Daoist Philosophy Quotes

A parallel comparison helps to capture the similarities between existentialism (especially Nietzsche's) and Daoism (especially Zhuangzi's). Both discover the practical pointlessness of universal or absolute meaning (purpose). Nietzsche, from his perspective as a disappointed Christian yearning for absolute, transcendent, dependence on God, experiences this awareness with existentialist angst, a sensation of looking off a cliff into a bottomless abyss. The angst is caused by the vertigo impulse, the fear we will jump or drop off our perch into that nothingness. Zhuangzi, from his Daoist sense of the constraint of conventional authority, does not think of any cliff as a reference point. If the abyss is bottomless, then there is no such thing as falling. The cliff and Zhuangzi are both floating free. Leaving the cliff and entering the abyss is weightlessness―free flight―not falling. From his relativistic perspective, the cliff is floating away. Zhuangzi's reaction is not "Oh no!" but "Whee!

The Daoist concept wuwei, which means literally nonaction, but carries connotations of spontaneous, natural, and nonassertive or nondirected action, emphasizes the orderly becoming of the world; it reflects the natural, unconscious, and nondirected action within an anti-teleological process model of the world to which Laozi, the mythical author of the Daodejing, or the Classic of the Power of the Way (also known as the Laozi), refers. The flow of the world (proceeding out of its seamless structure) is Dao in action, or "way-making." The shaping of Dao then is understood as wuwei: in its self-organizing fashion, Dao "really does things non-coercively, yet everything gets done," and "Were the nobles and kings able to respect this, All things (wanwu) would be able to develop along their own lines.

Furthermore, we suggest a fractal self is capable of growth and a kind of metamorphosis. Daoists refer to a seasoned human cooperator and facilitator, working adroitly, with a natural ease in the smooth, orderly, adaptive spirit of wuwei, as a sage. Such an individual is typically embedded in a particular affinitive complex system. An affinitive system is virtually anything in nature or human endeavor that is avidly sought by an individual in pursuit of vocation or avocation-a business, social, educational, artistic, scientific, or governmental enterprise, and so forth. Such systems typically develop chaotic structures and behaviors; envisioned as geometrical forms, they often constitute complicated attractors; around the edges of their coherent existence they would tend to be fractally organized, transcending classic dimensionality (see introduction). The sage tends to develop into a leader or catalyst within his or her affinitive system as he or she progressively "evolves" over time into increasing levels of intimacy and coherence with the system.

This activation of our living root involves focusing on what is most important and what is within our control, such as our abilities, desires, plans, and daily routines. Through these teachings, we can learn the Daoist way to be comfortable with uncertainty and build a bridge between ancient Daoist wisdom and contemporary challenges.

The Daoist way cultivates the habit of embracing experience immediately, on its own terms, and without preconceptions. Zhuangzi suggests that our mind is like the mirror in stillness and the echo in responding. It focuses on removing judgments and obstacles caused by emotions while endorsing acuity.

This Daoist art of perspective-taking—recognizing the existence of various perspectives—is called the “Illumination of the Obvious” or the attainment of ming 明 (acuity, discernment).

The Daoist way requires us to have the ability to challenge our own comfortable paradigm, opening ourselves to other paradigms, responding to unpredictable changes. The notions of order, stability, discreetness, control, sameness, certainty, and permanence should be accompanied by disorder, flux, interpenetration, dispersal, difference, and uncertainty. We don’t invite uncertainty into our lives, yet we can never eliminate it. The world is not about rational control, but natural rhythm. Let’s flow with Dao to live well!

Zhuangzi, another pivotal Daoist sage in the fourth century BCE, says, “Resign yourself to what cannot be avoided and nourish what is within you—this is the best.

The Daoist way asks us to shen shi 審時 (to have an awareness of propensity or optimize possibilities). The difference between imposing your will and following shi is whether one sets up a goal for actions or allows oneself to be carried along by the propensity of things. Does one impose a plan on things or rely on the potential inherent factors in a changing process?

life (sheng) is engendered by Heaven; completion (cheng) is fashioned by man (ren). Technical action – skill (ji ), method (shu ), and making (wei ) – serves the drive for completion (cheng); non-technical action, or non-action (wuwei ), does not aim at completion, but cares for life (yangsheng ).

Zhuangzi says that perfected human beings rely on Heaven’s texture (tianli ) (3/6), draw on their Heavenly mechanism (tianji ) (6/7), equalize things within the bounds of Heaven (tianni ) (6/90), rest in the potter’s wheel of Heaven (tianjun ) (2/40), illuminate things in the light of Heaven (zhaozhi yutian ) (2/29), and ultimately they enter into unity with vast Heaven (ruyu liaotian yi ) (6/82) and live engendered by Heaven (tianersheng ) (6/1).

Daoism also encourages people to love deeply and live compassionately (ci), to exercise restraint and frugality (jian), to seek harmony, and to practice wuwei (action as nonaction). Daoist precepts speak often and strongly against harming any creature, whether by disturbing their homes or eating their bodies. Guanyin, the most popular Chinese deity, exemplifies deep compassion for all beings. The Zhuangzi highlights basic similarities between humans and anymals, and encourages people to treat all beings with care and respect.

Another very popular form of magic, now and for many centuries to follow, was the whole range of alchemy which had attached itself to the more purely mystical philosophy of early Daoism. The Way of the Daoists had been a method of transcending life, of getting in touch with some form of eternity beyond life. Among their humdrum successors this ideal often became lost in the more common quest for eternal life itself...