自然

自然 (な-na declension, hiragana しぜん, romaji shizen)
natural
spontaneous


ziran, ( Chinese: “spontaneity,” or “naturalness”; literally, “self-so-ing,” or “so of itself”)  Wade-Giles romanization  tzu-jan ,  in Chinese philosophy, and particularly among the 4th- and 3rd-century bce philosophers of early Daoism (daojia), the natural state of the constantly unfolding universe and of all things within it when both are allowed to develop in accord with the Cosmic Way (Dao).

Chinese cosmologies present a vision of a dynamic universe that is incessantly being generated. While the course it will take cannot be fully anticipated, it emerges and operates according to a continuous process. Human beings, however, impose their own order on reality, differentiating it by creating language and names for individual things, by developing rituals that order human life, and by creating government, which channels the energy of the people toward particular ends. Such actions distance people from the generative process of which they are a part. Instead, humans should attune themselves to the constant transformations of the Way. They may accomplish this by cultivating an openness toward spontaneity (ziran), which characterizes not only the constantly unfolding universe but the Dao itself. See also wuwei.

Matt Stefon

(Note: Chinese Buddhism, which when first introduced into China, was largely interpreted through the use of Taoist words and concepts.)


In contrast to the Confucian program of social reform through moral principle, ritual, and government regulation, the true way of restoration for the Taoists consisted in the banishment of learned sageliness and the discarding of wisdom. "Manifest the simple," urged Lao-tzu, "embrace the primitive, reduce selfishness, have few desires."

As the Tao operates impartially in the universe, so should mankind disavow assertive, purposive action. The Taoist life is not, however, a life of total inactivity. It is rather a life of nonpurposive action (wu-wei). Stated positively, it is a life expressing the essence of spontaneity (tzu-jan, "self-so").

There is always something we don't know. This is well illustrated by the elusive qualities of energy in physics: We cannot really define energy, but we can work with it, and this is the case with the Tao. The Tao works by itself. Its nature is to be, as is said in Chinese, tzu-jan, that which is "of itself," "by itself," or "itself so." Tzu-jan is almost what we mean when we say that something is automatic, or that something happens automatically.
~ Alan Watts in What is Tao? ~

When the concept of tzu-jan is combined with the concept of wu wei, what we end up with is going with the flow by and of itself. That, in a manner of speaking, goes hand in hand with today's verse from the TTC.

It's when we allow ourselves not to over think or over analyze a given situation that we can come to know it via tzu-jan and wu wei. These are the time when, like an athlete or an artist, we find ourselves in the zone. We simply react or create without consciously thinking about it. We flow with the situation and do what only is necessary to accomplish the task without any excessive movement or wasted breath.