The Perfect Person Has No Self

Reading it step by step

Here Zhuangzi draws a staircase, one step at a time.

Step one: people capable enough to hold office and benefit their village. Impressive. But Zhuangzi says they see themselves the way the little dove does, content with the height of a branch.

Step two: Song Rongzi. Praise from the whole world doesn't make him try harder; blame from the whole world doesn't sink him. Why? He has drawn a clear line between inside and outside. Other people's verdicts are outside matters; who I am is an inside matter. That alone is hard. Think of how many of us can do it with “likes.”

Step three: Liezi rides the wind. He works with nature's conditions and floats along for fifteen days before coming home. Very stylish. But Zhuangzi adds the sting: he still depends on something. No wind, no flight.

Step four: depending on nothing. Riding the true course of heaven and earth, steering through every change of nature: “what would such a person be waiting for?”

Then comes the famous line: the perfect person has no self, the spirit-like person has no achievements, the sage has no name. These are not three people but one ideal, seen from three sides. “Perfect” speaks of its substance, so: no self. “Spirit-like” speaks of its function, so: no achievements. “Sage” speaks of its name, so: no name.

The staircase says this: freedom is not getting a better wind. It is needing less of it.

You don't have to reach the top today. Knowing which step you're standing on already means you've started to climb.