Sayings

Zhuangzi was a Chinese philosopher, a follower of Laozi, whose teachings he presented in poetic form. According to Zhuangzi, one can reach the Dao only through direct experience, not through theoretical and speculative reasoning. The ideal is the “true person”—one who, following the Dao, is active and independent.

Zhuangzi’s life ideal is complete “uselessness” to the snares of worldly life, and the elusive nature of one’s freedom from them. He does not believe in the chimeras of intellect or in rebellion against reason. He looks for hidden springs that nourish the life of the spirit, and says that one should live not for others and not for oneself, but for something within us that infinitely surpasses us. He teaches not a “way of life,” but liberation from any kind of way of life. He demands the absolute inconspicuousness of life—which turns out to be equivalent to its omnipresence.

To wander through boundless space, one must be guided by the Dao (the basic principles of heaven and earth), rely on the shifting of the six elements of nature—namely the bright and dark principles, wind, rain, darkness, and light—and only then can it be said that true, absolute freedom has been achieved. If one still needs to “wait for something,” one cannot be absolutely free. “I relax the body, drive away the sensitive hearing and sharp sight, withdraw from form, step away from knowledge, and merge with the all-pervading (Dao)”—this is what it means to “sit, forgetting oneself.”