What Does 'Forgetting the Body' Mean in Daoist Texts?
A problem page: the exact meaning of 'dropping the limbs and body' in Zhuangzi ch. 6 — forgetting as quieting of claim, not loss of reality, with the classical commentary.
Direct answer: “Forgetting the body” in Daoist texts is a technical expression, not a metaphor for carelessness and not a code for dissociation. When Yan Hui says he “drops away the limbs and body” (堕肢体), he is describing the felt body receding from attention as sitting-and-forgetting completes itself. The word 忘 (forget) is chosen carefully: the Zhuangzi’s model of forgetting is the swimmer who forgets the water — something perfectly there that has stopped demanding notice.
The two texts
- Zhuangzi ch. 6: “I drop away the limbs and body, expel perception, leave form behind, dismiss knowing, and merge with the Great Thoroughfare — this I call sitting and forgetting.” The four phrases are one movement: the body’s claim drops, the senses’ claim drops, the self’s claim drops, and what remains is merger with the Dao.
- Zhuangzi ch. 19: the swimmer asked how he survives the gorge answers that he forgot the water — born in it, raised in it, “I begin with what is given and follow it; the water and I become one.” Forgetting, in this vocabulary, is complete fit, not absence.
What the tradition does NOT mean
- It does not mean the body is evil or to be discarded. Nothing in the passage denigrates the body; the claim that is dropped is the body’s claim on attention.
- It does not mean losing the ability to feel pain or respond to danger. The forgetting is on the cushion, in stillness; the texts presume the practitioner still stands up.
The companion page
The experiential side of this question — “why do I lose awareness of my body?” — is treated at losing body awareness, including the medical boundary that textual pages do not cross.
Not medical advice: this page is about what the texts mean. Changes in felt body experience during practice have their own boundary — see losing body awareness and body feels very large.
Sources
- Zhuangzi ch. 6 (Dazong shi): sitting-and-forgetting definition (堕肢体，黜聪明，离形去知，同于大通)
- Zhuangzi ch. 19 (Dasheng): the swimmer who forgets the water — forgetting as complete fit rather than absence