The Chuang Tzu – Active LifeThe Chuang Tzu – Active Life
Tao of Our understanding Alcohol Recovery Podcast
Buddy C, Brian, Drew and Jack read Thomas Merton’s version of Chuang Tzu’s “Active Life” and relate its picture of ego-driven busyness to their experiences in 12-step recovery. They talk about career choices, money fear, present-moment living and simple spiritual tools that help them step off the treadmill of constant proving and performing.
43:08•8 Sept 2026
The Active Life, Ego Traps and Finding Stillness in Recovery
Episode Overview
- Constant striving for status, problems to solve or virtue to display can feel like a prison driven by ego and external approval.
- Taoist ideas helped one speaker leave a prestigious but unhappy career and choose simpler work that feels aligned with recovery.
- Gratitude lists, prayer, meditation and service are offered as everyday tools to soften fear and self-centred ambition.
- Learning to pause before reacting – even for ten seconds – creates space to choose a different response instead of being compelled to act.
- Focusing on the present moment, rather than replaying the past or fearing the future, is presented as where peace in recovery actually lives.
“They are pressed down and crushed by external forces, fashion, the market, events, public opinion. Never in a whole lifetime do they recover their right mind!”
How do individuals turn their lives around after addiction? This conversation from the Tao of Our Understanding Alcohol Recovery Podcast takes that question and holds it up against a classic Taoist story from Chuang Tzu called **“The Active Life.”** Buddy C, along with Brian, Drew and Jack, read Thomas Merton’s interpretation of the text and chat about how it mirrors their own experiences in 12-step recovery.
The reading paints a picture of people trapped in constant doing: experts needing problems, critics needing targets, professionals needing status, all "prisoners in the world of objects" and "pressed down and crushed by external forces, fashion, the market, events, public opinion." From there, the group links this restless “active life” to addiction and ego. You’ll hear how overwork, ambition, money worries and the need to impress can feel just as compulsive as drinking ever did.
Drew shares honestly about leaving a high-status, well-paying career as a trial lawyer that fed his ego but drained his spirit, and how Taoist ideas helped him spot that treadmill and step off it. The chat keeps circling back to practical tools: gratitude lists, prayer, meditation, being of service, and especially learning to pause before reacting.
They joke about 3am worry sessions and “future-effing yourself,” but the message stays grounded: peace is in the present moment, not in the next promotion, bigger bank balance, or perfectly controlled outcome. If you’re in recovery and find yourself driven, anxious, or stuck chasing the next thing, this episode offers a relatable look at how Taoist philosophy can support a gentler way of living – one pause, one choice, one moment at a time.
Where might your own “active life” be quietly running the show?
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