The Way of Conducting Oneself in the World

Everyone's eyes are like this—just a cat's eye set into a white ping-pong ball, nothing more than a mechanical device, so don't take it seriously. If someone gazes at you tenderly, that is just water seeping out of the ping-pong ball, flowing from the cat's eye—no matter, it cannot form a great river and drown you, nor will it pour down hills and topple mountains to sweep you away, so pay it no mind. If someone casts flirtatious glances at you, that is just light emitted from the ping-pong ball, projected out through the cat's eye—no need to mind it either, for the light of nature is warmer than this. If someone glares at you angrily, that is just the ping-pong ball catching fire, spewing out from the cat's eye—don't be afraid, it cannot burn you, nor will it become a prairie blaze; ignore it and it will naturally go out.

Whether others love me or hate me is none of my concern; I remain at ease and carefree. Seeing everything lightly, with a mind calm as still water, I attach to no marks—then there is nothing amiss in the world, and heaven and earth are naturally vast. If one reaches the point where even heaven and earth can no longer be seen, then one is truly liberated—how wonderful that would be!