We human beings have always lived our lives wanting. . . desiring what we don't have. Just like the Hindu brahma, Chuang Tzu and Taoism have their sage. The best definition of a sage is its synonyms: Perfect man, Great Man, Holy Man, and True Man. Chuang Tzu would describe the Taoist sage in a way that implies that he has magical powers, that he moves in a trance-like state. He is immune to any kind of harm. He might even be immortal. Even though he didn't intend for his description to be metaphorically understood, there is evidence that it was taken literally. The reason being the fact that the Taoist schools in the later times interpreted it that way.

Chuang Tzu had contrasted the sage with the average man in a way that put the human race to shame.

The sage is one that has no fame. Therefore, he has a lot of virtue.

A great percentage of Chuang Tzu's teachings and philosophies will overlap those of Lao Tzu. The reason is very simple. Lao Tzu preceded Chuang and therefore, Chuang's philosophies were based pretty much on those of Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu is even portrayed as a sage in the teachings of Chuang Tzu.

To become a sage, a man must let go of what he knows as a human and realize the following: [A sage] guards the pure breath. It comes not from wisdom, skill, determination, or courage. Faces, forms, voices, colors, and such are just mere things. But things do have their creation in which has no form and their conclusion in what has no change. He should not develop what is natural to man; he should instead develop what is natural to Heaven. If he develops Heaven, he benefits life; if he develops man, he injures life. Before there can be true knowledge, there has to be True Man (a sage).

While studying Chuang's teachings and philosophies, Watson explains best on how to comprehend Chuang. "In the end, the best way to approach Chuang Tzu, I believe, is not to attempt to subject his thoughts to rational and systematic analysis, but to read and reread his words until one has ceased to think of what he is saying and instead has developed an intuitive sense of the mind moving behind the words, an of the world in which it moves."

Thinking about this, even if man may not be as great as we thought, is the sage a better being? Chuang had stated that he pursues nothing so that he will never lose and get hurt. This can be analyzed from two different angles. One way to look at it, is from the human point of view. If one does not pursue anything, how can one gain anything? A simple example would be if we were to not pursue our wanting be successful in a certain field of work. While it would be true that we don't lose a job, we also do not earn any money or an improvement in lifestyle. According the Chuang, the sage should be happy that he did not lose anything. What make it hard to understand Chuang are the contradictions between his philosophies and what we know as human beings.

Feelings are also something that the sage does not hold to be very important. He will accept whatever comes along to/at him. He will not experience any feelings of pride, success, anger, sadness, regret, or freight. A True Man doesn't allow the likes or dislikes to get to him and hurt him. He just lets "nature take its co

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Approximate Word count = 1686
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)