Theme 4.4
Empty boats
(from Chapter 20)
A man is crossing a river in a boat when he sees an empty boat approaching on a collision course.
Even though he’s a hot-tempered fellow, this doesn’t make him angry.
But now he sees there’s someone in the boat, so he calls out to them to alter their course.
When this first call isn’t heeded, he calls out again.
And when this isn’t heeded, he calls out a third time and throws in a torrent of abuse.
Before, he wasn’t angry. But now he is.
Before, the other boat was empty. But now there’s someone in it.
When you see that other people are empty boats, even if you’re a hot-tempered person you’ll never be angry.
* * * * *
Other people are empty boats adrift on the cause-and-effect currents of the world. When we see this we are free to engage with others in a harmonious manner, like a man in a boat who harmoniously navigates the empty boats adrift on the river. But when we imagine that other people have free will (when we imagine that the other boats have people in them), when they collide with our goals we rage against them.
~
An objection.
Free Will says: Watch this. I will now choose to lift my left arm. See? I chose to do that. And just as I chose to do that, others choose to do what they do.
Chuang Tzu: Why did you lift your arm just now?
Free Will: Because I chose to.
Chuang Tzu: That’s a superficial answer. Let’s be more specific. Perhaps you chose to lift your arm because you wanted to?
Free Will: Yes, I wanted to lift my arm. I wanted to show you that my arm is under my control. And I did. So there you go, I exist.
Chuang Tzu: Did you choose to want these things?
Free Will: Um …
Chuang Tzu: See? Your want was given to you.
Free Will: But I could have chosen not to lift my arm. I lifted my arm. Nobody else. It was me who did it. I chose to!
Chuang Tzu: So you keep saying. But the thing is, you didn’t choose not to. Why not?
Free Will: Because I chose to lift my arm.
Chuang Tzu: Which brings us back to the beginning.
~
Wise people have always seen that free will does not exist.
Ancient India. The Buddha said, When this, then that. When this isn’t, that isn’t. When these conditions are in place, this event follows. When these conditions aren’t in place, this event doesn’t follow. If you want this or that to happen only a fool demands it (only a fool appeals to free will). A wise person gets to work putting the right conditions in place.
Ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics said, People do wrong because they don’t know any better, just as people do math wrong because they don’t know how to do it right. If you want someone to do right only a fool demands it (only a fool appeals to free will). A wise person assesses the other’s ability and provides what education they can.
Ancient Judea (Roman period). Jesus, dying on the cross, said of those who hung him there, ‘Forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.’ Jesus understood that his Jewish and Roman siblings were acting how they had to act, given the conditions that were in place; given their level of education.
Ancient China. Chuang Tzu says, Only a fool rages against a boat adrift on the current. Only a deluded person imagines that there’s a person in the boat (that the boat has free will). A wise person sees that the boat is empty and must follow the current, and so she calmly uses what skill she has to navigate the current.
~
In Chapter 3.2 the cook explains how he unravels oxen. He never attempts to hack through solid bone. (He never rages at empty boats to alter their course.) He sees the presenting structure of the ox and lets his daemon’s longing enter the space between the parts. (He sees the pattern of the currents and navigates their flow.) He’s able to do this because he has stepped to the side of his own ego. (His administrative thinking has stopped.) He doesn’t attribute free will to himself, and he doesn’t attribute it to the ox. If he did, he’d be angry with himself for not making better progress, and he’d be angry with the ox for not unravelling in the way he wants it to unravel. But because he sees that free will does not exist (that neither he nor the ox has free will) he is free to calmly and productively navigate what does exist: the presenting pattern of meat, bones, and tendons.
~
People often insist that free will must exist because if it doesn’t we are robbed of all dignity.
Two answers.
One. Is it dignified to rage against an empty boat?
Two. You are the grandest of mythical beings that has ever been imagined in the entirety of world literature. You are the unfathomably large bird Of a Flock (awareness): your wings spread to the horizon (Chapter 1.1). And you are the grandest of charioteers ever imagined: your chariot is heaven and earth; your team of horses, the six energies (Chapter 1.3). The mythical bird Of a Flock. The noble charioteer of heaven and earth. Dear friend, what is more noble, more dignified than that?