Chuang Tzu’s “Crazy Wisdom” for Elders

by Donald P. St. John
Published October 2019

Chapter One: Of Covers and Books

“You can’t tell a book by its cover,” people say but largely ignore, especially when it comes to a physical face or body looking “old.” This chapter draws upon stories and odd-characters of Chuang Tzu whose message encourages Elders to free themselves from the negative stereotypes (external and internalized) of aging and the aged. As they free minds and emotions, Elders will hear a deeper “call” to reconnect with the wisdom and potentials of their own inner resources, some of which were undeveloped because of the external demand to develop those talents which serve social and economic values and goals. Furthermore, Chuang Tzu’s message implies that once Elders in growing numbers take this inner call to personal growth seriously and its influence begins to shine through their “cover,” the radical, free, and crazy wisdom of Elders may begin to offer alternatives to the narrow indoctrination program that conventional modernist society exercises over the vital, mental, and spiritual powers of the pre-adult child and post-adult Elder.

Chapter Two: From Childhood To Elderhood

This chapter opens with Chuang Tzu’s story about the two types of “products” drawn from a hundred year old tree: sacrificial vessels and wood chips. People highly value and revere the sacred vessels but consider the residual chips as worthless. “Yet,” Chuang Tzu notes, “they are equal in this: both have lost their original nature.” So it is with the carving of human beings by modern institutions and organizations. Most will turn out as desired and be considered of social or national or economic value, while others, products of the same process end up as socially frowned upon creatures such as criminals or worse. According to Chuang Tzu, “they have both lost / The original simplicity of man.” What has been ignored and destroyed in both groups has been their inner nature, their real potential, their inborn power and virtue (de) that the Way nourishes.

Knowing the human/spiritual costs of this process, Chuang Tzu points out that, “the wise men of old/Did not lay down/One measure for all.” (M,104) But modern society loves rationalized, standardized institutions as places where educational and other carvers shape “products” that will respond as trained. The complex modern social machine demands standardized parts that help it function efficiently. But Elders, in rediscovering and developing their own unique “ways,” as suggested by Chuang Tzu, will want to encourage the young to search for a personal liberation that is also socially and ecologically transformative in a positive way. Thus, the “young” will become critically aware of the game being played on them as they near Adulthood and seek out more contact with and support from crazy wise elders.

Chapter Three: Forgetting

Few are the Elders who have not heard a child or friend warn: “You are beginning to forget things—watch out.” Or a spouse might say, “You’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached.” Yet, here again we find the crazy Chuang Tzu not only praising “forgetting,” but proposing it as a method to clear the mind and calm the emotions, thus leading to deeper ways of knowing, being and doing. Forgetting and letting-go of popular prejudices, some internalized, as well as of troublesome memories, can help open the minds of Elders to other ways of viewing reality. They can now uncover and discover a wisdom associated not with remembering a host of often disconnected details and events, but with understanding and living a life based in deeper patterns interrelating self and world that take shape only with time and lived experience. Ironically, Chuang Tau has Confucius champion early Daoist contemplative and meditative practices including “sitting and forgetting” and “the fasting of the mind.” Unfortunately, “forgetting” as a sign of and invitation to higher modes of consciousness seems largely “forgotten” today. But as this chapter shows, some modern researchers are both discovering positive mental states made possible by “forgetting” and suggesting new ways to understand and deal with certain types of “forgetting.” (Note: we are not making light of Alzheimer’s Disease and its effects).

Chapter Four: Wandering

Our culture’s narrow and simplistic judgments concerning some Elders’ penchant for “Wandering” are evident in the condescending tone and threatening voice of family members or others who yell: “Were you out wandering around again? Did you forget where you were? Do we have to lock you up?” Note that forgetting and wandering are often cast together—usually in a negative light. However, Chuang Tzu speaks positively about “wandering,” purposeless “rambling,” “meandering” and other similar states. He proudly announces that “Aimless wandering does not know what it seeks; demented drifting does not know where it goes.” (9)(tr. Watson, 121-122, in Mair, 108) More than a few modern minds would find praise for “demented drifting” rather “crazy.”

For Chuang Tzu, as one lets go of or “forgets” one’s attachment to objects or to self-limiting ideas, one is drawn to join in with the wider flow of existence Tao/Dao). The increasing desire to “wander” among many Elders reflects a deep desire to respond to a cosmic call to a wider becoming and fuller existential freedom. The need to answer this call and to open to a wider and deeper identity seems more urgent when hemmed in by the mental and physical restrictions of institutions “for seniors” or “the aged.”

For Chuang Tzu, the experience of “Heavenly Wandering” can also be realized when the body is at rest, and the heart-mind (xin) is engaged in the act of “sitting and forgetting.” Interestingly, the term wandering (yu) also has connotations of “play” (yu) and “playing around,” and at other times with free-floating “creative imagining.” Losing self-absorption, we become friends with Heaven, Earth, and all the “10,000 things”.

Chapter Five: The Usefulness of the Useless

Too often, well-intentioned parents, educators, employers, gerontologists and spouses spew forth mantras like: “Don’t be useless, get a job!“ “Make something of yourself. Be useful!” “Don’t be a useless old man.” But Chuang Tzu proclaims: “You’ve heard of the usefulness of the useful; Now hear of the usefulness of the Useless.” This early Taoist/Daoist philosopher’s praise of “uselessness” seems heretical to the American way of life and, indeed, even ‘crazy’ to those supporting modernist values. But as a positive way of being-and-doing, it offers a liberating alternative to those who have had their sense of identity and self-worth heavily defined in terms of socioeconomic “usefulness.” Elders especially should be ready to embrace the true spirit of Uselessness and then teach it to younger folk. Initially, becoming useless frees one from obsessions with doing and for a life of non-attached non-doing (wu wei)—which is not the same as doing nothing. Gradually, as the ego-self is left behind, so will be both the need to be useful and the deliberate seeking of uselessness. One will experience a new inner release and the spiritual freedom born of Ultimate Uselessness. Here one can engage again in what others define as being “useful” but with the freedom of the truly useless. There can be holistic practices of all sorts (from stillness to movement) to draw upon the Elder’s largely unused potentials (de/te) to energize his or her transformation.

Chapter Six: Gone Fishing, or Elderway, Waterway

Chuang Tzu anticipates a complaint hurled at certain Elders: “You are becoming an anti-social recluse, a hermit.” “What’s with all this fishing?” “Why spend so much time around water?” Water imagery flows everywhere in Daoism, certainly in the Tao te Ching (daodejing) and The Chuang Tzu. In the latter we encounter “old geezers” who live on or near the water, sometimes fishing without a hook (“eternal fishing”) or in a spirit-like manner swimming or ferrying boats, at other times diving from cliffs into swirling, dangerous waters. All the while, water is teaching them the Way (Dao). As Krill Thompson points out, one type of meditation that involves “focusing and concentrating the mind” can be connected with “the point at which the fishing line enters the water.” Meanwhile, “the fluid formless waters still act to open up and free the mind.” (in Ames, 27) Ever- flowing with Dao, the Elder is able to swirl around and over obstacles, smooth the edges of life’s rocks, while being renewed by Dao’s creative energies.

Chapter Seven: Ways and the Way

Early Daoists were attentive observers of nature, from insects to plants to animals from rocks to water to wind. And they dared to proclaim that humans, like other living, moving beings, can embody and express the Way through their spontaneous, natural, non-reflective behaviors. For humans, a certain type of practice (often learned from a “master”) is necessary to bring about the coordinated integration of body, mind, vital energy and “spirit” that leads to concentrated yet relaxed, effective yet effortless, doing/being. What are known as Chuang Tzu’s “knack stories” are filled with seemingly unlettered but “crazy wise” artisans, craftspersons, and movement teachers who have mastered and embodied these biospiritual skills. Elders, through their encounter with Chuang Tzu’s exemplars, may be inspired to seek out a new or to seriously reengage a familiar practice. They may also seek out a specially endowed teacher who is familiar with, can express and encourage wise development of its many inner and outer secrets. Most of these “arts” when properly exercised display a seemingly effortless execution bathed in an aura of sophisticated grace, beauty and power. An Elder’s psychophysical revitalization and the inner nourishment of his or her “spirit” flows from and into this being-doing. Simultaneously, this newly developed flexibility and sensitivity will allow Elders to grasp more intuitively and deal more creatively with life’s ups and downs, obstacles and opportunities.
One of the most well-known of these expressers of crazy wisdom is Cook Ding whom we will meet in the next chapter..

Chapter Eight: The Way of Cook Ding.

Cook Ding’s dancelike movements while cutting-up an ox included a contemplative in-seeing that focused at times on minute details and at other times guided his holistic rapport with the ox Although Cook Ding might be considered of a lower class, his spellbound boss, a Duke, announced in thankful and awe-struck tones that the cook had shown him the secret of nourishing his own life. Many of the later martial arts and health-enhancing movements like T’ai Chi and Qigong grew out of these early holistic disciplines. For today’s Elders, these artisans (and their legacy) can serve as models and instructors also. Elders will want to explore various ways (Taos/daos) to dynamically draw together being, knowing and doing to increase their own vital energy, nourish their “spirit,” while engaging in a deeply contemplative holistic rapport with the inner patterns and processes and outer changes of their world.

Chapter Nine: Transformations—Chuang Tzu/Zhuangzi
And
Chapter Ten: Transformations—Lieh Tzu/Lizi

Here we focus on the stories and philosophical reflections of these roughly contemporaneous Taoists/Daoists (5th to 4th BCE) as they respond to the sometimes painful, often unexpected, and frequently dramatic changes that occur in human life but that can hold special meaning as well as contribute to Elder Wisdom . The importance of attitude and outlook, especially when connected to meditative and contemplative practices, can be of great personal value in dealing with such changes, even the change from life to death. The early Taoist teachings were rooted in a nonattached and yet creative engagement with life’s sometimes painful processes. They are saying, in effect, that one should neither aggressively fight the changes nor passively accept them. The sometimes eccentric and odd, sometimes brilliant but simple characters met in these two works can serve as resources not only for ways to respond to life’s numerous, complex and at times multi-dimensional challenges but in ways that elicit transformative responses by and growth at one’s physical, emotional, mental, vital or spiritual levels, whether separately or in an integrative, harmonious whole.

Concluding Reflection

Our hope is that Elders (and others) will be motivated by this modest work to reflectively read the whole of The Chuang Tzu as well as other sources of spiritual wisdom from his own tradition (like the Tao te Ching and Lieh Tzu) and move onto other traditions. We hope that this might also convince to personally “forget” and socially deride those interpretations of Elderhood that identify it with the shallow waters hugging the shores of Adultworld. Let Elders unfurl their sails, catch the winds of the Way, and set out for deeper waters and brighter horizons that open them to a deeper experience and wider vision of what it is to truly be an Elder. As they sail, they may spot some of the characters from the Chuang Tzu, bobbing on the ocean waves, urging them on and joining them in laughter at the criticisms and warnings being bellowed from the Adult shore.
Occasionally returning with the tides, these “wandering” Elders will remind those on the shore that they actually live on an island, and that if they are wise, as some are, they will listen to the sounds and seek out the messages of the wider Cosmic Ocean heard in the wise seagull cries of children just touching land on the far shore from Elders on the other. Both are liminal witnesses for and carriers of a deep cosmic wisdom and energy that could begin the transformation of Adultworld. Perhaps crazy Elders will sail around or fly as gulls to join to encourage precocious children to remind Adults of their deeper selves and the deeper cosmic presence that is at once their life-giving origin, their inner urge to grow and the pull towards their true destiny.

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