ABSTRACT
Competently practicing psychology necessitates a transformation of traditionally held presumptions regarding persons, suffering, therapeutic care, and the good life through Eastern-Western dialogue. This chapter focuses on the relationship between the traditions and their radical implications for contemporary psychology, existential or otherwise, East or West. It also focuses on the concept of "relative gradation", which implies the "equalization of all things", as discussed in the text "The Autumn Floods", and its implications for therapeutic care. Zhuangzi's thoughts on context and relative gradation read like much postmodern thought, and written from the fourth century nonetheless. Vastness and smallness are common themes in Zhuangzi's work as well, primarily used to invite humility and displace the centricity from which people view nature. Zhuangzi's relative gradations, like other relativist positions, welcome an often uninvited guest to the table: the threat of nihilism.
