Fish Forget Each Other in the Rivers and Lakes

answered by Zhuangzi, The Great Ancestral Teacher

기원전 4세기경

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

The Big Blue (1988)

dir. Luc Besson · France

A person becomes more wholly himself in the deep water than in life on land. Is the pull toward the world he belongs to a danger that turns from life, or a depth to be carried back into it?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

The pull toward the world one wholly belongs to — how far may one follow it?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

魚相忘乎江湖人相忘乎道術

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Fish forget each other in the rivers and lakes; people forget each other in the realm of the Way.

💡 TL;DR

Zhuangzi said that as fish forget each other in water, a person in the place he wholly belongs forgets even effort.

📝The Classic Answers

Zhuangzi said that as fish forget each other in water, a person in the place he wholly belongs forgets even effort. Just as a fish gasping on land no longer needs to struggle once returned to water, each person has a world where he breathes wholly. Yet Zhuangzi's wisdom is to use that pull not to turn away from life but to carry its depth into living. I choose to find the place that lets me breathe most like myself — and to bring that depth back toward life.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

Recall the moment you breathe most like yourself today, and carry a little of that feeling back into daily life.

📖 Classic Source: Zhuangzi, The Great Ancestral Teacher. Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.