The Power Of Being Useless
Zhuangzi contemplates a waterfall
Zhuangzi, the ancient Taoist philosopher, is useless. He’d take that as a compliment. His friend Huizi starts by unleashing what seems to be this sick burn on him, saying,
I find Chinese philosophy hilarious to read for this reason. They’re constantly dunking on each other and subtweeting the rulers of the day. In this case Huizi is saying what we all think, which is that uselessness is useless. Of course right, that’s what the word means.
Zhuangzi, however, is not so dualistic. As Laozi said, “The Way is like an empty vessel; No use could ever fill it up”. To Zhuangzi, filling oneself with ‘useful’ activity is about as helpful as filling a guitar with cement. How on earth would you hear The Way?
Hence he responds to Huizi, in an ode to slackers everywhere,
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It’s a fascinating idea, that he returns to. What are we even trying to do by all this ‘useful’ activity. What’s the use?
What the sages call us to do thus feels illogical. Kongzi says an ideal ruler should just sit down facing south. What? Laozi says the Way is the way that cannot be wayed. How now? Indeed, the human response is, oh, these guys want me do nothing. But no. That thought itself is dualistic. These ideas get translated as ‘nothing’, but someone following the Way is actually doing exactly what they’re supposed to. They simply don’t force anything.
In their job, in their family life, just walking down the road; a sage is following the Way, because inside they are still. They do not struggle. The Way flows through them, like a song through an empty guitar.
Zhuangzi quotes Kongzi (Confucius) as saying:
It is our mind’s consciousness that divides acts into useful and useless. Words destroy their opposite meaning, but in the Tao they are one. As the Daodejing says, “These two come forth in unity but diverge in name. Their unity is known as an enigma.”
And yet to speak, Zhuangzi must make a choice. He, like the Buddha, chooses the least destructive option. Be useless, he says, and let this contradiction guide you to deeper understanding. But always remember:
