MEDITATIONS: ZHUANGZI, CHAPTER SIXTEEN, PART TWO

Repairing the Inborn Nature, part II

. . . Inherent virtuosity is just this harmony, and the Course is just this coherence. Their inherent virtuosity came to contain everything in itself—and just this is real humankindness. Their Course came to arrange all things into mutual coherence with one another—and just this is truly responsible conduct. Their responsible conduct shone brightly so that other beings come to feel kinship with them—and just this is real loyalty. They were pure and genuine within and reverted to this even in their emotional dispositions—and just this is real music, real joy. The sincerity of their conduct showed even in their faces and bodies, and accorded with the elegant patterns of culture—and just this is real ritual.

And yet, when practiced universally, ritual and music disorder all the world. For when the correctness belonging to another is applied to oneself, it only beclouds one’s intrinsic virtuosities. (Zhuangzi 131)

If we are to repair our inborn natures—our intrinsic virtuosities—we must understand that our ancient, primitive, and preconscious ancestors were not the monolithic image which we conjure in our imaginations. They were as we are: individuals, each with his own set of natural proclivities, abilities, instincts, and predispositions. That is not to say we can’t identify general patterns of human virtue, as a Confucian might; but it is to say that such generalizations are just that, generalizations, mere maps, which, while serving as useful guides at the appropriate time, are not the thing-in-itself but a distraction from it.

This is what is meant by distinguishing between real and false humankindness, responsible conduct, loyalty, music, and joy. There exist models of these things, ideals, idols—false idols, necessarily; and there exists the real substance which transcends our human categorization.

What does that mean?

Think of it this way: no two human beings are the same person. No person is completely the same person from day to day, even from minute to minute. Likewise, no two actions are really the same action, we just use the same name for them in order to communicate the similarities between them. They are similar, meaning not identical. Now carry this line of thought forward. When two people display responsible conduct, they really aren’t displaying identical virtues. They are manifesting individual intrinsic virtuosities which share some common core element that we call them the same name. For instance, a mother fulfilling her responsibility to her children and a CEO to his company’s shareholders are both conducting themselves responsibly, but their actions, motivations, and the consequences of those actions—both on the actors and the recipients—are totally disparate. Even a closer comparison, between two mothers, shows the same. The two women are not the same woman. Each has access to different skills, knowledge, and resources. Each has her own children who are not interchangeable with the other’s. And yet, they can each display responsible conduct according to her particular life circumstances.

Universals are really a subset of particulars. Abstractions are an emergent product of substance. We ought not forget that the map means nothing without a world in which to navigate, and remembering this, we realize that it is arrogant self-deception to impose our own virtues onto someone else. Not only is such a venture doomed to fail, but we also befuddle the very person we intend to help by hiding his intrinsic virtuosities behind our map. Our map! We don’t even show him what our real virtues look like! We fail even to lead by example, the only real means to teach the Tao:

if a person wants to be at their best
then they should pattern themselves after water

water serves the land and the life on the land

it gives this life by moving through the land
seeking its own balance and equilibrium . . .

however difficult remember
that you should speak frankly
but never drown others with your words

whichever instances call for leadership remember
that a constant stream helps order
the lifeforms around it (Lao-tzu)

Moreover, not only do we fail to teach, but likely we reveal that we ourselves are out of touch with our own intrinsic virtuosities. Likely, we are applying someone else’s map or else are contorting ourselves to fit the culture rather than using the culture to fully express our potential selves.

And that is the point, is it not? To repair our inborn natures, we each subordinate conscious awareness, understanding, and intention to our instincts and individual virtues. This is a universal rule only insofar as we call this subordination by the same name. In reality, we are each discovering the range of our potential “shapes” and then matching those “shapes” to the “shape” of the source of the Tao—the Great Clump; the objective universe. That is the reparation. We repair ourselves, make ourselves whole, through discovering those places into which we and only we can uniquely fit. That is to say, we take our individual places as part of the universe—or else we fit awkwardly into someone else’s.

Lao-tzu. “Chapter Eight”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. pp.16–17

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