tranquil and tumultuous thoughts, or some observations mixed with a Zhuangzian rabbit hole:

https://write.as/freeanduneasy/6-april-2025

#Journal #Journaling #Zhuangzi

"Free of past and present, he could enter the unborn and undying, what kills all life without death, begins all life without beginning. It is something that sends all things off and welcomes all things in, destroys all and completes all. Its name is Tumultuous Tranquility. This Tranquil Turmoil! It reaches its completions, comes to takes its shapes, only through its turmoil.”

#Zhuangzi

2/2

Confucius* said, "Make your will one! Don't listen with your ears, listen with your mind. No, don't listen with your mind, but listen with your spirit [qi]. Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit [qi] is empty—and waits on all things. The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind."

#Zhuangzi (Watson)

*Zhuangzi puts his words in the mouth of Confucius, something he’s fond of doing. These are not actual quotes from Confucius.

the journal part of this is called “free and uneasy” as a play on a phrase in the Zhuangzi, “逍 遥 游 (xiao yao you)” which is usually translated “free and easy wandering.” It’s also the title of the first chapter of the #Zhuangzi
It describes a way of engaging with the world, a way that is responsive to the endlessly changing natural processes in the world. It also suggests an attitude best suited to navigating those constant transformations with ease.

and I appreciate the name suggestions everyone gave sorry I didn’t use any of them, I settled on “radiant doubts” to keep the theme going. Inspired by this passage from #Zhuangzi

“Thus the Radiance of Drift and Doubt is the sage’s only map. He deploys no single definition of what is right, but instead entrusts it to the everyday function of each thing.”

🦋"Once upon a time, I, Zhuang Zhou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhou. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man." - #Zhuangzi, Ch 2 tr Burton Watson

#dao #tao #daoism #taoism #zhuangzhou #ChuangTzu #doist #taoist

"Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know. Therefore the sage practices the teaching that has no words. The Way cannot be brought to light; its virtue cannot be forced to come."

~ Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi
#quote #Zhuangzi

"Gli alberi della montagna sono essi stessi i propri nemici; il grasso della torcia alimenta il fuoco che lo brucia; l'albero della cannella viene scorticato per via della sua corteccia commestibile; l'utilità della lacca fa sì che l'albero che la produce venga tagliato.

Tutti conoscono l'utilità dell'utile, ma nessuno conosce l'utilità dell'inutile!"

– ZhuangZi, cap. 4
#ZhuangZi

A word game: #Zhuangzi #schopenhauer #Nietzsche #Wittgenstein https://open.substack.com/pub/bryankam/p/a-word-game?r=447n8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web #philosophy @philosophy

There is a beginning. There is no beginning of that beginning... There is something. There is nothing.

#einzelgänger #einzelganger #philosopher #quoteoftheday #philosophy #quotestoliveby #dailyquotes #thoughts #thoughtoftheday #lifequotes #zhuangzi #taoism

This made me think of #ZhuangZhou and you @nathanlovestrees

If you haven't seen Jesse Welles yet, buckle up and get ready for a ride!
https://youtube.com/shorts/f4kd3fiz3gc?si=5rZcogl8WO82HOsB

#Taoist #Folk #Zhuangzi #Daoist #Tao #Dao

The penumbra said to the shadow, "First you were walking, then you were standing still. First you were sitting, then you were upright. Why can't you decide on a single course of action?"

The shadow said, "Do I depend on something to make me as I am? Does what I depend on depend on something else? Is my dependence like the case of the snake's skin or the cicada's shell? How would I know why I am so or not so?"

#Zhuangzi

(Ziporyn translation)

"...the Course that gives no guidance, the Course that is not a course—who ‘understands’ these things, what could know them? If there is some kind of knowing of them, it could only be what we might call the Heavenly Reservoir: poured into without ever getting full, ladled out of without ever running out, ever not-knowing its own source. This is called the Shadowy Splendor.”

#Zhuangzi

(Ziporyn translation)

The fish trap exists because of the fish: once you have gotten the meanings, you can forget the words.

#einzelgänger #einzelganger #philosopher #quoteoftheday #philosophy #quotestoliveby #dailyquotes #thoughts #thoughtoftheday #meditation #innerpeace #lifequotes #zhuangzi

From Zhuangzi’s Outer Chapters, written sometime in the 4th to 2nd century BC China, making a very similar argument to what I’m saying about love in Socrates:
https://www.bryankam.com/p/love-abstractedly

#philosophy #Socrates #Zhuangzi #language

Tao Te Ching, Zhuang Zi e Lie Zi alla radio

Segnalo due interessanti trasmissioni di Radio3 dedicate ai grandi classici taoisti: Tao Te Ching Zhuang Zi e Lie Zi (ascolta anche il nostro podcast su IChing e Numerologia) #TaoTeChing #ZhuangZi #LieZi #IChing #podcast #radio

http://iching.blog/2025/02/11/tao-te-ching-zhuang-zi-e-lie-zi-alla-radio/

“The unipede adores the millipede, the millipede adores the snake, the snake adores the wind, the wind adores the eye, and the eye adores the mind.”

#Zhuangzi from Chapter 17, Autumn Waters, Ziporyn translation

Ruo of the Northern Sea said, “You cannot discuss the sea with a well turtle, for he is limited in space. You cannot discuss ice and snow with a summer insect, for he is fixed in his own time. And you cannot discuss the Course with a nook-and-corner scholar, for he is bound by his doctrines. Now that you have emerged from your dusty banks and had a look at the great ocean, you finally realize how hideous you are! Only now can you be spoken to about the Great Coherence.”

#Zhuangzi

“If right were really right, it would differ so clearly from not right that there would be no need for argument. If so were really so, it would differ so clearly from not so that there would be no need for argument. Forget the years; forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!"

#Zhuangzi (Watson translation)