Terebess Asia Online (TAO)

Zen Index
Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

PDF: The Way of Chuang Tzu
by Thomas Merton


Quotations from Chuang Tzu
by Thomas Merton




To name Tao is to name no-thing.
Tao is not the name of (something created).
"Cause" and "chance" have no bearing on the Tao.
Tao is a name that indicates without defining.

Tao is beyond words and beyond things.
It is not expressed either in word or in silence.
Where there is no longer word or silence
Tao is apprehended.
(25:11, p. 226)


Beyond human knowledge and understanding

Great knowledge sees all in one. Small knowledge breaks down into the many.
(2:2, p. 55)

By ethical argument and moral principle the greatest crimes are eventually shown to have been necessary, and, in fact, a signal benefit to mankind.
(9:2, p. 101)


Distinguishing ego from true self

Among them all, man alone is more than an object.
Though, like objects, he has form and semblance,
He is not limited to form.
He is more.
He can attain to formlessness.

where is the comparison with another object?
Where is the conflict?
What can stand in his way?
He will be hidden in his own unfathomable secret.
His nature sinks to its root in the One.
His vitality, his power hide in secret Tao.
(19:2, pp 155-156)


Understanding the nature of desire

When he tries to extend his power over objects,
those objects gain control of him.
Prisoners in the world of object,
They are pressed down and crushed by external forces:
fashion, the market, events, public opinion.
What a pity!
(23:8 and 24:4, p. 202, 211)

You train your eye and your vision lusts after color.
You train your ear, and you long for delightful sound.
You delight in doing good, and your natural kindness is blown out of shape.
You delight in righteousness, and you become righteous beyond all reason.
You overdo liturgy, and you turn into a ham actor.
Overdo your love of music, and you play corn.
Love of wisdom leads to wise contriving.
Love of knowledge leads to faultfinding.
If men would stay as they really are, taking or leaving these eight delights would make no difference.
But if they will not rest in their right state, the eight delights develop like malignant tumors.
The world falls into confusion.
Since men honour these delights, and lust after them, the world has gone stone-blind.
When the delight is over, they still will not let go of it...
(11:1-2, pp. 103-104)

Love of perfumes fills the head with dizziness.
Love of flavors ruins the taste.
Desires unsettle the heart until the original nature runs amok.

These five are enemies of true life.
Yet these are what men of discernment claim to live for.
They are not what I live for.
(12:15, p. 118)


Becoming unattached

Yen Hui:
What is fasting of the heart?
The goal of fasting is inner unity.
This means hearing, but not with the ear;
hearing, but not with the understanding;
hearing with the spirit, with your whole being...
Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties.
Fasting of the heart begets unity and freedom.
Yen Hui:
I see. What was standing in my way was my own self-awareness. If I can begin this fasting of the heart, self awareness will vanish.
(4:1, pp. 75-76)


Forgetting about preferences

Tao is obscured when men understand only one pair of opposites,
or concentrate only on a partial aspect of being.
Then clear expression also becomes muddled by mere wordplay,
affirming this one aspect and denying all the rest.

He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point
(2:3, p. 59, p.61)

When we look at things in the light of Tao, nothing is best, nothing is worst.
Each thing, seen in its own light stands out in its own way.
It can seem to be "better" than what is compared with it on its own terms.
But seen in terms of the whole, no one thing stands out as "better" ...
All creatures have gifts of their own...
All things have varying capacities.

Consequently he who wants to have right without wrong, order without disorder,
does not understand the principles of heaven and earth.
He does not know how things hang together.
Can a man cling only to heaven and know nothing of earth?
They are correlative: to know one is to know the other.
To refuse one is to refuse both.
(17:4,5,8, pp. 131-133)

When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten.
When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten.
When the heart is right, "for" and "against" are forgotten.

No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions:
Then your affairs are under control.
You are a free man.
(19:12, pp. 166-167)

Paraphrased: When Chuang Tzu was about to die, his disciples began planning a splendid funeral. However some disciples expressed concern that given a particular arrangement, birds and kites would eat his remains. Chuang Tzu replied, "Well, above ground I shall be eaten by crows and kites, below it by ants and worms. What do you have against birds?"
(32:14, pp. 233-234)


Not working for personal gain

He is out of his mind!
His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him.
And the need to win drains him of power.
(19:4, p. 158)

Action and Non-Action

The non-action of the wise man is not inaction.
It is not studied. It is not shaken by anything.
The sage is quiet because he is not moved,
Not because he wills to be quiet.
Still water is like glass.
It is a perfect level;
A carpenter could use it.
If water is so clear, so level,
How much more the spirit of man?
The heart of the wise man is tranquil.
It is the mirror of heaven and earth
The glass of everything.
Emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness,
This is perfect Tao. Wise men find here
Their resting place.
Resting, they are empty.

From emptiness comes the unconditioned.
From this, the conditioned, the individual things.
So from the sage’s emptiness, stillness arises:
From stillness, action. From action, attainment.
And is, therefore, their attainment.
For stillness is joy. Joy is free from care
Fruitful in long years.
Joy does all things without concern:
For emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, tastelessness,
Silence, and non-action
Are the root of all things.

(13:1, pp. 119-121)

Prince Wen Hui's cook was cutting up an ox ... The ox fell apart with a whisper. The bright cleaver murmured like a gentle wind. Rhythm! Timing! Like a sacred dance ...

Prince Wen Hui:
Good work! Your method is faultless!

The cook:
Method? What I follow is Tao beyond all methods!


Prince Wan Hui:
(3:2, pp. 64-67)


Letting go of thoughts

To exercise no-thought and rest in nothing is the first step toward resting in Tao.
To start from nowhere and follow no road is the first step toward attaining Tao.
(22:1, p. 176)

The mind remains undetermined in the great Void.
Here the highest knowledge is unbounded.
That which gives things their thusness cannot be delimited by things.
So when we speak of 'limits', we remain confined to limited things.
The limit of the unlimited is called 'fullness.'
The limitlessness of the limited is called 'emptiness.'
Tao is the source of both.
But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness.
(22:6, pp. 182-183)


Being humble

And all because there is somebody in the boat.



Since he judges no one, no one judges him.
Such is the perfect man:
His boat is empty.
(20:2, 4, pp. 168-171)

The man who has some respect for his person keeps his carcass out of sight, hides himself as perfectly as he can.
(23:2, pp. 187)



If you persist in trying to attain what is never attained (It is Tao's gift),
if you persist in making effort to obtain what effort cannot get,
if you persist in reasoning about what cannot be understood,
you will be destroyed by the very thing you seek.

To know when to stop,
this is the right beginning!
(23:3-7, p. 197)

... You never find happiness until you stop looking for it.

I answer that these questions do not have an answer.
There is no way of determining such things.


Contentment and well-being at once become possible
the moment you cease to act with them in view,
(18:1, pp. 140-150)


Seeing the light

(4:1, pp. 77-78)


Experiencing freedom

The true men of old were not afraid when they stood alone in their views.
No great exploits. No plans.
If they failed, no sorrow.
No self-congratulation in success...

Easy come, easy go.
They took life as it came, gladly;

They had no mind to fight Tao.
They did not try by their own contriving, to help Tao along.
These are the ones we call true men.

Minds free, thoughts gone. Brows clear, faces serene.
(6:1, pp. 89-90)

Goods and possessions are no gain in his eyes.
He stays far from wealth and honor.
If he conquered everything he would not take it to himself.
His glory is in knowing that all things come together in One and life and death are equal.
(12:2, pp. 106-107)

The man in whom Tao acts without impediment harms no other being by his actions
yet he does not know himself to be "kind", to be "gentle"...
(He) does not bother with his own interests and does not despise others who do.
The ancients said, therefore:

The man of Tao remains unknown.
Perfect virtue produces nothing.
"No-Self" is "True-Self".
And the greatest man is Nobody.
(17:3, pp. 137-138)