Lao Dan answered slowly, "A person stands in this world through feelings, which form human bonds and tender companionship; through wisdom, one understands principle and judges matters fittingly. Feeling is the foundation of wisdom, and wisdom is the master of feeling. If feeling commands wisdom, one becomes muddle-headed and loses all bearings; if wisdom governs feeling, clarity rests within one's grasp, and advance or retreat follows proper measure. My mother gave birth to me and raised me; her grace is vaster than the vault of heaven. Now her kindly face is forever beyond reach. Grief is difficult to suppress—this is only human nature. Yet feeling cannot be allowed to run unchecked and lose all measure; once it loses measure, disorder follows. Thus, my sorrow was so extreme I wished for death.
Just now, as I sat in quiet contemplation, Huiguang suddenly came to me. With wisdom guiding feeling, feeling can be restrained, and affairs can be set in order. Once feeling is subdued, the body naturally becomes peaceful and harmonious. Thus, when hungry, I think of food; when weary, I think of sleep."
The household guards asked again, "How does wisdom govern feeling?"
Lao Dan replied calmly, "Life is born from nothingness and comes to fruition in existence; when existence reaches its limit, it must return, ultimately reverting to nothingness. Before Lao Dan and his mother existed, the feelings between mother and son did not exist. Once Lao Dan and his mother came to be, those feelings began. Now Mother has passed on while Dan remains; feeling remains on one side alone, no longer whole between two. When Dan too transforms and departs, feeling will return once more to stillness. Are the time before feeling was born and the time after feeling has perished not both a return to nothingness?