Mencius' Muddy Pool--or Living Spring?

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Jesus, in John 4:14 [耶稣说...我所赐的水，要在他里头成为泉源，直涌到永生。 约翰福音4：13，14]

"Wash cap in clear water, feet in dirty water." 沧浪之水清兮,可以濯吾缨; 沧浪之水浊兮,可以濯吾足 Mencius

Mencius wrote of the futility of counseling princes who destroyed their own lives, families and kingdoms, and then years later complained that life was unfair to them when they "reaped what they sowed." As Mencius put it, "We muddy our own water."

The Muddy Water Parable Mencius wrote of Confucius' tale of a boy singing,
"When the Canglang waters are clear,
they are good for washing my cap strings.
"When the Canglang waters are muddy,
they are good for washing my feet."

Mencius said clear and dirty water had different uses--but we determine how we are used because we muddy our own water ourselves. If others despise and misuse us, Mencius wrote, it is because we despise and misuse ourselves first. Mencius quoted a passage from the Tai Jia, "When Heaven sends down calamities, we may still escape them, but when we cause them ourselves, we have no hope of life."

UnMuddying the Water? The great Taoist Zhuangzi said, "I lost sight of my real self. Gazing at the muddy water, I lost sight of the clear abyss." The Taoist solution to clearing up the muddy water is to be perfectly still, even as the Bible says, "Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 [你们要休息，要知道我是神。诗篇46:10] But is being still enough?

Even Confucius and Mencius confessed their inability to live up to their own standards. In today's hectic age, can any of us be still enough to settle the mud today, much less keep it settled tomorrow? If anything, our frenetic pace just muddies the pool more with each passing day. But even if we could, by superhuman effort, still the mud--what keeps our little pool from stagnating?

Muddy Pool or Living Spring? The only way to clean the pool and keep it clean is to continually wash out the stagnating, muddy pool with a fresh, clear endless spring of living water. Jesus said, "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13, 14 [耶稣回答说，凡喝这水的，还要再渴。人若喝我所赐的水就永远不渴。我所赐的水，要在他里头成为泉源，直涌到永生。 约翰福音4：13，14]

Our Choice. The child sang that clear water was good for washing his cap, and dirty water was good for washing his feet. What are we good for? Today, we can try to still the pool of stagnant muddy water that we have churned up over the years, or we can flush out the entire pool by tapping into the Source--the endless spring of living water.

Original Source for above Mencius quote:
离娄上: 孟子曰：“不仁者可与言哉？安其危而利其灾，乐其所以亡者。不仁而可与言，则何亡国败家之有？有孺子歌曰：‘沧浪之水清兮，可以濯我缨；沧浪之水浊兮，可以濯我足。’孔子曰：‘小子听之！清斯濯缨，浊斯濯足矣，自取之也。’夫人必自侮，然后人侮之；家必自毁，而后人毁之；国必自伐，而后人伐之。《太甲》曰：‘天作孽，犹可违；自作孽，不可活。’此之谓也。” Mencius, Li Lou 1
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