Following the flowing river,

the river does not speak, but just calmly flows and flows;

such is the providence of nature.

It does not speak and yet it fulfills its role.

The mountains and the water each do everything they need to do,

because they live in the forms they were given

according to the will of nature, of God.

But man, who speaks too much, is burdened and suffers,

because his actions are against the universal order of nature,

and tries to make the world fit the world of his own will.

All that one needs to do is just live

in the shape and form he was given,

but he suffers because he tries to make things belong to him.

The wind is able to blow,

because of the conditions in nature that allow it to blow.

 

Man needs to just live according to nature’s providence

but he dreams vain dreams and does meaningless things,

so he lives each day with regrets.

His mind is never satisfied,

regardless of what he achieves.

If one lives positively with the mind of the world,

it is possible for him to simply just live.

Man is not satisfied by anything he does

because he tries to satiate his mind that is a futile delusion.

 

Everything that exists in the world,

fulfills the role of its shape and form

and lives without its own mind.

Only man is burdened

because he lives in his mind and tries to fill it;

this is the reason he is not one with the world,

the reason he blames and disavows the world.

If he casts off these delusions and lives in the origin

there is great freedom and liberation;

there is no human suffering,

and he can live a true life.

 

-Woo Myung