“Confucius said, “To be truly happy and contented, you must let go of the idea of what it means to be happy or content.  When you understand there is really nothing to be happy or sad about, then you will be truly contented.  When you have reached this state of mind, then you will realize it does not matter whether or not music, poetry, or the classics are useful in changing society.  In fact, whether or not you have an impact on society is not important.” –(Lieh-Tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living, by Eva Wong.)
         

We Westerners are so used to the notion of ‘essence’ that considering the nature of reality as anything other is unfathomable.  We think in terms of ‘things’ and ‘stuff’ and ‘self’.  The ancient Taoist point of view is very different:  rather than ‘stuff’ and ‘things’, Taoists think in terms of processes and interdependency.  This notion of interdependency has some interesting side-effects that can be hard to swallow.  Take ‘good’ and ‘evil’:  for the Taoists, ‘evil’ can’t exist without ‘good’ and vice versa.  Rather than seeing an instance, thing, or person as ‘evil’, ancient and modern Taoists see that the nature of these things is far more complicated than simple tags might otherwise indicate.  There is a story of a man whose son loses his sight and this fact is seen as bad.  The father then loses his sight and this is also seen as bad.  War sweeps the land and when the soldiers come to conscript men to fight, the father and son aren’t drafted due to their loss of sight.  Suddenly, the lose of sight isn’t seen as being necessarily so bad.         

The above quote illustrates this fact and goes one step further: not only is the nature of things in flux, but we shouldn’t be so concerned even about important things like improving society. The story that comes before this penultimate paragraph tells of how a student of Confucius is concerned that the master seems to be down.  After probing the master, the student is disappointed with Confucius’ response captured above.  How could Confucius not be concerned about the improvement of society?  How could practice not make one happy and contented?          

‘Happy’ and ‘contented’ are terms that only make sense if ‘unhappy’ and ‘uncontended’ have meaning as separate realities, distinct from the former.  The Taoist adept realizes that the two are not unconnected:  to be ‘happy’ means knowing ‘unhappiness’.  When Yin/Yang, Creativity/Receptivity, Hard/Soft are balanced, these concepts mean far less.  The sage lives in accord with nature and experiences both happiness and unhappiness with the same equanimity.           

True practice doesn’t make one ‘happy’:  it makes one wise.  Wisdom knows the truth about these concepts and in so knowing is able to find a deeper sense of balance and harmony that transcends any human contrived sense of happiness.
~~Brett