Don’t Worry, Everything is Out of Control | Taoist Antidotes to Worry
Our busy lives often lead to feelings of stress, exhaustion, and even burnout. Stress is one of the major causes of illness and can also lead to depression and anxiety. Luckily, the writings of ancient Taoist sages offer plenty of philosophical ideas that may help us to relieve stress and reduce our endless worries. From a Taoist viewpoint, we go against the natural course as soon as we try to force things. Forcing means interfering with or even going against nature, which only brings about trouble, according to the Taoists.
Looking at many of today’s societies, we see ourselves continually forcing our ways through life. We not only seek to alter nature to our own liking but also to control things we have essentially no control over, like fate and external circumstances. We’re obsessed with control. And the Taoist sages teach the opposite: letting go. In Taoist ancient scriptures, the Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi, and the lesser-known Liezi, letting go is a recurring theme. Lao Tzu, the mysterious author of the Tao Te Ching, reminds us of how nature takes care of itself and that without interference, everything gets done.
Also, Liezi observed how obsessed we are with finding happiness in the outside world and that our efforts to achieve it and our clinging to external circumstances make us miserable. We’re unwilling to let go of our restless pursuits to be happy, which is precisely the reason why we aren’t. In reality, our efforts not to be unhappy generate anxiety. The writings of the ancient Taoists persuade us to go in a different direction: we ought to let go of existing concepts and worldviews, become aware of emptiness, let nature take its course, and move with nature rather than against it.
The goal? An easier life, less worrying… following Tao, the universal principle. This video explores ancient Taoist ideas that may serve as antidotes for reducing worry in a world out of control. For those who love reading, Einzelgänger just released a new compilation book: Loose, Letting Stuff Go, which contains a selection of essays revised and edited for print, exploring ways to let go of the many attachments of daily life. Loose is available on Amazon as a paperback and ebook. Links below.
Antidote one... Leaving things alone. The Taoist sage Zhuangzi knew how to do nothing. He didn’t interfere with natural processes because if he did, nature would blow out of shape and become something it’s not. He left things alone, running their natural course, and saw things grow ripe around him. In many present-day cultures obsessed with achievement and productivity, “doing nothing” is considered a sin. We don’t allow ourselves to “do nothing,” as we should always be busy.
We prefer to work against nature over not to working at all, even if our efforts only interfere with what we try to achieve. A previous video about the Taoist concept of ‘effortless action’ (or wu-wei) shows an example of a farmer pulling his crops to make them grow faster to no avail; he even damages his crops in the process. Similarly, we push and pull wherever we can, often without results, sometimes even sabotaging our progress, leading to stress and exhaustion and increasing our worries.
When we leave things alone, we respect their natural course. Our environment doesn’t always need our interference, whether at work or home. Problems often solve themselves, and life always falls into place eventually (regardless of whether we like the outcome or not). And what seems like lousy luck may be a blessing in disguise, and what we try to accomplish may turn out to be a curse. Moreover, the universe always gets its way, so attempting to control it is futile.
Antidote two... Stop looking for happiness. Zhuangzi couldn’t tell if what all those busy people chased after was happiness or not. But he could see that their ways of trying to obtain it made them miserable. People are stressed, always in a rush in their obsessive search for happiness; their faces look tired and grim. If the chasing of happiness makes our lives bleak, we might as well stop it, argued Zhuangzi. We not only exhaust ourselves; we also don’t get what we’re looking for and thus end up in a lose-lose situation.
Things like wealth and fame might be fun for a while but only come with new worries in the long run because as soon as we’ve obtained these pleasures, we fear losing them. Zhuangzi stated, and I quote: “Those who think that wealth is the proper thing for them cannot give up their revenues; those who seek distinction cannot give up the thought of fame; those who cleave to power cannot give the handle of it to others. While they hold their grasp of those things, they are afraid (of losing them). When they let them go, they are grieved; and they will not look at a single example, from which they might perceive the (folly) of their restless pursuits: such men are under the doom of Heaven.”
End quote. Zhuangzi argued that contentment and well-being become possible if we stop acting with them in view. If we don’t desire happiness and well-being, the “wrong” of not having what we want and the “right” of getting what we wish disappear. And thus, we don’t worry about getting (or not getting) happiness. Instead, we enjoy happiness because we have stopped caring about obtaining it.
Antidote three… Seeing the emptiness. Liezi argued that people generally like to be praised, as they feel good as others recognize their accomplishments. But Liezi valued emptiness instead, as he explained that we’re less stressed when empty of all these attachments. We’ll have fewer things to worry about if we wouldn’t care so much about other people’s approval and validation. Liezi said that we seek to receive credit for things that aren’t entirely our own doing. Many things people praise us for depend on the right circumstances or inborn characteristics.
If the conditions are right, our actions only contribute to the result, as many other factors play their part. For example, people who receive praise as Instagram models receive it primarily for having good genetics leading to high attractiveness and adhering to current beauty standards. So, what accomplishment is genuinely their own? Instead of worrying about obtaining “praise” that ultimately doesn’t belong to anyone, Liezi urges us to quiet down and let go. Seeing the emptiness of things can help us cultivate stillness and peace of mind. If you do not know how to keep still in this crazy world, you will be drawn into all kinds of unnecessary trouble.
End quote. Many things we chase are empty; there’s nothing to them except the value we attribute to them. Praise is empty. And, often (if not always), it’s not even deserved. The same goes for many other pursuits we deem significant but are pretty meaningless. It’s like we engage in them just to divert ourselves from the emptiness of it all. But if we’d embrace this emptiness, accept it, and let go of all these games, the chasing, the rat races, the continual quest for happiness, we’d be better off, according to Liezi.
Antidote four… The inner law. By continually stretching ourselves beyond our capacities, we ask for trouble, so thought Taoist sage Lao Tzu. In his profound work, the Tao Te Ching, he wrote that those who stand on tiptoes do not stand firmly, and those who rush ahead don’t get very far. Standing on tiptoes occurs if we try to extend our control over things we cannot control, so argued Zhuangzi. The book The Way of Chuang Tzu explains the difference between someone “whose law is within himself” and someone “whose law is outside himself.”
The first person acts without being influenced by the approval and disapproval of others. The second person is directed by things outside his control and thus becomes a plaything of his circumstances. Whatever happens in the outside world decides his mood. “When he tries to extend his power over objects, those objects gain control over him,” said Zhuangzi. When things go well, he’s happy and content. When things don’t go well, he’s unhappy and full of worry. And thus, he tries to get what he wants and avoid what he doesn’t want, always concerned with a universe he ultimately cannot control.
I quote: “He who seeks to extend his control is nothing but an operator while he thinks he is surpassing others, others see him merely straining, stretching, to stand on tiptoe.” End quote. So, one of the lessons we can learn from Zhuangzi’s writings is to avert our attention and desire from the outside world and turn it within. Ultimately, it’s not the world that decides how we feel but our minds. Therefore, if we seek contentment, adjusting our minds makes more sense than attempting to control our environment.
Everything around us is out of control. But we do have control over our thoughts, choices, and attitude toward the environment. The less we seek contentment outside ourselves, the less we must stand on our tiptoes to obtain it.
Antidote five… Not worrying about ‘fate.’ Zhuangzi observed that not fate itself but worrying about fate gets people in trouble. An archer, for example, may shoot perfectly during practice but horribly when he competes for a prize. As soon as we desire a specific outcome, we worry about not achieving it. The archer of Zhuangzi’s story shoots just fine if he only shoots for the sake of shooting. But when there’s a prize in his view, he starts caring more, even though his skill hasn’t changed.
“He thinks more of winning than of shooting. And the need to win drains him of power,” Zhuangzi stated. So, how should we handle fate? How do we treat an uncertain future with the possibility of fortune or misfortune? Liezi tells us about an older man from the kingdom of Chi who was afraid that the sky would fall and the earth would break up. And if that happens, he’d have no place to run, and his death would be unavoidable.
So, a friend tried to calm him down by assuring him that the sky won’t fall, so there was nothing to worry about. Then, a sage told him there is, in fact, a possibility of the sky falling, although the chances are small, so the elder shouldn’t be too concerned. Then Liezi chuckled and said: “It’s nonsense even to think about whether heaven and earth can or cannot be destroyed. Whether they will perish or not is something we don’t know. If heaven and earth will not perish, that’s great. We can live our lives without worry. However, if they will perish, that’s something we can’t do much about, so why worry about it?”
End quote. The old Taoist sage stated that there’s no point in occupying ourselves with the question of whether or not the earth will perish. It’s something completely out of our control. If it happens, it happens. Moreover, we don’t even know what this fate we fear entails exactly. What’s it like to be dead? Or, for example, what happens after we lose our jobs, or our marriages end?
We assume these happenings are disasters, even though they could be blessings in disguise. Again, whatever happens, it’s out of our control anyway, so worrying about it is a waste of time. Thank you for watching.