MEDITATIONS: ZHUANGZI, CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Graven Intentions

Graven intentions are intents engraved as if in stone. They are inflexible, unchangeable, and nonadaptive. They are purposes, aims, goals, even values which—once made, by their nature—are inevitably committed to in opposition to all others. For most people, it could not be another way.

if you decide that something is beautiful
then something else immediately becomes ugly
without you realizing it (Lao-tzu 10)

This is the natural consequence of a dialectic reality (or dualistic universe, if you prefer). But the Way or Great Course is that very narrow path which runs between conflicting forces. It is the balancing of opposites, the incorporation of Yang and Yin into one another. Or, in western parlance, it is the striding on the border of chaos and order.

To be lofty though without any carved-in-stone intentions, cultivated though without humankindness and responsible conduct, governing though without merit and fame, at leisure though without confinement to the rivers and seas, long-lived without manipulating the vital energies, forgetting everything yet possessing everything, placidly limitless and yet trailed by every form of beauty—this is the Course of heaven and earth, the intrinsic virtuosity of the sages. (Zhuangzi 128-9)

Again, these outer chapters of the Zhuangzi encourage us toward a balanced and moderate outlook: it is good to have goals, dreams, and ambitions; but we ought not become unwilling or unable to change these goals and ambitions when reality requires that, like a river, we bend our course to fit the landscape across which we run. Likewise, it is good for us to cultivate our characters, but we are mistaken if we merely adopt the morality of others rather than exploring our own souls, our own natures, and our own individual intrinsic virtuosities. Self-regulation and the maintenance of social order are important, but they should not be allowed to become corrupted by desires for fame and rank. We ought to enjoy life, but that enjoyment should not be confined only to those activities and places where we find pleasure and tranquility. Health and longevity are to be cultivated and cherished, but not so much that our means of obtaining them compromise all of life’s other values and virtuosities.

One is in greatest possession of himself—and is most capable of acting out his will in the world—when he is able to let go, to step out of his own way. He forgets himself, forgets what he is doing, and just does the activity with plainness and purity of instinct. Thus, he releases the limits imposed upon him by wis worries and preconceptions. What follows is beautiful. What follows is the peak of human performance within the potential of the forgetting performer—and all because he has ceased to be concerned with committing to his “Graven Intentions.”

“Plainness” means mixing nothing extraneous in, and “purity” means keeping the imponderable, the spirit, undiminished. It is those who can embody such purity and plainness that are called the Genuine-Human. (Zhuangzi 130)

Lao-tzu. “Chapter 2”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. p.10

Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi; The Complete Writings, translated by Brook Ziporyn, Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 2020