I find it understandable and healthy that people question if it is feasible to live today according to ancient Taoist philosophy. Indeed, Lao-Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching in the 6th century BC, and the other two great ancient Taoist masters, Yang-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu lived in the 4th and 3rd century respectively.
Scepticism is justified, but not endless doubts. When we ask a fair question, we should establish rational criteria for filtering and judging the answers.
If Lao-Tzu lived today, would he still adhere to his ideas? Is Taoism as effective today as it was in ancient China? How can we tell if the answers to these queries are correct?
I submit that the answers shall be rated correct if they are proven by facts. If we find individuals that have successfully adopted the Taoist lifestyle in recent decades, we should let go of our scepticism and check if there are lessons to be learned.
Taoism and Henry Miller
Chapter 44 of the Tao Te Ching exhorts us to live happily by deploying ourselves fully, that is, by developing our skills and practising them, seizing the opportunities to enjoy life’s pleasures, and by aligning our actions with the Tao.
Lao-Tzu forecasts happiness if we adopt the Taoist lifestyle, and large numbers of people in history have successfully done so. If we look at remarkable artists in recent times, we can find examples such as Henry Miller (1891-1990), whose lifestyle is as close as one can imagine to the ancient Taoists.
Miller was intrigued by ancient Eastern philosophy, but did not pronounce himself a Taoist. Nevertheless, he incorporated many of Lao-Tzu’s ideas in his lifestyle. He practised Wu Wei (the non-action principle), tolerance, benevolence, self-reliance and humility.
Especially during the last seventeen years of his life, Miller embraced a lifestyle that Lao-Tzu, Yang-Tzu, and Chuang-Tzu would have endorsed without reservations. Miller lived a quiet, semi-rural life, enjoyable but with few luxuries, and continued to devote himself to his literary work.
In Chapter 7 of the Tao Te Chin, Lao-Tzu favours this kind of quiet, but enjoyable lifestyle. He advises readers to “move ahead by staying behind.” Wisdom entails, Lao-Tzu says, that we “refrain from making claims on life.”
Henry Miller survived for decades on a very low income in order to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. During some periods, he kept his head over water by borrowing money from friends, sleeping in cheap hotels, and begging acquaintances to buy him a meal. He was certainly not “making claims on life.”
How many people are willing to go to such great lengths to pursue their dreams? Not many, I guess, but Lao-Tzu, Chuang-Tzu, and Yang-Tzu never expected Taoism to grow into a vast philosophical movement. Its asymmetric, paradoxical, upside-down logic is inherently minoritarian.
The Taoist focus on the essentials
How do Taoists “move ahead by staying behind”? Lao-Tzu coined this paradox to indicate that people tend to focus their time and energy on secondary matters. They get all worked up because of some missed deadline or faulty delivery, but forget to look at the whole picture.
The Taoist lifestyle, as depicted by Lao-Tzu’s quotes, cares little for looks, popularity and virtue signalling. Almost every verse of the Tao Te Ching exhorts us to focus on the essentials, and almost every ancient Taoist story ridicules people who get lost on side issues.
Chuang-Tzu wrote a story about a farmer who spent hours complaining about a little defect in a household utensil. He got upset and talked endlessly about the issue, wasting time that he could have used productively.
Instead of working in the fields, the farmer spent his energy talking about a side issue. At the end of the story, he must face the consequences of neglecting his farm. A diminishing harvest is the result of the farmer’s failure to focus on the essentials.
The Tao Te Ching and self-reliance
In Chapter 63 of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-Tzu also exhorts us to “do great things while they are still small and lift burdens a piece at a time because that’s how the reward is earned.” Once again, I must point to Henry Miller’s biography as an example, especially his misadventures in Paris (1926-1939) and his visit to Greece (1939-1940).
Lao-Tzu’s lifestyle rests on self-reliance, which has become easier and, at the same time, more difficult in our century. The reason is not hard to fathom. Compared to ancient China or the mid-twentieth century, today’s world offers more opportunities for self-development, but at the same time, it demands a high level of conformity.
In the times of Lao-Tzu, and even of Henry Miller, personal choices were easier to carry out in many respects. Lao-Tzu did not face any obstacles when he decided to quit his appointment at the royal court and leave the country; and Miller, despite his unorthodox views, succeeded in earning a living in Europe, far from his American friends and family members.
How do Taoists ensure their self-reliance? Lao-Tzu supplies the answer in Chapter 24 of the Tao Te Ching. We can become self-reliant if we refrain from “walking on tiptoes and walking too fast, and if we quit self-righteousness and self-indulgence.” To align our actions with the Tao, we must discard every idea and habit that prevents us from growing.
Lao-Tzu and the non-action principle
When Henry Miller relocated from New York to Paris, his job prospects were unpromising, and socially, he was leaving everything behind. On his way to becoming a self-reliant artist, he practised Wu Wei (the Taoist non-action principle) day after day, overcoming social pressure.
He faced his initial failures in the manner that Lao-Tzu had recommended in Chapter 63 of the Tao Te Ching, namely, by “doing great things while they are still small and lifting life’s burdens a piece at a time.” Similarly, he refrained from making claims of life, as indicated in Chapter 7 of the Tao Te Ching.
Wu Wei constitutes, for the Western mind, the most difficult element to grasp in the Taoist lifestyle. It goes beyond let it go, let it be, and look the other way. I wonder if Lao-Tzu, Chuang-Tzu and Yang-Tzu would have formulated it as “do nothing, let it rot, and let it drown.”
After returning to the United States, Henry Miller summed up his criticism of modern society in an essay titled “The Air-conditioned nightmare,” published in 1945. His attacks against the modern lifestyle match his praise for the lifestyle of Greece in his prior work “The Colossus of Maroussi” (1941).
Would Lao-Tzu have seconded Miller’s attacks against the modern lifestyle? Would he have echoed Miller’s praise for the lifestyle in Greece? I do not think so. Despite the poignancy of Miller’s arguments, Taoists will normally refrain from advising any particular lifestyle as suitable for everybody.
Lao-Tzu’s lifestyle is possible everywhere and in every time of history, provided that its practitioners commit themselves to aligning their actions with the Tao. Happiness is not dependent on lucky geography, lucky genes, looks or inherited wealth. It’s essential to grasp this point if we want to sustain the necessary motivation.
The Taoist lifestyle is above-all soft, flexible and adaptable, as depicted by Lao-Tzu in Chapter 76 of the Tao Te Ching. He exhorts us to adopt gentleness and smoothness as a way of life because “it is the law of nature that the hard and strong will be defeated, and that the soft and gentle will emerge victorious.”
History proved Henry Miller correct and rewarded his semi-Taoist lifestyle with great success and enjoyable friendships. In our century, despite the intense pressure to conform, I regard it as especially valuable to practise the virtues identified by Lao-Tzu, Yang-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu in ancient times.
If you want to apply effective ideas in all sorts of situations, I recommend my book “Asymmetry: The shortcut to success when success seems impossible.”