“I’ve heard my teacher say, where there are machines, there are bound to be machine worries; where there are machine worries, there are bound to be machine hearts. With a machine heart in your breast, you’ve spoiled what was pure and simple; and without the pure and simple, the life of the spirit knows no rest. Where the life of the spirit knows no rest, the Way will cease to buoy you up. It’s not that I don’t know about your machine – I would be ashamed to use it!”
— From The Chuang Tzu, Section 12, tr. Burton Watson
I think his teacher was too close to the fumes…
Reblogged this on Winsome Hall and commented:
Yesterday when I was tiling I opted for the score and snap tile cutter instead of the grinder with the diamond blade. Not only was it the better tool for that particular job but the tranquillity was fabulous.
Then today this post arrived in my in box. curious how these things happen.
Cheers
Franky
Seeing as how my entire life has been wrapped around machines, and that they provide a method for me to create the knew concepts hand saws that are in use around the world, I also think that the saying is a bit sharp, even accepting that it was written when the machines in question would have been water wheel driven, and probably used for grinding grain.
We began this problem when we created the first machine by wrapping thongs around a shaped piece of obsidian, joining it to a stick. It has been a long strange trip, including stops along the way using sabots (french for shoes) that were thrown into the gears to break the looms (ever wonder where the word sabotage came from?), on through latter day Luddites to Avatar, etc,
We are an incredibly inventive race seemingly determined to destroy ourselves (Malthus was right, just needed to get the right set of circumstances to occur).
It has been a wonderful ride overall, and in spite of some problems, I have enjoyed the run.
Lee (the saw guy)
Slow clap for the Malthus reference. Well done, sir. Well done.
I think you might appreciate a read of the source. The machine in question is a well sweep, the same thing the Egyptians call a shadoof. That’s one of the primary tools that made Egyptian civilization possible. The person to whom that was spoken at first thought he had found a true sage. He returned to Confucius and reported the incident. Confucius said:
“He is one of those bogus practitioners of the arts of Mr. Chaos.” He knows the first thing but doesn’t understand the second. He looks after what is on the inside but doesn’t look after what is on the outside. A man of true brightness and purity who can enter into simplicity, who can return to the primitive through inaction, give body to his inborn nature, and embrace his spirit, and in this way wander through the everyday world – if you had met one like that, you would have had real cause for astonishment. As for the arts of Mr. Chaos, you and I need not bother to find out about them.””
Mr. Chaos has a point, too much production means new worries, rivalries with neighbors, concern with status rather than purity of heart, relations with employees, thieves. On that last point, I found this section to have a particular relevance re: toolchests.
Bumped into the post button to soon. Chuang Tzu on boxes:
“If one is to guard and take precautions against thieves who rifle trunks, ransack bags, and break open boxes, then he must bind with cords and ropes and make fast with locks and hasps. This the ordinary world calls wisdom. But if a great thief comes along, he will shoulder the boxes, hoist up the trunks, sling the bags over his back, and dash off, only worrying that the cords and ropes, the locks and hasps are not fastened tightly enough. In that case, the man who earlier was called wise was in fact only piling up goods for the benefit of a great thief.
…..
Cudgel and cane the sages and let the thieves and bandits go their way; then the world will at last be well ordered! If the stream dries up, the valley will be empty; if the hills wash away, the deep pools will be filled up. And if the sage is dead and gone, then no more great thieves will arise. The world will then be peaceful and free of fuss.”
That sets the stage for Mr. Chaos’s later comment.
Well said my good man; well said.
If a Beaver was felling a tree and no one was around to hear it. Would the Beaver say” I wish I had a chainsaw “
Ouch. I think I sprained my brain.
THIS!
Oh dear, here we go again.
What is that big dust-collector for in the background?
As I’ve said about a hundred-dozen times on this blog: Never confuse a quotation on this blog with my opinion.
Read this old entry on quotes:
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2012/01/01/what-is-it-with-these-stupid-quotes/
I like juxtaposition. For what it is worth (which I know ain’t much), clamps are simple machines. That’s what got me thinking about that quote.
Ah, Obedience! I see.
I admit I struggle with blind obedience, in that context I wholeheartedly agree with Elbert Hubbard’s quote. If it helps, I am a big fan of ‘The History of Wood’ I love my Lie Nielsen tools and my brand new band-saw that was just delivered. I chose a wooden leg-vice over the standard quick-release, and I have a tool tray on my bench. Most of those you put me onto, and I am grateful for that. I love the Lamborghini Aventador as much as the Ford model T and they both look hot in black. I miss that we are not going back to the Moon. Sorry I am confused, but on the upside; it led me to that great blog-entry in your link.
I spy 14 clamps on a simple small dovetailed box. I think you won the fight, sir!
When cutting dovetails by hand, my teacher once said, “pretend you are a machine, make each cut precisely like the one before, do not change your stance or the angle of your arm; you are a machine”. Sometimes handwork requires a machine like mindset. Its whats in the heart that matters.