Driver Ting was threading through traffic for Lord Wen-hui. As every touch of the wheel, every tap on the pedal, every lane change, every thrust of the car — zip! zoop! He slithered the car along with a zing, and all was in perfect rhythm, as though he were performing the dance of the Mulberry Grove or keeping time to the Ching-shou music.
"Ah, this is marvelous!" said Lord Wen-hui. "Imagine skill reaching such heights!"
Driver Ting pulled over and replied, "What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond skill. When I first began driving on these freeways, all I could see was the traffic as a whole. After three years I no longer saw the traffic as a whole. And now — now I go at it by spirit and don’t look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big gaps, guide the car through the openings, and following things as they are. So I never come close to another car, never touching the horn or flashing the lights, never hitting the brake pedal or causing others to hit theirs.
"A good driver dings his car once a year — because he cuts. A mediocre driver dings his car once a month — because he hacks. I’ve had this car for nineteen years and I’ve cut through thousands of lanes with it, and yet it remains as dingless as though it were fresh from the dealer's lot. There are spaces between the cars in traffic, and my car has really no thickness. If you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there’s plenty of room — more than enough for my car to play about it. That’s why after nineteen years my car shows no dings and is as good as when it first came from the manufacturer.
"However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very slowly, and move the car with the greatest subtlety, until — flop! the traffic comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I accelerate into the gap and look all around me, completely satisfied and pleased to move on, and then I peel my eye for the next clump of traffic."
"Excellent!" said Lord Wen-hui. "I have heard the words of Driver Ting and learned how to care for life!"
[Based on Zhuang-zi's [Chuang-Tsu's] "The Dexterous Butcher" as translated by Burton Watson. See "Power Weave" for more on power weaving.]
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