Chuang Tzu of Taoism - the thought process of a Chinese sage explainedI was reading Alan Watts on Taoism. The name of the book is The Watercourse Way available at Amazon. As I read the book I got the impression that the Taoism of ancient China is an outlook on ourselves and the world that is fundamentally different from our modern way of life. It is also totally different from the way I was brought up. It is totally different from the way people I know look at life. In fact I do not know anybody who looks at life in this way and that includes myself and I am interested in Philosophy. This is like being in touch with the thinking of somebody from another planet or galaxy. It is certainly being in touch with the thinking of someone from a totally different culture that of ancient China as it existed more than 2000 years ago. Consider this passage from Chuang Tzu (an ancient Taoist master): "The man of perfect virtue in repose has no thoughts, in action no anxiety. He recognizes no right, nor wrong, nor good nor bad. Within the four seas when all profit that is his repose. Men cling to him as children who have lost their mothers; they rally around him as wayfarers who have missed their road. He has wealth to spare but know not whence it comes. He has food and drink more than sufficient, but know not who provides it . In an age of perfect virtue, good men are not appreciated; ability is not conspicuous. Rulers are mere beacons while the people are as free as the wild deer. They are upright without being conscious of their duty to their neighbors. They love one another without being conscious of charity. They are true without being conscious of loyalty. They are honest without being conscious of good faith. They act freely in all things without recognizing obligations to anyone. Thus their deeds leave no trace; their affairs are not handed down to posterity." What would you make of such a passage? This outlook is unique to my experience as I said earlier. I have never met anyone outside of this book who thinks in this way. This being the case it is not surprising that I do not fully understand this passage. However whatever I do understand is as under: 1) "In an age of perfect virtue, good men are not appreciated; ability is not conspicuous." This is according to the laws of Economics Demand and Supply. What is meant is that in an age of perfect virtue good men are so common that the supply (of good men) is sufficient to meet all requirement for them. Thus it is that they are not appreciated.2) Similarly ability is conspicuous only when it is uncommon, when it stand out from the crowd. This is not the case in an age of perfect virtue ability is common and thus not conspicuous.3) " the people are as free as the wild deer. They are upright without being conscious of duty to their neighbors. They love one another without being conscious of charity ."Two points strike me about this passage. One is that people are virtuous when they do not have to make an effort to be virtuous. It is their nature, their being, not something they have to force themselves to do.A rose is a rose. It does not have to make an effort to be a rose and smell beautiful. It is simply its being, its nature, and that is what makes it a rose. Similar is the case with the good man, the virtuous man, as understood by Chuang Tzu. This conception of virtue and goodness is so utterly different from the way most of us are brought up. I have had the outlook that it is my duty to be polite, to love others (or at least restrain my hatred of them), and be ethical and honest. It is something that I have to force myself to do at times. Many times I feel guilty because I judge my behavior and think it bad. According to Chuang Tzu and Taoism all this effort and striving is utterly useless to be a good man, a virtuous man. The virtuous man is virtuous because that is his nature. He does not have to make an effort to be virtuous; there is no effort of any kind; there is no ego involved and he does not therefore need to take pride and be conscious of his virtue. There are other conclusions also about the message of Taoism that are reached by Alan Watts in his book, Tao, The Watercourse Way They are: 1) To trust ourselves and others as we go through life. This is an exceedingly difficult precept to live up to, especially the part about trusting others. To learn the reason why Alan Watts thought it necessary please read the above book on Taoism.2) Govern a State as you would cook a small fish lightly.3) The best state to be in is when there is no ego, no wanting, no striving; just a process of living and being.4) There is nothing to strive for. There is no need even to strive to be ethical and virtuous and happy. The very fact that you are making an effort means that you are not virtuous (or happy).5) There is something fundamentally flawed with our modern way of living. In this modern world we live for a large number of years but constantly fear death. Also we are unable to be happy and live in the present and are constantly planning, worrying and striving for a better tomorrow. There is something fundamentally wrong with this approach. As I said earlier Taoism in particular and the ancient Chinese outlook to life in general is totally different from our modern habitual ways of thinking feeling and acting. This is what makes it valuable. There is much that we can learn and savor here. I hope you enjoyed this article and that it will be useful to you. Stay tuned for more in this continuing series.
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