Zhuangzi on Fasting the Mind and Listening Recklessly

• In Event: 43.059 - The Philosophy of Listening in Intercultural Perspective

Abstract

Purpose
The aims of of this paper are (i) to explain Zhuangzi ‘s conception of ‘reckless’ listening and its role in natural intuitive living, and (ii) to compare Zhuangzi’s conception with Confucius and contemporary Western scholars.

Theoretical Framework
The framework adopted is global Intercultural philosophy (Brooks, 2013, Bai, 2014), which asserts that philosophical approaches from different cultural traditions may engage more substantially with each other to advance philosophical understanding and provide more abundant resources for solving philosophical problems.

Methods and Data Sources
The paper comparative method: “setting into dialogue sources from across cultural, linguistic, and philosophical streams” (Littlejohn, ND).

Materials
Texts from classical Chinese philosophy including the Analects of Confucius and Zhuangzi, commentaries on these works, and contemporary work on listening in education.

Results
In The classic Zhuangzi (chapter 4) student Yen Hui asks permission to instruct an impetuous tyrant. His teacher replies that Yen Hui must "fast his mind” and listen “recklessly,” adding “Don't listen with your ears, don't listen with your mind, but listen with your spirit (qi). Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit is empty and waits on all things. The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind."

While ‘listening with spirit’ is cryptic, the contrast - listening with mind - is illuminated by Zhuangzi’s story of Cook Ting (chapter 3). When Ting carves an ox for Lord Wen-hui, “every touch of his hand, … every thrust of his knee, was in perfect rhythm.” Lord Wen-hui exclaims, "Imagine skill reaching such heights!" But Cook Ting insists the Way is "beyond skill". As a novice, (i) all he saw was “the ox itself. “During his three-year apprenticeship (ii) he learned to see with his eyes. (iii) Finally he “goes at it by spirit.” He doesn’t “look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I guide the knife through the big openings,... I never touch the smallest ligament." Lord Wen-hui exclaims "Now I know how to live!"

After acquiring concepts and rules for carving Ting saw the ox with attuned eyes - as a package of steaks and chops. When perception and understanding came to a stop, he saw with his spirit. By contrast Confucius was 60 before his “ears were attuned.” and 70 before he followed his “heart’s desire without crossing the line” (Analects ch. 2.4).

Zhuangzi’s three-stage analysis of perception and the emergence of intuition parallels that in Confucius’s Analects. While Zhuangzi rejects the long ritual preparation of Confucian education, both philosophers agree on educational ends - alignment with the Way and effortless action (wu wei) - and a three-stage sequence for achieving them. from novice through competent practitioner to intuitive expert

Significance.
This three-stage sequence in the development of expert intuition from experience parallels the consensus of contemporary researchers on the development of intuition (Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 1986; Burke and Sadler-Smith, 2006). This opens the potential for intercultural dialogue and collaboration on this topic.

Author

• Leonard J. Waks, Temple University