There’s an ancient story, from the time of Confucius and Lao Tzu. Both were contemporaries. Confucius was younger than Lao Tzu but more popular as a philosopher. His thoughts influenced China in a very big way then and to this day his philosophy of life continues to dominate Chinese mentality. Lao Tzu was a mystic, like an Upanishdic sage of India, who had a transcendental wisdom of self-realisation. He had nothing to do with any philosophy, social morality or code of conduct. He was a simple man with profound understanding of life. But he could not influence people as much as Confucius could. He never bothered.
It has been reported that Confucius went to see Lao Tzu and asked, “What do you say about morality? What do you say about how to cultivate good character?” Lao Tzu laughed loudly and said, “If you are immoral, only then the question of morality arises. And if you don’t have any character, only then you think about character. A man of character is absolutely oblivious of the fact that anything like character exists. A man of morality does not know what the word “moral” means. So don’t be foolish! And don’t try to cultivate. Just be natural.”
Osho loves Lao Tzu: And this man (Lao Tzu) had such tremendous energy that Confucius started trembling. He couldn’t stand him. He escaped. He became afraid — as one becomes afraid near an abyss. When he came back to his disciples, who were waiting outside under a tree, the disciples could not believe it. This man had been going to emperors, the greatest emperors, and they had never seen any nersness in him. And he was trembling, and cold perspiration was coming, pouring out from all over his body. They couldn’t believe it — what had happened? What had this man Lao Tzu done to their teacher? They asked him and he said, “Wait a little. Let me collect myself. This man is dangerous.”
There is another significant Taoist story of that time: An old follower of Lao Tzu, who was 90 years old, was busy pulling water from the well, together with his young son. Confucius happened to pass by. He saw the old man and his young son yoked together, pulling water from the well. He was filled with compassion. He went up to the old man and said: “Do you not know, you foolish fellow, that now we harness horses or oxen to do this job? Why are you unnecessarily tiring yourself and this young boy?”
The old man said, “Hush! Pray speak softly lest my son hears! Come after some time when my boy goes for lunch.” Confucius was perplexed. When the youth left, he asked the old man, “Why would you not let your son hear what I said?” He replied, “I am 90 years old and yet I have the strength to work side by side with a youth of 30. If I engage horses to pull the water, my son will not have the same strength at 90 that I have now. So I pray to you, do not talk of this before my son. It is a question of his health. We have heard that in towns horses pull water from the well. We also know that there are machines that do this job as well. But then, what will my son do? What will happen to his health, his constitution?”
Osho concludes: Work and rest are interdependent. For example: We want to sleep soundly. He who wishes to sleep soundly needs to work hard. He who does not toil, cannot sleep soundly. Lao Tzu says, “Work and rest are both united. If you wish to relax, toil hard.”
Strive so hard that relaxation falls on you. Now if we think the Aristotalean way, work and rest are different and opposite. If I am fond of rest and comfort, and wish to sleep soundly, I shall just sit around the whole day and do nothing. But he who rests in the day, destroys his repose of the night. Rest has to be earned through labour. Or else you shall have to pass a restless night.
Confucius’ way of thinking is Aristotalean, therefore the West honoured Confucius very much these last 300 years. It is only now that Lao Tzu is rising in their esteem.