The Traveler and the Gardener

A story told by Zhuang Zhou (Zhuangzi, 369 BC-286 BC): A traveler sees a gardener irrigating a plot of vegetables using a bucket; the traveler advises the gardener to use a machine that will do this work for him. The gardener says: “I have heard from my teacher that those who have cunning implements are cunning in their dealings, and that those who are cunning in their dealings have cunning in their hearts, and that those who have cunning in their hearts cannot be pure and incorrupt, and that those who are not pure and incorrupt are restless in spirit, and that those who are restless in spirit are not fit vehicles for Tao. It is not that I do not know of these things. I should be ashamed to use them.” (Translated by Peter Y. Chou)