 Comments:
Hello Searay, and thank you.
It's hard for me to imagine someone living 3000 years ago. Are you familiar with Chuang Tzu's writing? I'm asking, because you sound doubtful that he wrote this - or do I misunderstand you?
Before I tell you what it means to me, I'm going to wait a day and see if some of your classmates tell us what they think.
I really appreciate your interpretation :-)
Best regards,
Wendy
Chuang Tzu was a famous philosopher in Taoism. He wrote many stories ,fables, dialogues to explain his philosophy.
I think its form is a paragraph, not a poem. Because he wrote in a parapagh form in almost his writing style.
Searay interprtes it very well:)
For Chung Tzu, the prize shouldn't be existed at all! Because it would distract people's attention. Also, it resulted in competition. Furthermore, the fame shouldn't exit neither. Otherwise what people just want to do is to win. They would even rather use any dirty ways.
Taoism is kind passive. Because to eliminate the bad effects of some things, the best way is NOT TO DO THEM!
For example,
"His skill has not changed. But the prize
Divides him. He cares.
He thinks more of winning
Than of shooting –
And the need to win
Drains him of power."
The desire of winning has already distracted the archer. Shooting has lost its original meaning now. So, don't set any prize at all.
Thank you Searay, Miroslava and Eddie for your comments. I guess we'll never know for sure what Chuang Tze meant, but it's interesting to discuss it.
I don't know anything about Taoism, so I may be totally wrong in my understanding of his words.
What struck me in this poem is how clearly he has described something I've seen to be true - and it's completely the opposite of what you would expect. At least, this is how I see it.
We are trained to do our best, and if that's not enough to succeed, somehow we should find a way to be better. Right?
But that way, the pressure on us can become terrible - and the results are not better. We have an expression in English about "trying too hard." For example, the new employee wants to impress his boss, so he "goes overboard" or "falls all over himself" trying to please the employer. The result? The other employees don't like him and the boss has no respect for him. He is diminished in their eyes. Have you ever seen this happen?
Or the athlete, who is number 1 in all the practices - but when she gets to the Olympics, her performance is second rate. Why?She's trying so hard, "it drains her power"
So in my opinion, it isn't that we shouldn't do our best. For me, Chuang Tze isn't telling us not to bother trying. But he is commenting on a "truth" - that sometimes we lose our power - not our skill, but our power, when we want to win so badly. It's like we lose our balance.
I agree with your conclusions: Searay says that the lesson for us is to enjoy the experience, but not to give up the goal. Miroslava says, don't kill yourself, but do your best. And Eddie reminds us that the desire to win can corrupt people. But I wonder Eddie, if Chuang Tze teaches us that the desire to win distracts the archer, do you agree that it's better to practice
passivity and resignation?
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