Tag Archives: Livia Kohn

Zuowang is a very rich Daoist term which will be our focus for this new series.

Zuowang:Sitting in oblivion. In later Daoism a technical term used to describe a state of deep trance or intense absorption, the notion of zuowang occurs first in the Zhuangzi, with the classical passage found in ch. 6: “I smash up my limbs and body, drive out perception and intellect, cast off form, do away with understanding, and make myself identical with the Great Thoroughfare”. The idea here as well as in the later tradition is a mental state of complete unknowing that involves a loss of personal identity and self and is the utter immersion in the nonbeing of the universe. (Daoism Handbook, pg. 46, edited by Livia Kohn) read more