One’s Burdens

One’s Burdens

One must shoulder burdens.

One must shoulder burdens if

he is not of nature’s flow.

One shoulders burdens because

he defies the laws of Heaven.

One is good ar shoudlering one’s burdens.

What one knows are all his burdens.

He is under the false impression that he has wisdom,

but what he has is nothing more than burdens.

Man teaches man knowledge,

but what he is doing is putting a burden on another person’s shoulders.

 

One would have to shoulder nothing

if he know nothing,

if he had nothing,

and is he himself were no more.

Man carries his own burdens,

unwilling to be free of them.

He acts superior even though he knows nothing about

departures and arrivals,

or existence and non-existence.

Though it is a non-existent life,

he lives thinking it is real;

he lives bound to it,

trembling with anxiety, anger and greed.

But he does not try to break free from it;

instead he carries all of his burdens

in his attempt to have everything.

 

– Woo Myung