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5 min readA man who was troubled by his own shadow and the sound of his footsteps decided to run from them. The faster he ran, the more footsteps he left behind, and his shadow kept pace without effort. He ran until he fell dead on the road. The Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi adds a single remark: had he sat down in the shade of a tree, his shadow would have vanished, and his footsteps with it. This episode of Life Wisdom is about the distance between that running man and a Zen master who, when asked what his practice consisted of, replied simply: when he is hungry, he eats, and when he is tired, he sleeps. The host, Chen Li, argues that the present is almost always lighter than we fear, and that our habit of living in the future is the source of most of our exhaustion.
The Cost of Living in the Future
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:03) **Opening Parable: The Man Who Ran From His Shadow** - Chen Li introduces the episode with Chuangzi's story of a man who runs from his own shadow and footsteps until he dies of exhaustion, establishing the central metaphor for anxious striving.
- 2 (03:17) **The Thesis: The Present is Lighter Than We Fear** - Chen Li states the core conviction: our minds travel in time usefully but bring back fear along with information, making us carry tomorrow's weight today.
- 3 (06:50) **Separating Situation from Story** - A key distinction: what is actually happening now versus the imagined narrative of everything ahead.
- 4 (08:10) **The Lantern on the Mountain Path** - A metaphor for limited illumination: the traveler can only see three or four steps ahead, yet each step lights the next.
- 5 (10:44) **The Ten-Second Question** - A practical technique: "Can I get through the next ten seconds?" The answer is almost always yes, and one small yes at a time builds minutes, hours, and manageable days.
- 6 (12:30) **The Body as an Anchor to the Present** - The body cannot travel in time, making it the most reliable way back when the mind has drifted ahead.
- 7 (13:53) **The Practice of Returning (Not Staying)** - The goal is not permanent presence, which nobody achieves, but repeatedly coming back.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Zhuangzi tells the story of a man who was so troubled by his own shadow, and by the sound of his own footsteps, that he decided to get away from them for good.
More resources:
- Free resources, books and more on https://wordsoftaoism.com/
- My Substack Blog: https://taoismteachings.substack.com/
- Music I use, as a playlist: https://tinyurl.com/spotifyzenplaylist
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