Biography
Chuang Tzu was a Taoist sage, living sometime before 250 B.C. His book is believed to contain both his own writings and writings by others about him and his teachings. The quotations on this page were taken from The Way of Chuang Tzu, which was compiled by Thomas Merton (a Roman Catholic monk) after reading four different translations of Chuang Tzu. It is an abridged version of Chuang Tzu.
Chuang Tzu, also spelled Chuang-tse, was separated from Lao-tse's death by not quite two hundred years. Chuang Tzu is therefore important as the first one who fully developed the Taoist thesis of the rhythm of life, contained in the epigrams of Lao-tse (founder of Taoism).
Q: What is the mystical method for remaining unharmed by the deceitfulness and slander of others?
Chuang-tse Answer: If a man empties himself of himself, who can harm him?
Q: We are taught to stop doing things, instead of trying to do, that is, to stop acting from false ideas and from artificial personality traits. What is the purpose of this technique?
A: Cease striving; then there will be self-transformation.
Q: The world seems like a hostile place!
A: To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
Q: Since esoteric truths are available to all who really want them, why does mankind remain in its miserable state?
A: Great truths do not take hold of the hearts of the masses.
Q: The great mystery to me is how I could ever have been asleep to all this for so many years. I can now see what finally happened -- I simply refused to go along with my old and agonizing life any longer.
A: After a while comes the Great Awakening.
Q: What words can you give me to facilitate this Great Awakening?
A: Tao is beyond words and beyond things.
Q: What happens to someone who finds it?
A: What can stand in his way? He will rest in his eternal place which is no-place. He will be hidden in his own unfathomable secret. His nature sinks to its root in the One. His vitality, his power hide in secret Tao.
Q: Is it our predominate love of visible things, worldly affairs, that blocks us from this supreme realization?
A: He who is controlled by objects loses possession of his inner self...Prisoners in the world of object . . . have no choice but to submit to the demands of matter! They are pressed down and crushed by external forces: fashion, the market, events, public opinion.
Q: Why do those with worldly success often walk with such a confident flair? It looks like they've found something worthwhile.
A: If this is life, then pigeons in a cage have found happiness!
Q: Is the right answer then, to renounce the world and live a life of isolation and contemplation?
A: Can a man cling only to heaven and know nothing of earth? They are correlative: to know one is to know the other. To refuse one is to refuse both.
Q: I often get frustrated that wisdom teachings provide no target for me to hit. Take for example, the Taoist concept of non-action. It all seems vague.
A: The non-action of the wise man is not inaction. It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything. The sage is quiet because he is not moved, not because he wills to be quiet... Joy does all things without concern. For emptiness, stillness, tranquility, tastelessness, silence, and non-action are the root of all things. . . The spirit free to work without plan follows its own instinct guided by natural line, by the secret opening.
Q: Can you say that another way?
A: To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao. To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao.
Q: It is still hard for me to see how Taoism could be practical in our modern world.
A: If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world, no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you.... Since he judges no one, no one judges him. Such is the perfect man: His boat is empty.
Q: What's it going to take to finally win the prize of the awakened life?
A: If you persist in trying to attain what is never attained (It is Tao's gift), if you persist in making effort to obtain what effort cannot get, if you persist in reasoning about what cannot be understood, you will be destroyed by the very thing you seek.
Q: Again, it all seems like a gigantic contradiction!
A: To know when to stop, to know when you can get no further by your own action, this is the right beginning! You never find happiness until you stop looking for it. My greatest happiness consists precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness: and this, in the minds of most people, is the worst possible course...
Q: Then how will we ever find contentment and true happiness?
A: Contentment and well-being at once become possible the moment you cease to act with them in view, and if you practice non-doing (wu wei), you will have both happiness and well-being.
Q: It seems impossible to empty without striving. Something has to throw the mental junk out. If not by my own efforts, then by what?
A: Look at this window: it is nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light. So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light.
Q: It seems as if you're asking to stand in a vacant and lonely place, and cast aside all my plans for happiness and success.
A: The true men of old were not afraid when they stood alone in their views.
No great exploits. No plans. If they failed, no sorrow. No self-congratulation in success... The true men of old knew no lust for life, no dread of death. Their entrance was without gladness, their exit, yonder, without resistance. Easy come, easy go.
They did not forget where from, nor ask where to, nor drive grimly forward fighting their way through life. They took life as it came, gladly; took death as it came, without care; and went away, yonder. Yonder! They had no mind to fight Tao. They did not try by their own contriving, to help Tao along. These are the ones we call true men. Minds free, thoughts gone. Brows clear, faces serene.
Q: Doesn't it help our own development to strive to be good and kind in this world?
Chuang-tse Answer: The man in whom Tao acts without impediment harms no other being by his actions yet he does not know himself to be "kind", to be "gentle"...(He) does not bother with his own interests and does not despise others who do. He does not struggle to make money and does not make a virtue of poverty. He goes his way without relying on others and does not pride himself on walking alone. While he does not follow the crowd he won't complain of those who do. Rank and reward make no appeal to him; disgrace and shame do not deter him. He is not always looking for right and wrong, always deciding "Yes" or "No." The ancients said, therefore: The man of Tao remains unknown.
Perfect virtue produces nothing. "No-Self" is "True-Self". And the greatest man is Nobody.
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