Tu wants to learn fighting and learns sitting

From NVCWiki
Jump to: navigation, search

A student comes to Me-ti and says: "I want to participate in the class struggle. How shall I fight?"

The old man laughs and asks: "Do you sit well?"

"I don't know", says Tu astonished, "how else should I sit?"

Me-ti explains to him. "But", says Tu impatiently, "I did not come to learn to sit".

"I know", says Me-ti patiently, "you want to fight, but in order to do so, you must learn to sit well, because just now we are sitting and while sitting we will learn".

Tu replies, "If you always try to take the most comfortable position and try to make the best of a given situation, in short, if you always search for pleasure, how can you fight?"

Me-ti answers: "If you don't strive for pleasure, if you don't want to make the best of a situation and take the most comfortable position, why should you want to fight?"