When I guide younger students in zazen, the most common complaint is not sore legs. It is the mind. They sit down, fold their hands, and within a minute their head is full of plans, memories, arguments they had last week, and arguments they expect to have tomorrow. Many of them conclude that they are bad at meditation.
The ancient Taoist writers knew this problem very well. They did not have smartphones or endless news feeds, but they described the restless mind with surprising accuracy, and they offered ways to quiet it that still work.
Before going further, one note. If your anxiety is severe or long-lasting, please talk to a doctor or a mental health professional. Philosophy and meditation can support that care. They are not a replacement for it.
The mind that won’t stop talking
Zhuangzi describes people who spend their days in constant mental combat. They clash with the world, plot and scheme, worry over small things and tremble over large ones. Their minds, he says, are like a crossbow trigger, ready to fire at any moment. At night they cannot rest.
Reading this today, it sounds like a description of a modern office worker at two in the morning. The content of the worry has changed. The shape of it has not.
The Taoist diagnosis is that the mind has taken on a job it cannot do. It is trying to control and predict a world that keeps changing. Overthinking is what happens when you try to hold still something that is always moving.
“Fasting of the heart”
In one of Zhuangzi’s stories, Confucius advises his favorite student, Yan Hui, on how to prepare for a difficult mission. Yan Hui assumes he should fast from food and wine. Confucius says that is fasting for religious ceremonies. What he means is fasting of the heart, 心斎 (shinsai in Japanese).
He explains it in stages. Don’t listen with your ears, listen with your mind. Then, don’t listen with your mind, listen with your qi, your vital energy. The ears stop at hearing. The mind stops at matching things to ideas it already has. Qi is empty and waits for whatever comes. The Tao gathers in emptiness, and that emptiness is the fasting of the heart.
What I find practical here is the direction. Most advice for anxiety tells you to replace bad thoughts with good ones. Zhuangzi suggests something different. Stop feeding the mind altogether and let it become empty enough to receive things as they are.
Sitting and forgetting
Later in Zhuangzi, Yan Hui returns and reports his progress. First he has forgotten rites and music. Then he has forgotten benevolence and righteousness. Finally, he says, he just sits and forgets, 坐忘 (zabō). He lets his body fall away, lets his intelligence go dark, leaves form behind, and becomes one with the great pervader.
Confucius is so impressed he asks to become Yan Hui’s student. It is a joke, of course. Zhuangzi loved to put his own ideas in the mouth of Confucius.
As a Zen practitioner I recognize this description immediately. In zazen we do not try to stop thoughts. We let them arise and pass without following them. Eventually there are moments when the sense of a separate, busy self loosens. Zhuangzi called it sitting and forgetting. We might call it simply sitting.
Returning to stillness
Chapter 16 of the Tao Te Ching gives the principle behind both practices: attain complete emptiness, hold fast to stillness.
Lao Tzu goes on to describe how all things rise, flourish, and return to their root. Returning to the root is called stillness. He treats stillness as a natural direction, not a special achievement. Things settle when you stop stirring them.
A cup of muddy water is the image I use with students. Shake it and it becomes cloudy. Try to clear it with your hand and it gets worse. Set it down and wait, and the mud sinks by itself. Your mind works the same way.
What I tell my students when they can’t stop thinking during zazen
Here is the advice I give, adapted for anyone dealing with an overthinking mind.
Don’t fight the thoughts. Fighting them is more thinking. Notice a thought, let it be there, and return to the breath. The return is the practice, not the absence of thoughts.
Lower your attention into the body. Thoughts live in the head. Put your attention on your breath at the belly, or on the weight of your body on the cushion or chair. Zhuangzi’s “listen with qi” points in this direction.
Make the session short. Five minutes done daily is far better than forty minutes done once a month with gritted teeth.
Stop measuring. If you finish a session and ask “did that work?”, you have brought the anxious mind straight back in. Just sit, then get up and continue your day.
Letting go of control, gently
Overthinking is often a way of trying to control what cannot be controlled. Taoism does not ask you to give up all planning. It asks you to notice where planning has turned into rehearsing disaster.
A useful question is this: is there anything I can do about this right now? If yes, do it. If no, the thinking is not helping, and you can set the cup down.
For a fuller look at letting go without falling into passivity, see my article on wu wei. What Wu Wei Really Means
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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Is Taoist meditation good for anxiety?
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Many people find that simple Taoist and Zen practices, such as quiet sitting and breath awareness, help reduce the grip of anxious thoughts. Some research on mindfulness-based approaches supports this. That said, meditation can occasionally make anxiety feel stronger at first, especially for people with trauma. Going slowly, keeping sessions short, and working alongside a professional when needed is sensible.
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What is the Taoist view of emotions?
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Taoism does not treat emotions as enemies. Zhuangzi describes joy, anger, sorrow, and fear as things that arise day and night without anyone knowing where they come from. The problem is not having them but clinging to them. An emotion that is allowed to rise and pass behaves like weather. One that is held onto becomes a climate.
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How can I stop overthinking at night?
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Try moving attention from the head to the body. Feel the weight of your body on the bed and the slow movement of your breath in the belly. When thoughts come, you don’t need to answer them. Treat them like sounds from a distant street. If a worry is practical, write it down in one line and tell yourself you will look at it in the morning.
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