Chuang and earlier Zen living

  In harmony and ease! My intentions are now aimless. I go nowhere and have no idea how I got there. I go and I come and I don't know why. I have been, I have gone. I have no idea when my journey is over. I wander and rest in limitless vastness. Relax and chill out about life. Stop having goals, aims, ambitions. Accept the flow of existence and what it brings, good and ill. Enjoy the experiences as they come, wander where the flow takes you, and rest all the time while you do so. 

All forms of life are guided by it, though they do not know it. Attend to your body, concentrate upon the One, and the perfect harmony of Heaven will be yours. Rein in your understanding, unify your stance and the spirit will dwell in you. The Tao will be your dwelling place. You will seem like anew-born calf and you won't try to understand the reason why. Not inclined to pursue questions. Obscure, obscure, deeply dark, heartless, no advice forthcoming. Life is not yours to have, it is the combining harmony of Heaven and Earth. Your innate nature and destiny are not yours to have, they are constructs given you by Heaven and Earth. This section re-emphasises the philosophical perspective that there is one universal flow of cause and effect, a constant and endless chain of changes. We think we are free to think and choose but this is a delusion. We are the effects of change and we are unwitting and unaware causes of change. Everything we think, say and do is caused by external events...

What was so great about these masters as to be worthy of special attention? They take painstaking care, but to what end? They are useless to the world! None of this makes the people any better. Indeed what happens is that the people become more ambitious for gain. The consequences of this will remain for a thousand generations. A thousand generations later you will still have men who will eat each other! So many so-called gurus, personal advisors, life coaches and the like peddle glitzy junk. Good at marketing to the ambitious masses, hungry for fame and riches, which leads most to predictable disappointment and a miserable life. Then it becomes part of the society's culture, and the wrong direction multiplies, as does the mentalhealth problems.

He risks no disaster from Heaven, nor complications from things, no accusation from anyone. In life he floats, at death he rests. He does not consider and plan, nor design for the future. He shines but is not seen. His spirit is pure and without blemish. Empty, selfless, calm and detached, he is in harmony with Heaven's Virtue. For the heart to be without sadness and happiness is to have perfected Virtue. To be one and changeless is to have perfected stillness. To encounter no opposition is to have perfected emptiness. To have no dealings with anything is to have perfected indifference. To have no feelings of dissent is to have perfected purity. Free from contamination, still and level, never changing, detached and acting without action, is to follow the Tao of sustaining the spirit. Only the Tao of true simplicity guards the spirit. Simplicity means no mixing. The one who manifests simplicity and purity can be called the true man. This is about non-attachment, non-engagement, what...

I have heard of leaving the world open to its own way and not interfering. We let the world be, fearful of spoiling its innate nature. Are people too cheerful? If so they harm the yang. It makes them restless, moving here, moving there, plotting to no purpose, travelling for no good reason or result. The consequence of this is that the world becomes concerned with mighty goals and plots, ambitions and hatred. This is one of the fundamental maxims of Chuang. Don't interfere with the way of existence, even if you feel bad about certain aspects eg. Russian invasion of Ukraine. Let things take their own direction. Don't get involved. All things have a start point and all things end. Often our good intentions make matters worse, not better, and as there's no way of predicting the future, or the effects of our own intervention, it is better, wiser, and simpler, to stay nonattached from such things. We all think fun and cheerfulness are good but here he is challenging that notion....

From the dirt you have life, and when the dirt is different in form it is called different. You try to express this difference in words though it is not a subject for words. But it is certain that this is not something you can understand. We have fame and fortune, with people thinking they can determine what is really important. People think that they are the model of propriety and therefore try to make others see them like this, even to the point of dying for their views. They consider success as meaning they are famous. Perfect behaviour does not discriminate amongst people. Perfect knowledge makes no plans. Suppress the whims of the will and untie the mistakes of the heart. Unblock the flow of the Tao. We distinguish between things but they are all really part of the one universal whole, which is a constant flow of change. It is hard to embed this in our minds and live out the consequences of what this means for us in everyday life, in terms of   plans, hopes, work, politics, et...

  I would like to ask, how should I govern my body in order to live a long life? Nothing seen; nothing heard. Embrace the spirit in quietness. Be still, be pure, do not make your body struggle, do not disturb your essence. All this will result in a long life. Guard what is within, block that which is outside, for much knowledge is dangerous. Take care of your body, then the rest takes good care of itself. The way is inexhaustible, but people still think it has an end; it is incomprehensible, and yet people still feel they can encompass it. In order to maximise the chances of living a long life in good health, we should refrain as much as possible from busy activities, novelties, excitement. Instead, be at peace with what is, in quietness. Be in no hurry. Relax and get on with the basics of life: sleep, housework, eating and drinking, etc. Try from moment to moment to keep your mind and heart stable and unperturbed. What disturbs us is not what is in us but external things, includin...

  You examine everything in too much detail. Who but the perfect person could comprehend all this. Their discernment unearths all falsehood. They get to the heart of issues and know how to protect the foundation of truth. They ignore all life... The perfect person has set their heart upon what is right. This is an analysis of what we should focus on in our lives. Not knowledge and its infinite distractions from what matters. The flow of existence is so enormous, so ancient, so multifaceted that we can't really grasp it so instead we should just accept it. The falsehood Chuang refers to is all human attempts to control, manipulate, conquer nature. The foundation of truth is that all life, all events, all experiences are simply inevitable part of this single flow. We he writes that they ignore all life, I think he means all human matters, all our petty ideas and discussions, and all our perceived grand plans, visions, concepts. What is right is going with the flow of existence, and t...

  The people had knowledge but they didn't use it; all this was perfect Oneness. Ruling by decrees and grand plans, they polluted the purity of nature and destroyed simplicity. The Tao was abandoned and Good substituted. Then innate nature was abandoned and hearts allowed to determine their own way. Heart linked with heart through knowledge but were unable to give the world peace. Pomp and ceremony were added to this knowledge. This displaced simplicity, resulting in the people being confused and disobedient. Perceiving this, we can see how the world has lost the Tao. In this sort of world how can the world come to appreciate the Tao? Even if the sage does not retreat to the forest his virtue is still hidden whether he likes it or not. The times were not favourable and it was not possible, so they put down deep roots, remained still and waited. This was the Tao by which they survived. To have knowledge is by itself no bad thing. But to use it starts to unfurl the connection between...

How can I get out of all this? (benevolent, distress, righteous, harm others) Something is stirring inside you and there is still something rotten within. Outside influences will press upon you and you will find it impossible to control them. It is wiser to shut the gate of your inner self against them. This is so powerful and challenging, and feels right. What he is saying here is that many of us get caught up in concern for the news, political issues, helping a group. The problem with this is it necessarily means we are pitted up against other people. Moreover most of our views on a matter are genetic instincts and impulsive reactions, not well thought out perspectives. These are the stirrings within us- getting involved in external matters produces them. This is what is rotten within us - the inability to stay still, uninvolved, calm and centered, serene. We need to develop our mind not to be blown by externalities because once in us they will control us, not the other way round. So...

 Actionless action - this is what is approved by the scholar who retreats to the rivers and seas, who leaves this generation alone, who is in no hurry. to lose everything and yet to have all; to drift calmly and endlessly... This is the Tao of Heaven and Earth. The saying goes 'Calm, detachment, silence, quiet, emptiness and actionless action, these are what maintain Heaven and Earth, the Tao and Virtue (Te). The saying goes 'The sage rests, truly rests and is at ease.' He ignores knowledge and nostalgia, following only the pattern of Heaven. What is this advising us? To do less, much less, as little as needed for a fulfilled and happy life. To go to nature, be beside it, live beside it. To be by flowing water. To minimise social contact. To be in no rush, to take your time with everything. To recognise that you need little to thrive, and that we probably need to get rid of vast amounts of things (and thoughts, memories, prejudices, opinions, etc) To have no grand aims, but...