On freedom and everyday life
In the Zhuangzi, there is a story of fish stranded in a drying puddle. They struggle to keep one another alive by moistening each other with their breath and saliva. Zhuangzi observes:
“…but it would be much better if they could forget each other in the rivers and lakes.”
— Zhuangzi, Chapter 6, The Great and Venerable Teacher, translated by Burton Watson
I have often returned to this image.
The fish are doing what they must to survive. There is nothing wrong with their efforts. But in the open water, none of this would be necessary. They could swim freely, without having to struggle to sustain one another.
I wonder how much of our everyday lives resembles that drying puddle.
We have responsibilities and relationships that require our attention. Some circumstances cannot be changed, however much we might wish otherwise. We do what is necessary and carry on.
But how much of our effort is actually necessary?
Sometimes we become so accustomed to managing things that we no longer notice what we are doing. We anticipate difficulties before they arise, react according to familiar patterns, and continue struggling even when there may be no need.
I am interested in what happens when we begin to recognise this.
There have been moments in my own experience of profound stillness, when nothing needed to be managed or resolved. There was simply a sense of peace. It made me wonder how much of the effort we ordinarily expend is of our own making.
The Daoist principle of wuwei (無為) speaks to this. Often translated as non-action, I understand it more as acting without forcing. It is something I continue to explore through practice.
In another passage from the Zhuangzi, Dongguozi asks where the Dao can be found. Zhuangzi replies:
“There is nowhere it is not.”
— Zhuangzi, Chapter 22, Knowledge Wanders North, translated by A. C. Graham
He goes on to locate the Dao in the most ordinary things, even those we might consider beneath our notice.
I like this passage because it reminds me that the Dao is not somewhere else. It is present in ordinary life, whether we recognise it or not.
Through practice, we can begin to see how our habits and assumptions shape our experience. As awareness develops, perhaps some of what we have been holding on to can be loosened. We may begin to see things more as they are, rather than through what we expect or fear them to be.
I return to the fish.
It would be lovely to swim freely in the rivers and lakes, but most of us have lives that cannot simply be abandoned. There are people who depend on us and things that need doing.
What interests me is how we might experience something of that freedom while still living amidst all this.
How do we find the open water without having to leave our everyday lives behind?