Chuang Tzu

Finding Happiness by Letting Happiness Go

Once happiness is treated as a requirement, the mind begins to scan constantly for proof that it has arrived. That monitoring—Am I happy yet? Is this enough?—splits experience into judge and judged, creating a background tension that crowds out ease. In that way, striving becomes self-defeating: it frames contentment as conditional and fragile, dependent on perfect circumstances. Letting go of the struggle doesn’t magically remove difficulty, but it does remove the second arrow—the extra distress added by insisting reality must conform to our preferred emotional state. [...]

Stillness as the Mirror of Self

Chuang Tzu’s line begins with a simple physical observation: when water is stirred, the surface breaks into fragments and our image scatters. Yet when the water becomes still, a clear reflection returns. By choosing such an ordinary image, Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi, c. 4th century BC) suggests that self-knowledge is not something we force into view, but something that appears when agitation settles. From this starting point, the quote quietly shifts from optics to inner life, implying that our clearest sense of who we are depends less on adding information and more on reducing noise. [...]

Cultivating Balance Amid Life’s Adversities: Lessons from Chuang Tzu

Transitioning from Eastern to Western thought, Aristotle and later Stoic philosophers such as Epictetus similarly valorized composure in the face of hardship. Both traditions counsel the cultivation of inner resources—virtue or serenity—that external misfortune cannot shake. Remaining composed, whether in Chuang Tzu’s riverside reverie or Epictetus’s daily discipline, becomes the keystone of personal equilibrium. [...]