The Boat Isn't Out To Get Us

STOP TRIPPIN'

Author

Derya Sefer
December 27, 2023

“The boat isn’t out to get us.”

I’m referring to an ancient Taoist metaphor -

Of seeing the world as an empty boat.

Here’s the backstory:

Zhuangzi, an ancient Taoist sage once told a story about an empty boat:

While we are crossing the river in a small boat, if an empty boat floats towards us with no one on board, when it hits our boat, even the most impatient person would not get very mad and would simply push the other boat away.

If there’s a person in the incoming boat, we may yell to try to get them to steer clear in order to avoid a collision. If we didn’t get a reply, we would yell again… If we still do not get a reply, we would yell for the third time with added force… Even the gentlest person would get angry when our boats collide out of negligence…

Zhuangzi (Outer Scroll - Shan-Mu)

Why didn’t we get angry in the first scenario but become infuriated in the second?

We didn’t get angry because there was no one to blame when the boat was empty.

No one to blame = no intention.

But, as soon as there is someone, or something to blame,

we lose our temper.

A flood of negative thoughts flood our minds:

“They weren’t paying attention at all!”

“They did that on purpose!”

Rather than going all Hulk-mode,

we should consider the boat that crashed into ours as empty.

Why?

Because then there will be no one to blame.

No one to blame because an empty boat does not carry an intention.

Getting mad at an empty boat is like getting mad at a ghost for stepping on our toes.

Is it worth the energy?

Is it worth the drama?

Don’t we have better things to do?

Float on down the river without wasting time on drama

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?

Phew! It’s been an uneventful holiday, thank goodness!

  1. I decided to slow down on X this past week… Yeah, X / Twitter, whatever you might call it. I got so burnt out from it and felt like I didn’t know what to write. I just need some time to recoup. Find me on X.

  2. I’ve posted a new video on YouTube. Made this one shorter than my other journal-vlog entries. This was entry #003. I incorporated some of the footage I have taken of the earthquake areas in this one. I was in Turkey during the 2 super earthquakes in February that rocked Turkey and Syria.

  3. No snow on the piedmont of North Carolina yet this year but I did see some snow on our mountains bordering Tennessee. All we had was rain on Christmas Day.