“The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao” – Tao Te Ching

The Book of Chuang Tzu (also known as Zhuangzi or True Classic of Southern (Cultural) Florescence) makes up one of the three core texts of Taoism. The Tao Te Ching, its arguably more famous fellow, is short to the point of cryptic, and uses as few as words as possible to illustrate the Tao. Chuang Tzu, on the other hand, is full of stories, personalities, events, and entertainment, to the point of being cryptic.

Taoism differs from both modern philosophies and its contemporaries in emphasizing that it is a path to be walked, rather than a term to be defined. Rather than review it, therefore, for those interested I thought I’d share an anecdote from the book.

“Hui Tzu spoke to Chuang Tzu, saying, ‘I have a big tree, which people call useless. Its trunk is so knotted, no carpenter could work on it, while its branches are too twisted to use a square or compass upon. So, although it is close to the road, no carpenter would look at it. Now, Sir, your words are like this, too big and no use, therefore everyone ignores them.

Chuang Tzu said, ‘Sir, have you never seen a wild cat or a weasel? It lies there, crouching and waiting; east and west it leaps out, not afraid of going high or low; until it is caught in a trap and dies in a net. Yet again, there is the yak, vast like a cloud in heaven. It is big, but cannot use this fact to catch rats. Now you, Sir, have a large tree, and you don’t know how to use it, so why not plant it in the middle of nowhere, where you can go to wander or fall asleep under its shade? No axe under Heaven will attack it, nor shorten its days, for something which is useless will never be disturbed.”

Honestly, if you want to find out about Taoism, you’ll have to read it yourself: you can pick it up here (or in the UK or Canada). Or, just sign up for the Subtle Illumination email list!