The Taoist approach to existence is much different from our usual rigid, goal-oriented conditioning. Lin-Li, a man nearly a hundred years old, lives in profound simplicity. To many, his life seems marked by poverty, loneliness, and the absence of family, a life of failure.

Yet to others’ surprise, Lin-Li maintains an inexplicable happiness. He sings while laboring for meager grains in the fields.

Lin-Li highlights a critical divide between the Confucian quest for status, behavioral perfection, and learning, and the Taoist path, which champions unlearning.

Human misery is largely rooted in our desperate, ego-driven attempt to make sense of the world through our intellects rather than direct experience. We believe that life is a series of problems to be solved or a set of goals to be attained, but in doing so, we bypass the very ...