Zhuang Zhou Quotes

To have a human form of a joyful thing. But in the universe of possible forms, there are others just as good.

If right were ultimately right, its differentiation from not-right would require no debate.

Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.

The man who has forgotten self may be said to have entered Heaven.

Where is that man who has forgotten words that I may have a word with him?

What is the fasting of the mind? If you merge all your intentions into a singularity and maintain the unity of your will, you will come to hear with the rational mind rather than with the ears. Further, you will come to hear with the ch’i – the primal spirit, the vital energy – rather than with the rational mind. For the ears are limited to listening, and the rational mind is limited to its preconceptions. But the ch’i is an abiding emptiness that awaits the arising of things. And the Dao alone is what gathers in this formless emptiness. And to merge with the Dao in this emptiness is ‘fasting of the mind’… Before I began my meditation, it was only ‘I’ that was real. But as soon as I came to dwell in stillness, it turned out that ‘myself’ had never even begun to exist! This is what is meant by 'becoming emptiness'.

If you have insight, you use your inner eye, your inner ear, to pierce to the heart of things, and have no need of intellectual knowledge.

Have you never heard of the traveler from the distant state of Yue? When he had been away from his homeland for a few days, he was glad whenever he saw an acquaintance. When he had been away for a fortnight or a month, he was delighted to see anyone he had even met with in his home country. After a year, he was delighted to see anyone who even resembled anyone he had met there. Was this not because he missed his countrymen more and more deeply the longer he was away? Now imagine someone who had fled to the empty wastelands, where tangles of goosefeet and woodbine block the paths even of the weasels and polecats who hop from spot to spot through the wastes. How delighted he would be if he were to hear the stomping of human footsteps, and how much more so if he were to catch a sound in the breeze of his brothers and relatives chatting and chuckling somewhere nearby! How long indeed it must have been since my lord has heard even the chatting and chuckling of a Genuine Human anywhere near him!

Whenever the Creator of Things rewards a person, it is not the person but the Heavenly in the person that is rewarded.

Chuang Tzu's wife died and Hui Tzu came to console him, but Chuang Tzu was sitting, legs akimbo, bashing a battered tub and singing. Hui Tzu said, 'You lived as man and wife, she reared your children. At her death surely the least you should be doing is to be on the verge of weeping, rather than banging the tub and singing: this is not right!' Chuang Tzu said, 'Certainly not. When she first died, I certainly mourned just like everyone else! However, I then thought back to her birth and to the very roots of her being, before she was born. Indeed, not just before she was born but before the time when her body was created. Not just before her body was created but before the origin of life's breath. Her life's breath wrought a transformation and she had a body. Her body wrought a transformation and she was born. Now there is yet another transformation and she is dead. She is like the four seasons in the way that spring, summer, autumn and winter follow each other. She is now at peace, lying in her chamber, but if I were to sob and cry it would certainly appear that I could not comprehend the ways of destiny. This is why I stopped.<nowiki/>'

"Zhuangzi's wife died. When Huizu went to convey his condolences, he found Zhuangzi sitting with his legs sprawled out, pounding on a tub and singing. "You lived with her, she brought up your children and grew old," said Huizu. "It should be enough simply not to weep at her death. But pounding on a tub and singing - this is going too far, isn't it?"

Zhuangzi said, "You're wrong. When she first died, do you think I didn't grieve like anyone else? But I looked back to her beginning and the time before she was born. Not only the time before she was born, but the time before she had a body. Not only the time before she had a body, but the time before she had a spirit. In the midst of the jumble of wonder and mystery a change took place and she had a spirit. Another change and she had a body. Another change and she was born. Now there's been another change and she's dead. It's just like the progression of the four seasons, spring, summer, fall, winter.

"Now she's going to lie down peacefully in a vast room. If I were to follow after her bawling and sobbing, it would show that I don't understand anything about fate. So I stopped."

Якось Джванові Джову наснилося, що він метелик - жвавий метелик, що літає де хоче і знати не знає ніякого Джвана. Коли прокинувся - аж він таки Джван. Але він не розумів, чи це Джванові наснилося, що він метелик, чи це метелику досі сниться, що він Джван Джов? Але ж мусять вони якось відрізнятися! Ось що таке переміни сущого.

But Tian Gen asked the same question again. The nameless man then said, “Let your mind roam in the flavorless, blend your vital energy with the boundless silence, follow the rightness of the way each thing already is without allowing yourself the least bias. Then the world will be in order.

Das Dao liebt nicht Geschäftigkeit. Geschäftigkeit führt zu Überlastung; Überlastung führt zu Unruhe; Unruhe führt zu Sorgen, und mit Sorgen ist man rettungslos verloren.

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious.