Class Requirement 9

In the parable of Chuang Tzu entitled ‘the fighting cock’, the cock is trained to fight. The king asked its trainer, Chi Hsing Tzu, he said that the cock is not ready. He said the cock reacts with aggression to every other bird. The cock is full of fire and too vain and too confident about his strength.  For the next ten days, Chi Hsing Tzu made the same remark. The cock is not ready for he flares up at the sound of another bird. And in the next ten days, the he has the look of anger and ruffles his feathers. But in the next ten days, he does not flicker at the sound of another bird. Chi Hsing Tzu regarded the cock as nearly ready. He is now still and is now a mature fighter.

 At first, the cock acts by his ego. The aggression towards other birds is by a showing that no one is better than him. It is self importance that hides his very own fear. While he is being trained, his progression was not conditioned to indulge his ego. In the next ten days, he flares up at the sound of another bird. The cock has restrained himself to lunge but the fear of being defeated still resides. The next ten days, he has his anger that is directed to another bird but his reaction to this anger is in him. At the next ten days, he became calm. He has learned to totally restrain from any sign of reaction and now he is nearly ready.

The parable is similar to a person becoming a sage by the discipline of the Tao. The way of unlearning is manifested through his gradual letting go of the shackles of his ego. A person’s ego is rooted from the insecurity from what the world has presented before him. The fear, the anger, the insecurity are products of the physical world and as a defense mechanism, man develops his ego. Knowing the Way is through detaching oneself to the world. The sage is unlearning the things that the world has taught him. In the process, he discovers that the true battle is not external but within himself. The fight that he sees from others is actually a cowardice that he has to overcome within himself. At the end of the parable, the cock is still, silent and no longer flinches at the sound of others. The connotation that he is ‘nearly ready’ means that he is now solely battling within himself. There is no more outside force that will evoke cowardice from him. In his stillness, he is in the final stage to be ‘ready’. The sage is now following the Way by non-action. In the parable, it says that with one look, the other birds will run in fear of the cock. The sage no longer sees himself in need of instilling fear to others. The other birds were what the sage was. They’re the fearful cowards who make too much fuss to hide their fear.

In conclusion, the developing sage progresses by overcoming himself. It is the way of the unlearning the world and not directing his action to the world. The sage is ‘nearly ready’ for he is at the road toward coming to terms with the Tao. He is not yet with it for the biggest battle is the internal battle. It is the battle within him.