It Will Make You See Things Differently - Alan Watts On The Philosophy Of Zhuangzi

janga so far as we know lived about 300 BC maybe a little earlier than that his book is quite unique in the whole history of philosophy because he's almost the only philosopher from the whole of antiquity who has real [Music] humor and therefore he's an immensely encouraging person to read but part of his humor is the art of exaggeration as in a group of people who are enthusiasts for something but have humor who very often find that when they're talking among themselves they carry their own ideas to ludicrous extremes and raw with laughter about it

and janga does that he has a great deal to say about the value of the useless life when a Daris Sage is wandering through the forest he isn't going anywhere he's just wanding when he watches the clouds he loves them because they have no special destination he watches birds moving around he watches uh the waves lapping on the shore and just because all this is not busy in the way that human beings are busy because it serves no end other than being what it is now it is for that reason that he admires it and

it is for that reason that you get the peculiar styles of Chinese painting in the Tang sun and later dynasties where nature in its Wayward wandering nature is the main subject when we say that something is without purpose that's a put down phrase say well it's no future in it what's the use now we say what's the [Music] use we need very much to realize that that question reflects our Insanity what's the future what's the use the joy for the darst is that things have no use and the future is not important now you can

exaggerate this and janga does in a very humorous Way by describing the ideal useless man he's a hunchback and he's so deformed that his chin rests on his navl but he says now this man is very admirable he's found the secret of life because when the social service workers come around he's the first to get a free handout and when the Military Officers come around to conscript people for the Army he's the first to be rejected therefore he lives long Danga is here pulling our legs he is not uh exactly asking us to take all

that literally but this is his way of doing things then also he describes the behavior of the high form of man and he says the man of character lives at home without exercising his mind and performs actions without worry the Notions of right and wrong and the praise and blame of others do not disturb him when within the four seas all people can enjoy themselves that is happiness for him when all people are well provided that is peace for him sorrowful in countenance he looks like a baby who has lost its mother appearing stupid he

goes about like one who has lost his way he has plenty of money to spend and does not know where it comes from he drinks and eats just enough and does not know whether the food comes from this is the demeanor of the man of character then by contrast the Hypocrites are those people who regard as good whatever the world ACC claims as good and regard as right whatever the world ACC claims as right when you tell them that they are men of Dao then their countenances change with satisfaction when you call them Hypocrites then

they look displeased all their lives they call themselves men of Dao and all their lives they remain hypocrites they know how to good speech and tell appropriate anecdotes in order to attract the crowd but from the very beginning to the very end they do not know what it's all about they put on the proper Garb and dress in the proper colors and put on a decorate appearance in order to make themselves popular but refuse to admit that they're Hypocrites T so there is about you you see the the character of the DST Sage as depicted

by Danga something of the [Music] fool because the fool is the person who doesn't know enough to come in out of the rain who doesn't compete everybody else gets before him to the prizes the material prizes of life and and even to the spiritual prizes the fool is you see the person who isn't going anywhere he sits by the road and [Music] go the fool is like a Mongolian idiot child who isn't uh interested in survival who uh will take a plate of food and run his finger around in it and make a wonderful slos

with the stew and then watch it drip from the tip of his finger he won't eat for quite a while and then he'll play with it in all sorts of ways then his attention will be distracted by something else and he'll chase after that you see but he if so long as you don't cross him he remains the most wonderfully friendly swinging kind of a cat but he has no ambition he doesn't fight for himself and nobody can ever get him to so the fool has always been used as a kind of analog of the

sage there's a Hindu verse which says sometimes naked sometimes mad now as a scholar now as a fool thus they appear on Earth the free men and if you read the biographies of the early life of Shri ramak Krishna or Shri Ram Mahari uh they are absolutely wild now not all of this you see again just as in Reading janga you mustn't take it too literally these things are said by way of a kind of overstress to correct another kind of overstress in the opposite direction basically uh janga's philosophy is a philosophy of Relativity uh

he makes a great deal of the point that uh there is no absolute standard of great or small of important or unimportant for Danga you must get the point of view that small things are as big as big things can be and big things are as small as small things can be everything can be looked at as great or small important and unimportant and all the steps between because his conception of the world is essentially cyclic so in the same way where does the circle start the circle of life the cycle of Life the interdependence

of the bees and the flowers the interdependence of long and short you see it's all circular and so there is there is nowhere and there is everywhere that it can [Music] begin for