· Three wise men are gathered around a pot of vinegar
· Each represents the 3 schools of thought in Chinese philosophy, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism
1. Confucius (the vinegar is sour)
· Confucius scowls and has a sour expression as he tastes the vinegar.
· Life is chaos. It is unpleasant. It is sour
· The solution is order, structure, rules, rituals, traditions, ethics, morality
· We need to work together in society. Everyone needs to fulfil their roles
· We need to 'fix' the sourness of the vinegar!
2. Buddha (the vinegar is bitter)
· The Buddha sighs deeply as he tastes the vinegar with disgust
· Life is suffering, pain, sickness, old age, death, dissatisfaction
· The remedy is to extinguish craving, desires and expectations is through inner practice (meditation)
· We work on ourselves until we don’t resist the ‘bitterness’ of the vinegar
3. Lao Tzu (the vinegar is ‘sweet’)
· Lao Tzu is smiling when he tastes vinegar
· It tastes exactly as it should - exactly as it is meant to
· Nature has universal laws of harmony. Life (‘vinegar’) gives us lessons.
· Obstacles / Negatives show us where we need to take our attention
· Flow with nature. Stop interfering. Stop trying to change / fix life
All three schools have something to teach us
· They are all describing the same thing (‘truth’?)
· Each school co-exists and may be relevant to us at a different time in our life, so there is no best/worst, right/wrong school
· Sour / sweet / bitter are all a part of the natural flow of life.
· Life doesn’t have to be perfect for us to enjoy it
