Raymond Bart Vespe
The Chuang Tzu is a principal text of the ancient Spiritual tradition of Chinese Taoism. It is a collection of illustrative tales in thirty-three chapters recorded over two thousand years ago and which has since undergone hundreds of translations, commentaries and adaptations. The first seven Inner Chapters/Nei P’ien of The Chuang Tzu text are attributed to Chuang Chou/Tzu, the serene/ubiquitous/Master, and are rendered here as the Interior Records. Nei P’ien tales are lively portrayals of how individual beings manage to find their truth, freedom and happiness at a time in Chinese history of rampant bloody internecene warfare between rulers of separate feudal states vying for hegemony. The exquisitely crafted, and often outrageously and humorously expressed, characterizations of the circumstantially embedded lives of common creatures, fabulous animals, mythological beings, divine immortals, legendary ancients and a vast array of human beings ranging from Spiritual masters and skillful artisans to tyranical rulers and insane recluses; and even including Lao Tzu, Confucius and Chuang Tzu himself; are used as iconoclastic vehicles for imparting universal and perennial truths about what it is to be a True Human Being through both the Heavenly equalizing and transcending of, and the Earthly accepting and flowing with, the vicissitudes of natural instincts, human relationships and worldly affairs. The present work is an original rendering of the tales in the seven Interior Records/Nei Pien. The psychotherapeutically-oriented commentaries given for each of the tales are not only useful for professionals practicing psychotherapy, but also for anyone interested in truly and Soulfully living a more Spiritually awakened, natural, free and happy human life.
