There was a very big tree next to a temple. A carpenter told his pupils: “That tree is useless. If you use it to make a boat, it will sink. It is not hard enough to make good furniture. Using it to make the structure of a house, the wood will be eaten by termites very soon. It is totally useless. I wouldn’t spend a minute looking at it.” If the tree was useful, it would have been fell a long time ago. It wouldn’t live to the great height. As far as the tree was concerned, being useful (有用) meant it had a deathly “disease”. A useless (无用) tree is the most useful tree to itself. People like to use you if you are useful to them or you can contribute to their happiness. You may feel proud to be useful to other people; you will be rewarded and successful. All is good if you like to be used. If you choose to be useful to yourself, you can try being useless so that you are not used by others; but you must remember not to stand in their way and become a liability. The useless tree was intelligent to grow next to a temple and not in the middle of a street; otherwise, it would have been chopped off a long time ago.
Wood is used to make the handle of an axe, and in return the axe is used to cut the tree itself. Oil is used to light up a room, but it burns itself until nothing is left. Cinnamon tree is edible, so it is fell for people to consume. A tree with usable latex will be cut a hundred times and not allowed to die. Most people know the use of usefulness (有用), but very few know the use of uselessness (无用). We need to know how to be useless to others but useful to ourselves (无用之用). We need to know how to be useful to some people without becoming useless to ourselves. Give what you are happy to give; don’t give more than what you can give. Don’t lose yourself.
There was a donkey which was made to pull a grinder and trot around a circle in a factory. One day, it became too old and not able to work anymore. The master set it free, but it continued to trot in circle around a tree every day. Many of us are like the donkey. We work like slaves every day, the virtual chain around our neck is the salary. After retirement, we still work like slaves every day, and never know there are better things to do, and we tell our children it is a virtue to work hard for the money.
There were two frogs living in a pond. Drought forced them to look for a new water source. They found a well. One of the frogs said: “let’s jump right in! We will have everything we need.” The second frog said: “It is definitely good to have the water. The problem is, how do we get out later on? I would rather keep looking for a better choice that doesn’t require giving up my freedom.” Getting trapped in extreme joy (like having party or playing smartphone games every day) is as bad as getting trapped in the pursuit of fame and wealth. It is easy to jump in but difficult to come out. It may not be the best thing to do for your best interest. Being foolish, ignorant and lazy will make you not only useless to others but also useless to yourself.
The definitions of useful and useless are flaw and have a lot of limitations. Being useful to others may be useless to yourself, although you can also be useful to yourself. Being useless to others may be useful to yourself, but you can also be useless to yourself. The definitions with words (色) can be useful and useless at the same time. In other words, you can be fooled by the definitions and misled into making a wrong decision. You must not take the definitions too seriously but use them with discretions; it is best to refrain from using the definitions (无分辩之心). Instead, keep an open definition (空), which is flexible, not judgmental, and encompasses (包容) both the definitions of useful and useless.
RESILIENT KID 