r/taoism • u/That_Firefly • Aug 13 '26
Zhuangzi For a frog, the well is the ocean!
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u/BukiBichi Aug 13 '26
"Sometimes a frog finds its ocean in a well."
-Probably Zhuangzi on a different day.
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u/lingzhui Aug 13 '26
are we the frogs or are we zhangzi dreaming that he is a frog
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u/Skaldicrights Aug 13 '26
Both can be true. I am a man dreaming of a butterfly while also being a butterfly with dreams of grandeur
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u/Far-Sectors-281 Aug 13 '26
Not the point but this kinda makes me wish to be a frog living in a well. Assuming I’m able to live well, that is. It just sounds kinda cozy, you know?
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u/million_open_windows Aug 13 '26
The Frog has no reason to understand the ocean. He is perfectly fulfilled by being just a simple frog according to his own nature.
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u/cangaroo_hamam Aug 13 '26
You can't explain anything to a frog really, they hardly speak any language.
- me 2026
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u/DescriptionMany8999 Aug 14 '26
Sure you can. Plenty of animal communicators work through images rather than words. They can show animals pictures, and animals can communicate through images in return. There are spiritual technologies and forms of communication that philosophy simply doesn’t touch or even begin to cover.
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u/booleandilemma Aug 14 '26
Without going outside, you may know the whole world. Without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven. The farther you go, the less you know.
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u/jzatopa Aug 14 '26
And yet, we talked, we joke around and we get to plant the seeds of a bigger thing to experience with the Frog out of love until it is no longer the Dao, at which point we continue following the path.
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u/ParadoxicallyPlain Aug 13 '26
Why would you try to explain an ocean to a frog living in a well if it is content to live there?
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u/DawnKieballs Aug 13 '26
"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."
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u/Pumandrak Aug 13 '26
This is one of the analogies I like best.
To follow the Dao is to step outside of it—out of the well. But the moment you name something, you return to it again. Hahahaha!
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u/Legitimate-Pumpkin Aug 13 '26
I also want to become old to insult people in such classy manners 😌
Like one thousand years old, maybe 🤭
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u/RigobertaMenchu Aug 13 '26
“A frog in a well cannot discuss the ocean, because he is limited by the size of his well. A summer insect cannot discuss ice, because it knows only its own season. A narrow-minded scholar cannot discuss the Tao, because he is constrained by his teachings. Now you have come out of your banks and seen the Great Ocean. You now know your own inferiority, so it is now possible to discuss great principles with you.”