Zhuangzi presents humans and the cosmos as expressions of one continuous, ever‑transforming Dao, rather than as separate realms set in opposition. All beings—humans, animals, spirits, and natural forces—arise from and return to this same underlying principle, so distinctions such as self and other, human and nature, life and death are provisional rather than absolute. From the vantage point of the Dao, they appear as temporary configurations within a single, ceaseless process of transformation. Recognizing this ontological continuity dissolves the sense of humans as either masters of the world or helpless victims of fate, and instead situates human life as a fluid participation in a boundless whole.

Within this vision, human perspectives and values are radically relativized. Standards of usefulness, morality, success, and truth that seem central from a human standpoint are treated as only one perspective among countless others, no more privileged than that of a bird, an insect, or any other being. Social conventions, rigid moral distinctions, and fixed intellectual categories are seen as artificial boundaries that obscure the deeper unity of human and cosmic nature. When these constructs are taken as ultimate, they create a false separation from the natural world and generate anxiety, fear, and attachment.

Zhuangzi’s response is an ideal of harmony grounded in spontaneity. The cosmos operates through ziran, a “so‑of‑itself” spontaneity, and the sage seeks to mirror this mode of being. This is expressed through wu‑wei, a form of non‑forced, effortless action that aligns with the natural flow of events rather than attempting to control or fix them according to preconceived plans. Such action is not passive; it is responsive, supple, and free of clinging to fixed identities or outcomes. In this way, human conduct becomes an unhindered expression of the same spontaneity found in wind, water, and the turning of the seasons.

Freedom, in this perspective, is ultimately cosmological rather than merely psychological or social. It arises from loosening attachment to any fixed standpoint within the vast field of transformation that the Dao continually unfolds. Birth, death, gain, and loss are then seen as phases in an ongoing play of change, not as absolute triumphs or disasters. As artificial anxieties and socially imposed pressures recede, a spacious sense of ease emerges: humans discover themselves already woven into the fabric of the cosmos, moving with it rather than against it.