The fantastic allegory of the Vinegar Tasters

The Vinegar Tasters The fantastic allegory of the 3 different views of life and their unification. The vinegar vat symbolizing the essential ONE truth and the three tasters with their three different taste buds symbolizing the different perspectives of the ONE single truth. To Confucius, the left most, life seemed rather sour. The present was out of step with the past and things were falling into disarray. A strict order was needed. To Buddha, the one in the middle, life was bitter. All attachments and desires (symbolized by the vinegar) turned bitter in the end, and led to suffering. To Lao Tzu (or Lao-Tse), the right most, the founder of the Taoism, life is sweet. Life is sweet, once one knows the natural balance of things. The world is governed by balance, and out of balance causes sourness or bitterness. It is the knowledge of being out of balance that leads us back to the eternal balance itself. The sourness or bitterness come from unappreciative and shallow thought process of the interfering mind. The conscious understanding mind will identify the bitterness and move towards the sweetness. Once understood for what it is, the balance of life (or the vinegar), is sweet. For more on Taoism