Mystic Mantra: Chuang Tzu - The mystic of Tao

Chuang Tzu was a great disciple of Lao Tzu and an enlightened mystic in his own right. His teaching was mystical and at the same time, deeply immersed within everyday life. He was a master storyteller and his parables were unique and thought-provoking, pointing to deeper issues of life.

For example, read this story, it is so unique and original: “Once I, Chuang Tzu, dreamed I was a butterfly and was happy as a butterfly. I was conscious that I was quite pleased with myself, but I did not know that I was Chuang Tzu. Suddenly I awoke, and there was I, visibly Chuang Tzu. Now, I have a great problem that I am unable to solve. I do not know whether it was Chuang Tzu dreaming that he was a butterfly or the butterfly dreaming that he was Chuang Tzu. Between Chuang Tzu and the butterfly, who am I?”

Such paradoxes revealed by Chaung Tzu remind us of Ulatbaansis of the Indian mystic Kabir, who talks of the paradoxes with such words: Ek Achambha Hamne Dekha, Nadiya Laagi Aag. Or this one that is even more difficult for the mind to understand: “When a drop merges into the ocean, everyone understands it. But when the ocean merges into the drop, seldom does one understand it.”

The true mystics have a wonderful way of taking us beyond our worldly mind — into the realm of higher consciousness, where the mind is left far behind, or one can say, where there is no-mind space, and where there is no ego also. Our ego functions as a great Chinese wall and makes it difficult to relate cordially with others. Chuang Tzu tells us the secret of Tao: How does the true man of Tao/ Walk through walls without obstruction/ And stand in fire without being burnt?/ Not because of cunning or daring/ Not because he has learned — But because he has unlearned./ His nature sinks to his root in the one./ His vitality, his power/ Hide in secret Tao.

Osho explains this: If you don’t have any obstruction within you, no obstruction can obstruct you. This is the rule. If you have no resistance within you, in your heart, the whole world is open for you. There is no resistance. The world is just a reflection, it is a big mirror; if you have resistance, then the whole world has resistance.

This is very difficult for the ego to understand. Ego is the wall within us and ego is the main resistance. Ego is in conflict with others, and others are also not without ego. This is the reason that the world is full of violence. And a violent man is violent not only towards others, he is violent towards nature also. This is the basic cause of the destruction of nature.